Despite headwinds, University of Wyoming’s new president is bullish on the future

A complex mix of challenges, including troubling enrollment trends, faltering public trust in higher education and a $15 million budget shortfall, is bringing brand new headwinds to Wyoming’s sole undergraduate and graduate university. 

Despite that, the University of Wyoming’s new president is bullish on its future. 

“I think it’s on the ascent,” Shane Reeves said. “I absolutely think it has a lot of momentum behind it, and accelerating what already exists is going to be part of my job. And I’m really honored to have the opportunity to do it.”

The Rock Springs native retired from a 30-year Army career to take the helm at UW in July. Reeves returned to Wyoming from the U.S. Military Academy, where he served as the dean of the academic board. The father of three holds a juris doctor and is a prolific scholar. He was awarded a Bronze Star for combat service in Iraq. 

He replaced Ed Seidel, whose departure was announced in 2025. Seidel had led the university since 2020, overseeing higher education through the disruptions of COVID-19. When Seidel was hired, he represented UW’s fifth president in just over six years. 

The university’s board of trustees selected Reeves in April. He edged out roughly 100 candidates, including fellow finalist Kelly Crane, who has served as dean of UW’s College of Agriculture, Life Sciences, and Natural Resources since 2024. Reeve’s four-year contract comes with an annual base salary of $500,000.

After taking the post July 1, one of his first actions was a proposal to revamp the leadership structure, which trustees approved. It creates a new position of executive vice president, which Reeves tapped former West Point colleague Kraig Sheetz to fill. Six administrators who previously reported to the president will now report to Sheetz. 

Reeves operates from a philosophy of focusing on the future and not getting mired in the past, he told WyoFile. In that sense, he is interested in exploiting what he sees as significant growth potential for UW. 

“My message is: I want us all to have a relentless pursuit of excellence in all parts of the institution, with a particular focus on growth,” he said. 

President Reeves sat down with WyoFile for a wide-ranging interview to discuss everything from growing the university’s enrollment to the role of free speech in college classrooms to the ways AI can be harnessed in post-secondary education. 

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

WyoFile: You’re about a month into the new job. How’s it been so far?

Shane Reeves: Great. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. I’ve been doing a big listening and learning tour, both internally and externally. I have started to work my way around the campus to talk to different parts of the enterprise to see what their concerns are, their interests, things they’re thinking through, but mostly focusing on what their perspective is on how we can grow and leverage the university to be successful in the future. And similarly, I’ve had some opportunities to get around the state. 

WyoFile: Regarding the campus discussions, are those with heads of departments?

Reeves: Yes. It might be the deans and whoever they want to bring to about a 90-minute to two-hour session. It’s really been a free-flowing conversation. They lay out some of the basics, like their organization, their structure, maybe their enrollment. I wanted them to tell me some of their challenges. I’ve asked them all to give me an idea of their vision for the university to grow, and then maybe three or four imperatives the institution should think about. But I’m also interested in talking to the faculty senate, the staff senate, the students, the [student government], the vice presidents, the vice provost, just trying to get out and hear it all.

WyoFile: What are some of the themes that are emerging?

Reeves: Well, the thing I’m taking away is excitement. That, and there’s some trepidation in terms of some recognized concerns about higher education in the United States. Some of those challenges are not insignificant. You have what’s called the birth dearth or the enrollment cliff, and that is of particular importance in the state of Wyoming, where we have almost an existential crisis with the number of young people in the state, and so you’re trying to grow the institution while you’re facing demographic headwinds. 

You also have some significant challenges in higher education when it comes to artificial intelligence and how AI is changing the model. You know, for 1,000 years or more, the university system has basically been the same. That dynamic is shifting quickly because AI has made it that information is easy to access and it’s cheap, and so it’s not as much about the transmission of information, but it’s how are you going to apply that information to be competitive in a quickly shifting global economic environment. 

