Chad Baldwin called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Wednesday, December 17 for his monthly report from the University of Wyoming. Baldwin touched on a 2nd amendment initiative, statewide support for UW athletics, and a Saving Yellowstone series.

(0:00) Time for the monthly report from Chad Baldwin with the University of Wyoming. (0:06) Chad, how’s things in Laramie? (0:07) Does it look like Christmas out there because it doesn’t really out here. (0:10) No, no snow in Lincoln County.

(0:12) It’s kind of odd. (0:14) Pretty crazy, Duke. (0:15) There’s not any snow in Laramie, although we might get some later today, but up in (0:19) the snowy range, just to the, to the west of us, there’s a lot of snow.

(0:23) We’ve been getting snow in the high country, but just not down here on the, (0:27) and well, it’s not really low elevation at over 7,000 feet. (0:31) But anyway, you know what I mean? (0:33) Yeah, I get it. (0:34) I get it by Wyoming standards.

(0:36) It is a little bit. (0:37) Yeah, absolutely. (0:38) Well, Chad is always appreciate your time and the report today, number of items (0:42) happening at the university that people all around the entire state of Wyoming (0:46) may have some interest in.

(0:48) I wanted to start on this grant given to the UW firearms research center and (0:54) the second amendment initiative. (0:56) Tell us about this. (0:57) Yeah.

(0:58) So what the firearms research center is in our college of law, it’s led by a (1:03) professor George Moxary, who’s a second amendment expert. (1:07) And, uh, and what this grant from the U S department of education will do is allow (1:13) them to develop a national program that’s going to provide secondary school (1:17) teachers with nonpartisan historically grounded content about the second (1:22) amendment. (1:23) Uh, that’s the origins of it.

(1:25) How, how it’s been interpreted, interpreted by courts over the decades, (1:29) and then the civic implications of the second amendment. (1:32) So basically creating a civics curriculum for high schools across the country. (1:37) Wow.

(1:37) That’s pretty fascinating. (1:38) And, and all coming from the university of Wyoming. (1:40) And so, uh, I mean, we’ll, we’ll see what may be implemented from it when and (1:45) where, right.

(1:46) But, uh, the fact that it’s coming from Wyoming really shouldn’t be a big (1:49) surprise. (1:50) Oh, pretty cool. (1:51) I mean, we, we, we are very familiar with firearms in this part of the country.

(1:56) Uh, um, and, and it’s part of our culture certainly. (2:00) And, uh, and, and, you know, professor Moxary is, is, uh, this, this is a (2:05) nonpartisan approach here to this. (2:07) So it’s a very touchy subject for a lot of people, pretty (2:10) sensitive across the country.

(2:12) This is about, uh, looking at the second amendment from a, from a nonpartisan (2:17) view and, uh, um, and giving people the history of it and where did it come from? (2:23) And people, I think a lot of people recently watched the Ken Burns (2:26) documentary on PBS about the American revolution, uh, and, uh, the role that (2:31) firearms played in, in, uh, in the founding of our country. (2:34) And so anyway, that, that this is, it kind of ties in with the 250th (2:38) anniversary of our, of the declaration of independence that this project does. (2:43) So it’s going to be for K-12 educators.

(2:46) Uh, there’ll be some, um, webinars and an in-person conference (2:50) and that sort of thing. (2:52) So, uh, it’s a real, uh, substantial project they have going on here. (2:56) Chad Baldwin with the University of Wyoming on the (2:58) Weekday Wake-up this morning.

(3:00) Uh, Chad, some scientists at UW have been kind of front and center in this (3:03) television series on Animal Planet regarding Yellowstone, saving Yellowstone. (3:07) Tell us more about this. (3:09) Yeah.

(3:09) Yeah. (3:10) So it’s a four-part series. (3:12) I think that the final, uh, installment of it airs tonight on Animal Planet.

(3:16) Uh, you can stream, of course, these things too, but, um, uh, yeah, the, the, (3:21) the, uh, we have, uh, four professors and then, and then their graduate (3:25) students who have all, uh, have been featured on this or will be featured. (3:30) That includes Kevin Monteith, who’s a real expert, uh, primarily on, on the (3:35) big ungulates in Western Wyoming, but also, uh, has a project going about beavers. (3:40) And that, that was in the last episode.

(3:42) That was really cool to see. (3:43) We got, uh, John Kaprowski, who’s the Dean of our Hobbs School of (3:47) Environment and Natural Resources. (3:49) He’s an expert on squirrels.

(3:51) And, uh, and so, uh, I think that’s what’s going to be featured tonight or (3:55) part of what will be featured tonight. (3:56) We have, uh, Joe Holbrook, who’s, uh, uh, his, his expertise is in like coyotes (4:02) and foxes, not the, not the apex predators, but the kind of the middle (4:07) or the middle predators, and then, uh, and then Ellen Aiken, uh, she’s an (4:12) expert on golden eagles, so those, those people of all are all being featured. (4:17) It’s a real, you know, kind of a cool thing to have this national, uh, uh, TV (4:21) series featuring, uh, people doing this research in Western Wyoming and the (4:27) greater Yellowstone ecosystem from the state’s university.

(4:30) Yeah, that’s fascinating. (4:31) I’ll be honest. (4:31) I had no idea there were squirrel experts.

(4:33) Uh, I, I didn’t know, but it makes sense. (4:36) Right. (4:36) So, so well, Dr. (4:38) Kirk Kaprowski is great guy and really interesting.

(4:41) He, uh, he always does a lecture every year on groundhog day. (4:47) I love it. (4:48) Talk about, about groundhogs because he knows about them.

