Incoming University of Wyoming president wants to build bridges, dissolve drama

The University of Wyoming Board of Trustees voted Thursday to hire a West Point dean and Sweetwater County native as its next president. Brigadier General Shane Reeves, 51, becomes UW’s 29th president in July.

Reeves told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday interview that his Wyoming roots not only inform the work he’s about to undertake but also his life’s accomplishments so far. He also believes he can answer the more-than-three-years tension between many Wyoming state lawmakers and the university, which many call a culture clash that surfaced significantly this year when some lawmakers sought to cut UW’s state-granted budget by $40 million.

“I think (I can address that tension), else I wouldn’t have applied for the job,” said Reeves. “I think there’s some efforts that need to be made, to communicate. And I think it’s going to fall on me to get out and meet some folks.” He said he wants to build bridges and dissolve drama and silos internally at UW, as well as build trust and connections throughout the state by talking to legislators and stakeholders.

Reeves said he hopes to root out misconceptions about what UW does and doesn’t do, and to help everybody understand just how critical the university is to the state. He believes UW is already a “fantastic” place but is on the precipice of “becoming the gem of the Rocky Mountains” and showcasing “the universal Wyoming values I’ve always held dear: grit and character – but also independence of thought.”

Reeves, who has a Juris Doctorate and a Master’s of Law degree, will be the first UW president in at least a decade to not have a PhD. He conceded his background is “eclectic” but emphasized that it’s steeped in academic teaching and administration. His current position equates to a provost role, which he noted is often a “natural steppingstone” for university presidencies.

Reeves graduated from Rock Springs High School in 1992, then earned a bachelor’s degree in European history from West Point in 1996. He earned his juris doctor from the College of William and Mary in 2003 and was deployed in support of combat operations in Iraq as a brigade judge advocate, earning the Bronze Star. He received a Master of Law in Military Law in 2008 and has published more than 35 peer-reviewed articles. He became head of the Department of Law at West Point in 2020 before receiving his deanship the next year.

The UW board offered Reeves a four-year contract with a base annual salary of $500,000. His service follows the six-year term of current UW President Ed Seidel, who announced last July that he would not seek renewal. Seidel’s third-year base salary was $403,767. The search committee received more than 100 applications and forwarded five semifinalists to the board. The other finalist was UW’s College of Agriculture, Life Sciences and Natural Resources Dean Kelly Crane.