Michael Rotellini
Mrotell1@uwyo.edu
Community colleges all over Wyoming are projected to lose a good part of funding due to the economic forecast presented by the state.
Wyoming Governor Matt Mead announced last month the low prices for oil, gas and other energy sources would be resulting in a loss of revenue amounting around $619 million for the state. This has helped spur a tightening of the belt around Wyoming and partial hiring freezes for state agencies, including the University of Wyoming.
Many community colleges are watching this carefully and looking at the expenditures already occurring. College officials are already looking at the situation carefully, including Dr. Paul Young, president of the Northern Wyoming Community College District.
“We are watching it very carefully and of course we are concerned. It is too early to know exactly what the cuts will look like for Wyoming Community Colleges,” Young said. “We are already starting to be careful about expenditures and controlling our costs.”
Community colleges around the state get funding based on the number of enrollment at each college provided by the state. Along with local support, tuition and fees this makes up the general layout of the main college revenue.
Not only are schools looking to lose revenue at the state level but have seen local funds drop as well. Northwest College is looking at losing 23 percent of its local funding and Western Wyoming Community College is expecting to lose about 22 percent of its local funding.
Sheridan County has seen a drop of 42 percent from its local funding over the last five years primarily due to the loss of methane activity in the area, Young said.
There are some community colleges within Wyoming that do not expect to lose as high of rates as some of the colleges, but may face lower funds than in previous years.
Students from community college see this as a problem but understand that cutting back is going to be necessary in the years ahead Kevin Alden, a UW junior education major, said.
“I transferred in as someone from a community college and even though I enjoyed my time there it’s no question that the whole state is going to have to make cuts and look to save money in these coming years,” Alden said. “They are not targeting community colleges specifically —everything from UW to the local level will see impact. It’s just how things are right now.”
Colleges across the state see this as a projection but still are looking at the possibility and preparing for what may come in the future.
“The first thing we would do, similar to what we did in 2008-09, is to look for areas to trim without affecting students. We would consider cutting travel back even further, we will evaluate open positions and ask employees for creative cost-saving ideas that will cause the least amount of disruption to teaching and learning,” Young said. “If the reductions are serious enough we may have to reduce class offerings, so class sizes may increase slightly.”
Community colleges can regulate some changes through their own respective colleges, Young said, but any case of tuition increase has to go through the Wyoming Community College Commission, which regulates many factors across the board for the state.
