Senators in Wyoming passed an amendment to the budget to terminate funding for the University of Wyoming’s Gender and Women’s Studies program over concerns that state dollars were being used to fund “biased” educational and extracurricular programs.
Republican state Sen. Cheri Steinmetz, who brought the amendment forward, said she had “lost sleep” after reading some of the program’s course goals, which included providing students with an understanding of queer, feminist and social justice theories to be applied to “service and activism.”
“And so, fellow senators I just have to ask you, what are we doing here at the University of Wyoming with these courses?” she said Friday on the Senate floor. “I would ask for your favorable consideration to direct our funds in a more appropriate manner for taxpayer dollars, and just vote your conscience on this one, because my conscience won’t let me sleep without addressing it here in this body today.”
