About 14 years ago the Denver owners of the Albany County Y Cross ranch donated it to the University of Wyoming and Colorado State University. A clause of the accepted donation was that the schools could sell it after 14 years. They now intend to do so.
I don't know much about how the ranch was used in the 14 years the schools have owned it. It was supposed to be used for the purpose of teaching agriculture, but from what I read, it wasn't used much. The former owners now say that they regret donating it to the schools, and frankly they should regret it.
This is hard to understand. A 50,000 acre ranch, situated near both schools, should have provided a variety of opportunities for both schools to both teach practical agriculture and, in this day and age, perhaps also experiment a bit with "sustainable" agriculture, a topic which has been hot in agricultural fields in recent years. Now those opportunities will be lost, and the ranch will simply be sued to generate money.
On that both schools would be well advised to note the history of the results of ignoring the wishes of donors. Potential donors to both schools are now on notice that the schools feel free to sell donated assets as quickly as they can. Not all donations are suitable for long term keeping and preservation, of course, but if that is the wish of the donors, they now know that neither UW or CSU can be depended upon to do any more than accepting the donation requires. That may give such potential donors pause, or at least put them on notice that a restrictive clause in any donation may be necessary. For some it may mean no donation at all, something that at least UW, which is under orders to cut back financially, may wish to rethink
Postscript
This matter remains pending in Court. But, with the new University of Wyoming President emphasizing the land grant nature of the institution, and with a huge amount of turnover going on at the upper levels of the school, I wonder if its too much to hope for that the decision to depart with the Y Cross might be reconsidered?
.
Postscript II
This is the Y Cross which UW and CSU jointly own:
Y Cross Ranch | Wyoming Ranches for Sale
I've posted an
earlier thread, well really a compliant, on the plan to sell this facility.
This listing, I suppose, shows why the universities are so tempted, or
rather have yielded to the temptation, to sell the place. Quite a nice
location.
Well, the answer to this question; "I wonder if its too much to hope for that the decision to depart with the Y Cross might be reconsidered
?" appears to be "yes, too much to hope for."
The Wyoming Supreme Court issued its decision yesterday concluding:
The district court correctly concluded that the donation from the Davis Interests to the University Foundations was a gift, that the MOA did not create an implied trust, and that only the attorney general has standing to enforce the terms of a charitable gift. We thus affirm the court’s dismissal of the complaint and amended complaint for lack of standing.
I'm not surprised and I'm sure the Court is correct, but it's disappointing anyway. That disappointment must be directed at UW however, which still has the opportunity to behave correctly here, along with CSU, but which probably isn't going to.