And then there’s some cynicism about the value of education, particularly higher education. So there’s some of the concerns you hear. On the other hand, the University of Wyoming has great potential. It has a monopoly on higher education in the state of Wyoming. In a state of roughly 600,000 people, over 60,000 are alum, which means there’s a lot of passion and excitement and pride in the university. And there’s been some great efforts over the last few years to put the University of Wyoming on a really interesting trajectory. The accomplishment of becoming an R1 Research Institution is not insignificant. There’s only 187 in the entire country, and Wyoming has one of those, and that has the potential to do amazing things for the state of Wyoming.

WyoFile: University leaders announced a $15 million budget shortfall in May. Do you have a plan for addressing the shortfall?

Reeves: We do. There’s been a really robust and rigorous conversation on the shortfall, and that conversation has been taking place since before I arrived. But I do think it’s our responsibility as the institution to look at everything we’re doing. There’s nothing wrong with looking at what you’re doing, figure out where there’s redundancies, create efficiencies, try to figure out a way to address that. I think we’ll be able to respond to that deficit in a way that makes sense without diminishing the excellence.

One of the great powers of this new [leadership] structure is you can let the team work through this at the granular level. The first step and the way we’re pursuing this is you have this working group. They’re really getting in there; they’ve rolled up their sleeves and they’re talking to each other and they’ll come up with, here are the things to look at. And then when the time comes, we’ll sit down and we’ll make the hard decisions on where we’ll either reprioritize or find those efficiencies.

WyoFile: Concerns about First Amendment rights and free speech on college campuses have emerged nationally. Do you think that’s applicable to UW?

Reeves: It’s absolutely applicable. But I think that the university has done some really amazing work. President Seidel started an initiative on free inquiry, free expression and constructive dialogue. I think it was exactly right.

Intellectual discourse is a very traditional Wyoming value, right? We can talk about anything, and we can disagree and at the end of the day, we’re still neighbors. As a son of the state of Wyoming, I was brought up with a healthy level of cynicism from being told what to think or what to believe. I think that this effort to have real discussion, real discourse, to have students engaged in ideas is a real commitment to the free marketplace of ideas that is the very purpose of an institution of higher education. 

You go to college to obviously gain the ability to be employed, right? But you also come to college to become a better person, to become more sophisticated in your thinking, to engage in ideas and debate those ideas. I think this is something the University of Wyoming has a real opportunity to lead this nation in. 

WyoFile: In July, a report called Blueprint for Reform Wyoming concluded UW has administrative bloat and recommended eliminating low-enrollment programs, shrinking administrative functions and downsizing athletic activities. Are you aware of this report? 

Reeves: I’ve seen the report. I haven’t done enough assessment to be able to address all those things yet. I will say it may not take into account some of the unique aspects of being at the University of Wyoming. For example, almost every university in the country will now outsource, say, concessions. But why does the University of Wyoming not do that? Well, because there isn’t anybody in the vicinity of Laramie that you could outsource to, right? So let’s put it completely in context.

I do think it is important for any institution to consistently be looking at yourselves and how you can get better. Especially in big organizations, you do have situations where it’s time to sunset things, and you do need to grow things. 

You mentioned athletics. The front porch of an institution is athletics. And so much of the pride of this state runs through the Cowboys and Cowgirls. So much of the brand recognition for this state is through the emblem that you see at UW. If you want to grow, athletics really matter. A dynamic campus culture is also important. I’m stereotyping, but young people are connected but more isolated than ever. They want experience, they want to engage, they want social connection. They want a traditional campus environment where they’re walking around, they’re drinking coffee, they’re playing frisbee, they’re going to class. So a dynamic campus culture is a really important part of where my brain is. But also, unleashing innovation through some of the research efforts. And we really need to be a little bit more nimble and flexible when it comes to admissions and meeting students where they’re at and looking at non-traditional students.

WyoFile: Any other thoughts?

Reeves: At the end of the day, it’s important for the state of Wyoming that the University of Wyoming is a dynamic and growing and interesting institution. It’s already indispensable to our state, but I think it can be an institution of national importance.