Chad Baldwin, AVP of Marketing and Communications and the University of Wyoming, called into the Weekday Wakeup on Wednesday, October 15. Baldwin touched on the recognition given to the family of Kim Choma during the Cowboy’s football game on Saturday, the new coal inspired uniforms for the football team, the economic impact of UW athletics, growing enrollment, a recent mountain lion study, life saving skills curriculum and more.

(0:00) Joining us live from Laramie with his monthly report from the University of Wyoming, that (0:04) is Chad Baldwin. (0:06) This morning, Chad, good morning. (0:07) How are you today? (0:08) Good morning, Duke.

(0:09) We’re doing great. (0:10) I appreciate your time, as always, and giving us some updates on what’s happening at UW, (0:14) both in Laramie and around the entire state of Wyoming, and I think we do have to start (0:17) for our listeners here in Lincoln County and especially Star Valley, recognizing the family (0:22) of Kim Choma in just a touching way during the football game on Saturday at War Memorial. (0:29) Yeah, Duke, a real special moment.

(0:32) Kim meant so much to our football program, really to our whole university, and we’re (0:38) glad to have a few minutes to pay tribute to her, have her family there on the field, (0:43) and remember the real lasting impact that she has had on our program. (0:49) Absolutely, and the more people that learn about her and who she was, it’s really astounding. (0:55) A scholarship fund has been set up through Star Valley High School’s football program, (1:00) and just a great moment.

(1:02) And, you know, speaking of the football team at War Memorial Stadium and Laramie, kind (1:06) of exciting, the new uniforms that were debuted just a few days ago, the coal-inspired unis (1:12) for the Cowboys. (1:14) Yep, the Border War coming up here, and on the 25th, we’re going to be sporting those (1:18) unis just for that game, but it’s a special tribute to our important coal mining industry (1:25) in Wyoming. (1:26) A partnership with the Wyoming Mining Association, and those new threads are going to be pretty (1:30) cool.

(1:31) They’re taking on that team from the south of us, and showing some real Wyoming pride (1:37) about a really important industry in our state. (1:40) Absolutely, I love it, and it shows that connection. (1:43) Again, we talk about this quite a bit, but the connection from the university, not just (1:48) to the city of Laramie, but the whole state, and that kind of encapsules that.

(1:53) Absolutely. (1:54) I mean, we’re Wyoming’s university, we’re the, you know, we represent and serve the (2:01) whole state, and take that responsibility very seriously. (2:05) Chad Baldwin this morning on the Weekday Wakeup with his monthly report from UW.

(2:09) Chad, let’s talk more about the economic impact that athletics have from the university across (2:15) the state. (2:16) A pretty staggering number, $206.4 million of annual impact. (2:21) Yeah, just, you know, we’re the, unlike, say, Montana or the Dakotas, we have D1 top (2:31) level athletics in all sports.

(2:34) And it’s important for the pride of our state, but also for the economy of the state. (2:40) So this economic impact study was done, as you mentioned, $206.4 million annual economic (2:48) impact brings people in. (2:51) There’s lots of commerce that surrounds it, stuff, of course, Laramie, coming to Laramie (2:56) on game day, surrounding communities in the lodging industry.

(3:01) And then there’s all of the marketing and branding and merchandise aspects of it, too. (3:06) Media rights, sponsorships, it’s, so, you know, it’s, we’re the flagship institution (3:12) and athletics is a huge part of this, of our brand. (3:16) And it’s kind of nice to be able to quantify that so people can kind of see that this investment (3:23) isn’t just to, you know, for students to have activities.

(3:27) It’s for the state to have a great deal of pride and then to actually stimulate a piece (3:34) of the economy. (3:35) You know, and as you talk about using athletics to build the brand of the entire university, (3:39) we’ve talked about kind of pigtailing off of Josh Allen and the notoriety that he has (3:44) become across the nation. (3:45) And it seems to be working.

(3:46) It looks like UW’s enrollment is growing, correct, for the second straight semester? (3:51) Yes, indeed. (3:52) Yep. (3:52) Yep.

(3:53) It’s been a bit of a tough go for higher ed overall, but yes, two semesters of year-over-year (4:00) growth. (4:01) Duke and our freshman classes here, there’s 927 Wyoming students who are in that freshman, (4:08) first-time freshman class. (4:10) And that’s the second biggest number we’ve had in the last 17 years.

(4:14) And the number of Wyoming residents overall is also up about 2% from last year, freshman (4:22) on up through upperclassmen. (4:24) So you know, we’re excited to have a little bit of momentum going and lots of headwinds (4:30) out there in terms of, you know, just some declining numbers of high school graduates (4:35) and some maybe people kind of questioning the value of higher ed a little bit. (4:40) But we have a great product here for people that sets them up for life and good careers.

(4:49) Very affordable, very accessible, and it’s a great student experience. (4:54) So great news for sure. (4:57) Chad Baldwin with the University of Wyoming joining us live this morning on the Weekday (5:00) Wake-Up.

(5:01) Well, let’s switch gears here a little bit and talk about some of the research that has (5:04) been done at UW. (5:06) We have, of course, mountain lions in the state. (5:09) Plenty of our share here on the other side.

