Dear Editor,
Jovan Tripkovic is talking out of his hat when he admonishes the University of Wyoming for making only superficial changes to DEI and argues that we should be focused on civics education rather than our new Research 1 status (“Cosmetic Change at the University of Wyoming,” July 10, 2025). Mr. Tripkovic offers no evidence for his claims and ignores our laudable efforts to strengthen a longstanding commitment to free inquiry, free expression, and civil discourse and to eliminate any and all discrimination from our institution.
In 2023, UW president Ed Seidel began a campus-wide initiative on freedom of expression, intellectual freedom, and constructive dialogue—which I wrote about for your website here. Our University of Wyoming Statement of Principles champions the aforementioned three values, as well as academic freedom and institutional neutrality. In fact, UW was one of the first universities in the nation to make a commitment to institutional neutrality.
While some universities may be engaged in superficial rebranding, UW has actually improved everything from new-student and new-faculty orientation programs to academic policies to opportunities to build skills in civil discourse. These are hardly “quick publicity stunts.”
In 2025, when a new Wyoming law went into effect prohibiting institutional discrimination at all state agencies, UW had little to do. We had already undertaken a public audit of all DEI-related programming and abolished anything that could have compromised our commitment to equality and nondiscrimination. As a result, UW simply doesn’t have programs that discriminate for or against anyone in a protected class (e.g., race, sex, or religion).
Mr. Tripkovic misrepresents President Seidel, who noted that some things we’ve done for a long time, which had gotten lumped in with DEI, are worth continuing. Pres. Seidel was referring to activities that are not discriminatory, such as making sure our websites comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. We stand by that. UW has championed access and inclusion since 1886. We want all students to feel welcome and thrive here. We do it not by enforcing some political orthodoxy but by embracing the open inquiry and respectful discourse that enable us to create, teach, and apply knowledge.
Mr. Tripkovic suggests UW ought to be focusing on teaching civics instead of gender studies. Actually, all UW undergraduates are required to take a three-credit course on the U.S. and Wyoming Constitutions. This has been a requirement for 100 years (that puts us 100 years ahead of Ohio and over 90 years ahead of Florida), ever since Dr. Grace Hebard worked to pass legislation requiring it. (A gender-studies course, which is not required, can teach you how women like Hebard got the right to participate in our democracy.) Telling the University of Wyoming to teach civics is like telling a rancher to buy a hat. Already got one, good and worn in.
In addition, UW’s Malcolm Wallop Civic Engagement Program offers opportunities for students to develop the civic knowledge, skills, values, dispositions, and behaviors for lifelong engaged citizenship. The program also provides students with opportunities for public-service internships and offers a library of civics education modules that are used by middle-school and high-school teachers across the state.
UW further offers students the opportunity to earn an extracurricular badge in Free Speech & Dialogue and has one of the largest student chapters of BridgeUSA in the nation. This year, UW is partnering with the Constructive Dialogue Institute to make dialogue skills training available to all students and all employees. While these skills help advance knowledge, they also help students learn to engage constructively in the affairs of civil society and in their future workplaces.
Our faculty know the difference between pushing ideologies and engaging in inquiry. UW has for years championed critical and creative thinking, helping students become curious, fair-minded, evidence-based, complexity-embracing, no-bull-accepting independent thinkers. Some classes might examine controversial topics, but all courses are rooted in real-deal, rigorous, Research 1-worthy scholarship. Teaching that scholarship—and not personal or political agendas—is a professional responsibility that UW faculty members take seriously. Indeed, at UW you’ll find faculty with a real sense of stewardship for their disciplines and the institution and staff who support our academic mission.
If readers doubt the authenticity of our commitments, come visit and, with the neighborliness that warms our whole state, we’ll show you what we’re about.
Sincerely,
Martha McCaughey, Director, Free Expression, Intellectual Freedom, and Constructive Dialogue Initiative at the University of Wyoming
Author
Letters to the Editor