(4:51) He, he, he travels the world. (4:52) You know, he goes to Mongolia, goes to Japan, goes to Africa. (4:55) And if you want to know something about squirrels anywhere in the world, he’s the (5:00) guy that includes, we, we, we got cool squirrels right here in Wyoming, of course.

(5:04) Yeah. (5:04) Uh, and so, uh, so he, he knows about those. (5:07) Love it.

(5:07) Absolutely love it. (5:08) Uh, Chad Baldwin with the university of Wyoming on the weekday. (5:11) Wake up this morning.

(5:12) Uh, Chad, here’s a survey that, uh, gave us some results that really isn’t a huge (5:16) surprise, but some large statewide support for the athletics programs (5:21) at the university of Wyoming. (5:23) Yeah. (5:24) Uh, Duke, our, uh, athletics department commissioned this survey.

(5:27) They wanted a scientific survey. (5:29) What are the people of Wyoming think about UW athletics? (5:32) How important are they? (5:33) And what is the level of support? (5:35) And as you said, it’s maybe not a huge surprise that we’re, we’re the only (5:38) university in the state that ever, you know, people support the Cowboys and (5:41) Cowgirls, but I’ll have to say as a life, I’m nearly lifelong resident of the state. (5:46) I was a little bit surprised by the breadth of this and the, and (5:50) the, of the interest in this.

(5:52) It’s like, uh, uh, you know, 84% of, of Wyomingites are, are say that. (5:59) UW athletics is a sore, important source of pride for the state. (6:03) Uh, and it’s about the same percentage saying it’s really important to the (6:08) state’s identity and reputation, uh, similar numbers say that it’s important (6:14) for the visibility and prestige of the university and, uh, and on and on.

(6:18) And, and, you know, we’ll get drilled down even to what are the (6:21) sports that people support most? (6:23) How many people come to games? (6:24) And that’s a surprising number too. (6:27) Only 42% of the state say they don’t, don’t attend games in person. (6:32) That means a majority of Wyomingites come down and watch the Cowboys or (6:37) Cargirls at least once a year.

(6:39) Uh, and, uh, that’s incredible in a, in a state as, as, uh, geographically (6:44) dispersed as ours is, it’s, uh, that people are willing to travel those distances. (6:49) So, uh, it was really pretty cool to see that level of support. (6:52) And, and, uh, we knew that, you know, we know folks fans are pretty passionate, (6:56) but this kind of shows that, uh, uh, this, this goes clear across the state too.

(7:03) Well, and it, it, it really does, uh, I think really highlight the event in (7:07) Laramie with Josh Allen and, and the retirement of his number and, and the, (7:12) the response that that generated and the excitement that that generated, (7:15) uh, across the entire state. (7:19) Yeah, exactly. (7:20) Hadouki, that was a, you know, I think Tom Berman said it well, if we’d had 45,000 (7:25) seats that we probably could have filled in that day and, uh, uh, you know, (7:29) so we have closer to 25,000, uh, but it was full and people get excited.

(7:35) They, you know, he’s Josh, we talked about this before. (7:38) What a great example of, of, uh, uh, how athletics and success (7:42) can really unite the state. (7:44) And, uh, you know, he’s clear far away there in Western New York now, (7:48) been in our hearts and minds.

(7:49) He’s still, still a poke, you know? (7:50) And, and that’s what that, that, that event that day illustrated. (7:53) Uh, I mean, I ran into people from star Valley or into, you know, uh, uh, people (7:58) from all across Western Wyoming who are, uh, really excited to, to pay tribute to, (8:03) to Josh and unfortunately we didn’t beat Nevada that day, but, uh, um, you know, (8:09) we, we dropped really well for football and even in like wrestling Duke. (8:14) I don’t know if you saw the other night, I was going to bring that up.

(8:17) Yeah. (8:17) Number one. (8:18) Yeah.

(8:18) The number one program in the, in the country came to town. (8:20) We had nearly 5,000 fans in the, in the arena auditorium. (8:23) Uh, and, uh, you know, so, so anyway, wrestling is in that top five of the sports (8:29) that, that, uh, people around the state are most interested in.

(8:33) And, uh, there’s been another picture kind of circulating, of course, the (8:36) men’s basketball team off to a really great start and Larry Nance Jr. (8:40) On the sidelines, uh, repping the Brown and gold at an NBA game. (8:43) Not, not that too long ago. (8:45) Yeah.

(8:45) Isn’t that great? (8:46) Yeah. (8:47) Uh, there is one of our great alumni. (8:49) What an amazing career.

(8:50) I think close to 10 years now in the NBA, a real glue guy, you know, just plays the (8:55) game, right. (8:55) And still has these ties to Wyoming. (8:57) I mean, his wife grew up in Fremont County and, and he has family, uh, you (9:01) know, in Wyoming and, and, uh, still feels a real kinship here.

(9:05) So yeah, that, those, that’s a, there’s really no way to sort of overstate the (9:11) value that, uh, that, um, athletics has in so many ways, uh, uh, to, you know, (9:18) to our state and our university. (9:20) That’s Chad Baldwin this morning, joining us on the weekday wake up with a report (9:23) from the university of Wyoming chat. (9:25) As always, we appreciate your time and maybe a white Christmas on the way.

(9:28) I guess we’ll find out, huh? (9:29) Yeah, I, I, I would guess so. (9:32) Do you get to only a matter of time? (9:35) Merry, merry Christmas. (9:36) Happy holidays.

(9:37) You as well. (9:37) You as well. (9:38) Appreciate it.

(9:38) Chad Baldwin this morning. (9:39) It is the weekday wake up on SVI radio.