(5:12) A recent study regarding mountain lions and human disturbances. (5:15) Tell us what this is about. (5:17) Yeah, we have researchers here that tracked mountain lions and in relation to their kill (5:24) sites.

(5:25) The idea was that if there was some human disturbance, if you came upon a big cat on (5:30) a feeding site, that maybe they would scare off and leave and, you know, mess them up. (5:34) Well, it turns out that they found out that mountain lions actually returned back to these (5:39) kill sites in even higher numbers than if they hadn’t been disturbed. (5:44) And so they used these radio collars, studied these group of mountain lions, 26 mountain (5:50) lions over four years, and were able to detect and track and do a scientific study on how (5:59) they are able to stay on those kill sites even if there is some disturbance.

(6:03) Really, really interesting research. (6:06) I mean, our wildlife researchers do some really cool stuff, you know, tracking not just the (6:12) predators like the mountain lions, but also, you know, the big ungulates that are so important (6:16) to us, elk, deer, moose, antelope. (6:21) Because they are so important to our identity, our state, our economy, we love our wildlife (6:28) in Wyoming.

(6:29) And we’ve got researchers who are helping us manage them very well. (6:33) Absolutely. And you talk about some of the entities that will use this research, of (6:38) course, the Wyoming Game and Fish and other entities, of course.

(6:41) Chad Baldwin this morning on the weekday wake up, as mentioned, Chad, also a Cheyenne (6:46) residency curriculum teaching Wild West life-saving skills. (6:51) What’s that all about? (6:52) Yeah, so this kind of came into focus just this past summer. (6:56) Duke, we had a professional rodeo cowboy.

(7:00) He was actually helping in the shoots at Cheyenne Frontier Days. (7:04) Dylan Terrell was his name. (7:06) And he’s OK with talking about this because he’s just grateful that he got knocked in (7:13) the chest and was knocked unconscious and it stopped his heart.

(7:19) A little bit like it sounds like maybe Damar Hamlin with the Buffalo Bills a couple of (7:23) years ago, you know, where just a real freak thing. (7:26) But this team of doctors that works in Frontier Days, and this includes our UW (7:32) residency clinic there in Cheyenne, they train for this stuff. (7:36) They do actually rodeo medicine training and were able to respond, did CPR, gave him (7:42) the care he needed to get him to the Cheyenne Hospital and his life was saved.

(7:47) And and so it’s just kind of shines a light on this really kind of unique medical (7:52) program that’s through the UW program in Cheyenne to prepare doctors and other first (7:58) responders to deal with injuries in the rodeo arena. (8:01) Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, you talk about some of the other things that are going (8:05) on at the university, a cool opportunity for those closer to Laramie.

(8:09) Sounds like a pretty well-known New York Times bestselling author, C.J. (8:13) Box, is going to be putting on a little event on October 18th. (8:18) Yeah, yeah. You know, he comes to UW quite often, like when he has a new book that he’s (8:23) launching and that kind of thing to do a book signing.

(8:26) But this is cool because it’s with our College of Law. (8:28) If you read C.J.’s books, it touches on lots of things in Wyoming that that are really (8:33) interesting and there’s some legal aspects to it. (8:36) And so this will be an analysis from a legal perspective of all the issues, a lot of the (8:40) issues that have come up in his books, like the Endangered Species Act, like corner (8:45) crossing, which is a big deal, at least in this part of the state.

(8:48) Oh, and your part of the state, we have what they call a zone of death, which is there’s a (8:53) 50 square mile area in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone National Park where due to (8:58) overlapping jurisdiction, maybe a criminal could get away with even murder in a place (9:03) like that. And that was the topic that one of his one of his novels in the Joe Pickett (9:08) series, EPA sorts of things with wetlands and and even falconry. (9:14) You know, he’s got the character Nate Romanowski in his book, so he’s a falconer.

(9:18) And there’s legal aspects to to raising falcons, of course, too, and capturing them when (9:23) they’re young. So anyway, all of these interesting topics are going to be discussed (9:28) during a legal C.J. (9:31) Box symposium on October 18th. (9:33) So this coming Saturday, UW and the public is invited and you can I think it’s even going (9:39) to be live streamed, but I don’t don’t take that to the bank.

(9:44) Exactly. You have to check for sure. (9:46) Sure.

That’s Chad Baldwin, associate vice president of marketing and communications at the (9:50) University of Wyoming. Well, Chad, as always, appreciate your time and your updates. (9:54) SVI Media will be producing the live video broadcast for state football again in about a (9:59) month.

So looking forward to seeing you and Laramie at the newly renovated press box at (10:03) War Memorial. That’ll be great. (10:05) Yeah, that’ll be great.

We’re glad to have you guys come down and I assume the Braves will be (10:10) here, too, and maybe facing those Bronx again. (10:12) So we look forward to having everybody come over and, you know, watch watch the games. (10:17) That’s Chad Baldwin, University of Wyoming.

(10:19) Chad, as always, thank you for your time. (10:21) Thanks, dude.