University of Wyoming’s Cheney International Center?!

According to the Huffington Post, a decision by the University of Wyoming to name a new center for international students for former Vice President Dick CheneyVice President Dick Cheney is drawing criticism from people who say Cheney's support for the Iraq war and harsh interrogation techniques should disqualify him from the distinction.

The former vice president and wife Lynne are expected to attend Thursday's dedication of the new Cheney International Center on the Laramie campus.

Protesters plan to be there as well.

The center is financed in part with $3.2 million that the Cheneys contributed to the university in several installments while he was vice president.

The university's decision to name the center after Cheney, a former Wyoming congressman, prompted a petition that gathered over 150 signatures. The petition said that the policies of the Bush administration were "very controversial" and the name will affect how people perceive the center.

Cheney's support for harsh interrogations – torture, some say – is one reason to be opposed to naming the center after him, said Suzanne Pelican, who started circulating the petition a year back.

Pelican also disapproved of the Bush administration's "go it alone" strategy when several U.S. allies opposed the invasion of Iraq and didn't take part in the war.

"We feel that by naming it the Cheney International Center, that the programs and UW can't avoid being identified with that ideology and that approach to global politics that the Bush-Cheney administration championed," Pelican said on Tuesday.

Pelican is an extension educator in the university's College of Agriculture who plans to peacefully protest throughout the dedication.

A phone message left with Cheney's assistant, Lucy Tutwiler, wasn't immediately returned.

A state program matched the Cheneys' $3.2 million gift with $3.2 million in state funding. The university spent $3 million to remodel and expand an existing building for the center.

A total of $3.4 million has been earmarked for scholarships for students to study abroad.

Another Laramie resident opposed to the name is Nancy Sindelar, with the organization Veterans For Peace.

"Mr. Cheney is not the best example of demonstrating how nations should get along with each other," said Sindelar, who is retired. "Putting his name on an international center is counterintuitive."

Sindelar's organization opposes the Iraq war, and its Wyoming chapter has held weekly protests in Laramie since prior to the start of the war.

On Thursday, Sindelar plans to be part of a march to Prexy's Pasture, the campus quadrangle where the dedication ceremony will be held. Protesters don't plan on disrupting the ceremony but will be visible, she said.

University President Tom Buchanan defended the naming decision in a recent opinion piece in the Casper Star-Tribune, penning that "tolerance and diversity cut many ways," and that the new center will benefit students.

"Whether you are Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, Catholic or Protestant, gay or straight, white or black, you are welcome at the University of Wyoming. Should we subject potential donors and the purpose of their gift to public referendum? I think not," Buchanan penned.

The international center shares a building with the university's student health center and will have offices for university employees who work with international students.

Students also will be able to hang out there, said university spokeswoman Jessica Lowell.

"This is a place where international students can come and watch soccer if they want to. There's a lounge for them," Lowell said.