Seidel Stepping Down in Summer of 2026

[TheRealUW]

So Dave True got butthurt....complained to HR...wasted more money on a law firm from Colorado...he then flew to Arizona to essentially fire her?

Dave True does not sound Cowboy Tough but let that nepotism run deep UW

To be fair, I'm not sure Dave True had any other options but to escalate it to HR once he received the complaint. It was UW's HR department that felt it necessary to hire the legal firm to conduct an "informal inquiry"...probably at the urging of the UW legal department.

It's never been completely clear to me why he felt the need to fly to Arizona to inform her while she was on vacation. Either he didn't like her and wanted to rub salt in the wound or it was recommended by the legal department for some weird legal reason.

The thing that concerns me the most about the whole thing is that UW won't release any documents related to the inquiry from the law firm. They claim since it was "informal" that there were no documents generated, but that the law firm "identified multiple individual accounts or perspectives of a similar and consistent nature."

 

[OrediggerPoke]

To be fair, I'm not sure Dave True had any other options but to escalate it to HR once he received the complaint. It was UW's HR department that felt it necessary to hire the legal firm to conduct an "informal inquiry"...probably at the urging of the UW legal department.

It's never been completely clear to me why he felt the need to fly to Arizona to inform her while she was on vacation. Either he didn't like her and wanted to rub salt in the wound or it was recommended by the legal department for some weird legal reason.

The thing that concerns me the most about the whole thing is that UW won't release any documents related to the inquiry from the law firm. They claim since it was "informal" that there were no documents generated, but that the law firm "identified multiple individual accounts or perspectives of a similar and consistent nature."

What’s telling to me is that Nichols landed another President’s job. If the ‘serious’ allegations were even semi-substantiated, that likely would not have occurred. Seems to me, speculating, you had certain people fearful at Wyoming that their gravy train was going to end and they took the tact they did.

The shady back room dealing needs to stop. And the person that flags it, Cam Wright, gets fired for doing so. The University has problems.

 

[307bball]

What’s telling to me is that Nichols landed another President’s job. If the ‘serious’ allegations were even semi-substantiated, that likely would not have occurred. Seems to me, speculating, you had certain people fearful at Wyoming that their gravy train was going to end and they took the tact they did.

The shady back room dealing needs to stop. And the person that flags it, Cam Wright, gets fired for doing so. The University has problems.

If there is a force that is being propagated by people who are confused about the best interests of the University .... that is a huge problem. I'm much less conspiratorial than some on here...if you take the more sensational half of them you would think a cabal of super effective people have taken over in Old Main, the BOT and the state house whose goal it is to wreck the university. To me, it's far more likely that there are a bunch of well-meaning but inept folks who are not fit for purpose at many levels....including UW president.

It looks to me like there has been a long march against any kind of hard-@$$ types in charge of anything...This is fine as you can be a perfectly good leader, even exceptional, without being a d-bag. The problem has been that selection for leadership has skewed towards HR driven qualities that don't necessarily make for visionary leadership. This did not happen quickly. I think that in the past....people may have mistaken dumb a-holes for good leaders and this is a reaction to that...now we are promoting dumb but nice people. If Nicholls or Sternberg or whomever you want rubs people the wrong way, it doesn't matter if they are correct in what needs to get done...they system will purge them from itself. Ironically, the very attitudes that could make a difference will inevitably ruffle feathers.

Bureaucracies die this way....and it's very hard to resist. I think in part because the people who are actually causing it are not, in fact, bad or want bad outcomes. If they were truly evil and wanted to enrich themselves at the expense of everybody else I think this phenomenon would be easier to quell.

 

[TheRealUW]

If there is a force that is being propagated by people who are confused about the best interests of the University .... that is a huge problem. I'm much less conspiratorial than some on here...if you take the more sensational half of them you would think a cabal of super effective people have taken over in Old Main, the BOT and the state house whose goal it is to wreck the university. To me, it's far more likely that there are a bunch of well-meaning but inept folks who are not fit for purpose at many levels....including UW president.

It looks to me like there has been a long march against any kind of hard-@$$ types in charge of anything...This is fine as you can be a perfectly good leader, even exceptional, without being a d-bag. The problem has been that selection for leadership has skewed towards HR driven qualities that don't necessarily make for visionary leadership. This did not happen quickly. I think that in the past....people may have mistaken dumb a-holes for good leaders and this is a reaction to that...now we are promoting dumb but nice people. If Nicholls or Sternberg or whomever you want rubs people the wrong way, it doesn't matter if they are correct in what needs to get done...they system will purge them from itself. Ironically, the very attitudes that could make a difference will inevitably ruffle feathers.

Bureaucracies die this way....and it's very hard to resist. I think in part because the people who are actually causing it are not, in fact, bad or want bad outcomes. If they were truly evil and wanted to enrich themselves at the expense of everybody else I think this phenomenon would be easier to quell.

That is a very well thought out assessment. I think that is mostly correct.

I've noticed a trend of wanting to toss out everyone who isn't perfect, especially when it involves high level positions. Nichols was essentially fired for having a temper and having poor emotional regulation. That is certainly a negative quality to have, especially for a public facing position like university president, but it is not unfixable.

