State Briefs

UW raises ACT score requirement

LARAMIE (WNE) — The University of Wyoming’s board of trustees voted this month, at the request of university administrators, to set a minimum ACT score of 17 for students to be admitted to the school.

Previously, high school graduates could be assured admission to UW, albeit with some remedial classes, if they had a cumulative grade-point average of 2.5-2.99. No standardized test score was required.

However, that new policy will still require those students with a sub-3.0 GPA to have a GPA of at least 17 or an SAT score of 900.

Kyle Moore, UW’s associate vice provost for enrollment management, said that, in recent years, about 20 freshmen admitted under the old requirement would now be disqualified from admittance based on low ACT scores.

Only about half of those students continue at the university after their freshman year, he said.

Forty-five students who were admitted during 2018’s record-breaking freshman class would be disqualified.

About half the students have not returned to school, and 16 were suspended for substandard grades, Moore said.

UW’s top attorney, Tara Evans, who guides much of the university’s revisions to its regulations, told trustees this month that “the administration believes this is a very positive thing” to ensure students succeed as freshmen.

“We wanted to make sure we weren’t putting students in a position where they were going to struggle and not succeed,” she said.

Climber rescued after falling in Grand Teton

JACKSON (WNE) — A 20-year-old French Canadian man was climbing by himself in Grand Teton National Park on Sunday morning when he fell 50 feet.

Although Maxime Blondel was injured, he was able to pull out his cell phone and call for help.

Park rangers got the call around 11:30 a.m. Sunday and flew by helicopter to Blondel’s location.

“They were unable to land or perform a short haul because it was so windy,” park public information specialist C.J. Adams said. “There were rangers in Garnet Canyon, so they responded there to his location.”

Rangers reached Blondel, provided an initial assessment and took him down via a wheeled litter — essentially a stretcher mounted on bicycle-like tires. Including the painstaking procedure of moving the litter down the mountain, the rescue took about eight hours.

“Because of the conditions they weren’t down until 7:30 p.m.,” Adams said.

Park officials said the incident serves as a good reminder that rangers and rescue personnel can’t always respond by helicopter.

“It extends the time needed to extract people out of the mountains,” Adams said.

Details about how Blondel fell were not available at press time. He was attempting to climb Disappointment Peak.

His injuries were also not released, but officials said they were not life threatening.

Cheyenne smoking ban now includes e-cigs

CHEYENNE (WNE) — E-cigarettes and other electronic smoking devices are now on a list of smoking instruments banned in certain public places by a 2006 ordinance.

With an 8-1 vote Monday night, the Cheyenne City Council gave final approval to an amendment that adds electronic smoking devices to an ordinance that already bans cigars, cigarettes, pipes, hookahs and water pipes.

The amendment bans electronic smoking devices “that can be used to deliver aerosolized or vaporized nicotine to the person inhaling from the device, including, but not limited to, an e-cigarette, e-cigar, e-pipe, vape pen or e-hookah.”

The amendment excludes devices designed to deliver prescription medications, such as inhalers.

“I’m very pleased that the amendment passed,” said Councilman Jeff White, who sponsored the ordinance amendment. “I just feel it was a logical extension of an already existing ordinance, that most businesses had already put signs up that said no vaping in their establishments.”

The amendment redefines smoking as “inhaling, exhaling, burning or carrying any lighted or heated cigar, cigarette, pipe, or any other lighted or heated tobacco, nicotine or other product intended for inhalation, including hookah and marijuana, whether natural or synthetic.”