Editor:

We have been coordinating efforts to express deep concern about naming the University of Wyoming's Cheney International Center. We recently sent a statement with 147 co-signers to UW President Tom Buchanan and UW's trustees.

The statement asserts that with the naming, UW and its international programs cannot avoid being identified with the widely criticized ideology behind and approach to U.S. global politics championed by the Bush-Cheney administration.

It also expresses the fear that tying the center to the Cheney name will saddle the center with an undue burden of limited perspective, narrowing the type and diversity of future students, faculty, donors, and partners drawn to international studies at UW.

We appreciate receiving a response from UW Trustees President C.L. (Chuck) Brown and President Buchanan that provides many details, including these: "In 2005, the first of several 'installments' of what had become a multi-million dollar gift was received by the University of Wyoming. In 2006, UW President Tom Buchanan, Vice President for Institutional Advancement Ben Blalock, and former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson visited with the Cheney family at the White House to discuss the intended purpose(s) of the gift. At that meeting, the Cheney family emphasized its desire to focus the gift on students and on international programs at UW. The university responded with a proposal that identified student scholarships for study abroad and a 'bricks and mortar' proposal to create an international student center … ."

Speaking for ourselves, we are stunned and dismayed that UW leadership apparently laid the groundwork for naming the Cheney International Center.

Mr. Brown and Dr. Buchanan also dispute our statement about the center being saddled with an undue burden of limited perspective because, as they state, " … the gift agreement … steers scrupulously clear of prescribing or endorsing any particular political perspective or foreign policy doctrine … ." That may be the internal policy, but our point is about external perceptions. For a long to come, many Wyoming residents and millions more people across the U.S. and beyond will seriously doubt the legitimacy of an international center named after Dick Cheney.

SUZANNE PELICAN and

FRED VANDEN HEEDE, Laramie