LARAMIE -- The University of Wyoming graduate who for the past eight years was a heartbeat away from becoming president of the United States found Thursday that protest would follow him even onto the greenswards of his alma mater.

On the eve of the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that transformed the Bush presidency, former Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, stood in intense September sunshine at the southwest corner of UW's Prexy's Pasture and cut the ribbon to open the Cheney International Center and the Cheney Plaza.

Present to help them were former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson and UW President Tom Buchanan, among others. But in what may be a first in the history of the 122-year-old university, the remarks from these dignitaries were continually punctuated by heckling from a group of about 100 protesters who decry the naming of a UW building after Cheney because of his role in leading the U.S. to war in Iraq and his support for enhanced interrogation techniques. One professor said UW students going abroad might be in danger if their presence is associated with the Cheney name.

Buchanan expressed appreciation for the Cheneys' donations of about $3.5 million to UW, most of it matched by state endowment funds. The money enabled the construction of the 20,000-square-foot center in the west wing of the former Student Health Service Building. It will house all of the university's international programs.

About $3.4 million of the Cheney-state endowment will be earmarked for scholarships to allow UW students to study abroad.

Buchanan said the UW Foundation would launch a further campaign to increase the endowment from $3 million to $10 million.

Cheney said, "Our time in Laramie and at University of Wyoming, most of it right there in A&S, the examples I learned, the practices I learned here at UW, laid the foundation" for his 40-plus years of public service. He said the center "will add a significant dimension to education at UW, and we have great pride today in being here and being able to take part in this process and to be able to advance the common cause that we all share in terms of what we want to achieve with the center we are dedicating here today."

Cheney was introduced by Simpson, a leading fundraiser for the university, who heaped praise on the Cheneys and was obviously annoyed by the heckling.

"He who has entered the fray of duty the brave endure must have made foes," Simpson said, quoting from Charles MacKay, a 19th century Scottish poet and journalist. "If he has none, small is the work that he has done."

Simpson said Cheney "is a patriot, and we should be proud of this man and this woman who have helped our country in every situation so that others can enjoy the freedom of expression."

"Anyone can be a bitcher," Simpson said. "It is easy to second-guess, it is easy to protest, takes no brains."

Simpson said the news media have been responsible for the intense criticism which has dogged Cheney.

"He didn't spend much time with the media because they often distorted what he said, they didn't like him because he didn't kowtow to them, toady up to them, and they'll get you for that."

Donal O'Toole, a veterinary science professor in the UW College of Agriculture, said in an interview that UW "is making a serious mistake affiliating ourselves with Cheney. I think it poses a risk to students who are going abroad. The university is partly in the business of selling its credibility for money, but this is crossing the line. Naming a building after Cheney is making a very overt political statement."

Amber Wilson of Green River, a UW senior, said UW should not be recognizing Cheney.

"He is not someone to look up to so far as international relations go," she said.

Another student, Marissa Ochsenfeld of Laramie, said, "I don't want a building at my school to have Dick Cheney's name on it. He brought this country to its knees during his vice presidency."

Zoology professor Dave McDonald, a faculty member for 13 years, said he has mentioned the idea of naming a UW international center after Cheney to numerous colleagues in other countries, "and their reaction is always, 'You must be kidding.' It's a sad statement to have a building with his name on it, graven in stone. It is not a good legacy for the university."