I really wish the UW BoT would have went to Nichols and told her she needed to seek some professional counseling for those issues instead of firing her. If they didn't have any problems with the job she was doing, outside of her interpersonal communication style, they would have been served better by trying to fix the specific problem rather than "throwing out the baby with the bathwater".

 

[OrediggerPoke]

If there is a force that is being propagated by people who are confused about the best interests of the University .... that is a huge problem. I'm much less conspiratorial than some on here...if you take the more sensational half of them you would think a cabal of super effective people have taken over in Old Main, the BOT and the state house whose goal it is to wreck the university. To me, it's far more likely that there are a bunch of well-meaning but inept folks who are not fit for purpose at many levels....including UW president.

It looks to me like there has been a long march against any kind of hard-@$$ types in charge of anything...This is fine as you can be a perfectly good leader, even exceptional, without being a d-bag. The problem has been that selection for leadership has skewed towards HR driven qualities that don't necessarily make for visionary leadership. This did not happen quickly. I think that in the past....people may have mistaken dumb a-holes for good leaders and this is a reaction to that...now we are promoting dumb but nice people. If Nicholls or Sternberg or whomever you want rubs people the wrong way, it doesn't matter if they are correct in what needs to get done...they system will purge them from itself. Ironically, the very attitudes that could make a difference will inevitably ruffle feathers.

Bureaucracies die this way....and it's very hard to resist. I think in part because the people who are actually causing it are not, in fact, bad or want bad outcomes. If they were truly evil and wanted to enrich themselves at the expense of everybody else I think this phenomenon would be easier to quell.

I don’t know how creating a new and unnecessary department to create a dean position for your romantic partner is anything but enriching oneself. And then working in the background to ensure the person is removed that flags the ethics of trying to move funds from the engineering department to said romantic partner’s department.

Call me conspiratorial but none of that is ethical or achieving anything other than enriching oneself in my book.

 

[Vapoke]

I think the mediocre comment really ruffled feathers when she first got the job

 

[Vapoke]

I don’t know how creating a new and unnecessary department to create a dean position for your romantic partner is anything but enriching oneself. And then working in the background to ensure the person is removed that flags the ethics of trying to move funds from the engineering department to said romantic partner’s department.

Call me conspiratorial but none of that is ethical or achieving anything other than enriching oneself in my book.

Typical of an IVY league grad

 

[307bball]

I don’t know how creating a new and unnecessary department to create a dean position for your romantic partner is anything but enriching oneself. And then working in the background to ensure the person is removed that flags the ethics of trying to move funds from the engineering department to said romantic partner’s department.

Call me conspiratorial but none of that is ethical or achieving anything other than enriching oneself in my book.

The outright fraud or abuse of power is a problem but I don't think it's at the root of a lot of this stuff. That stuff has gone on forever. Does it happen? Sure...and it's the easiest manifestation to point to. I think the deeper problem is something like the inability to tolerate direct talk about failure and it's causes. It's hard to do and will reveal where people aren't good enough....this will feel bad for those people. If it's done well, the people who have been responsible for the failure can shift focus and go on to real achievement. Unfortunately it always seems to stop at the finger-pointing stage. I think this is behind the whole "accepting of mediocrity" narrative. There is something about it that is true and it needs to be incorporated into a new direction but it's not the seed of the failure. Wyoming as a state is not going to ship out everybody and bring in new people at every level...there aren't enough people to even do that. We have to have a culture of improvement. I don't know everything that went down for Sternberg or Nicholls or whomever else but the pattern is troubling. As @TheRealUW pointed out, nobody is perfect....but you want to be heading there.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

The outright fraud or abuse of power is a problem but I don't think it's at the root of a lot of this stuff. That stuff has gone on forever. Does it happen? Sure...and it's the easiest manifestation to point to. I think the deeper problem is something like the inability to tolerate direct talk about failure and it's causes. It's hard to do and will reveal where people aren't good enough....this will feel bad for those people. If it's done well, the people who have been responsible for the failure can shift focus and go on to real achievement. Unfortunately it always seems to stop at the finger-pointing stage. I think this is behind the whole "accepting of mediocrity" narrative. There is something about it that is true and it needs to be incorporated into a new direction but it's not the seed of the failure. Wyoming as a state is not going to ship out everybody and bring in new people at every level...there aren't enough people to even do that. We have to have a culture of improvement. I don't know everything that went down for Sternberg or Nicholls or whomever else but the pattern is troubling. As @TheRealUW pointed out, nobody is perfect....but you want to be heading there.

I don’t except any President to be perfect. I do expect a President to act in the best interests of the students and university to the best of their ability and to uphold a minimum ethical standard of not self dealing and exercising loyalty to the university and not oneself.

 

[307bball]

I don’t except any President to be perfect. I do expect a President to act in the best interests of the students and university to the best of their ability and to uphold a minimum ethical standard of not self dealing and exercising loyalty to the university and not oneself.

To be clear, Oredigger, your commentary isn't problematic on this stuff. Whatever Seidel got up to may very well be indefensible....and not the reason why the university is mired where it's at.

 

[ragtimejoe1]

uphold a minimum ethical standard of not self dealing and exercising loyalty to the university and not oneself.