ROCK SPRINGS — As the budget tightens, Western Wyoming Community College continues to reassess its operations. Yesterday, the Board of Trustees looked at the degree programs it offers at the college.
The board voted unanimously to continue offering 23 degrees, add five new degrees, eliminate four degrees, and consolidate some of its programs following a presentation from Dr. Cliff Wittstruck.
Wittstruck led the school’s Academic Program Efficiency Rubric task force back in June which looked at Western’s programs and developed a rubric to analyze academic programs and non-academic departments.
The task force included all division chairs, five faculty members from each division, and Mark Rembacz, Associate Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness.
The rubric helped define the viability and sustainability of each degree program, analyze student demand, and determine the number of graduates.
Wittstruck said they looked at what other schools used for their rubrics to review their degree programs. Western said this was necessary because Western continues to see a decrease in the amount of students transferring, retention and graduation rates.
“These are trends that we need to look at and adjust, we cannot continue in that manner,” Wittstruck said.
This led to the college looking at each of its programs. Once the different components were determined, it used a scale to rank them, with 100 being the highest number a course could obtain. Wittstruck said they looked at revenue, student full-time equivalent (FTE), cost of a FTE at the degree level, cost of a FTE at the course level, the fill rate, and how many graduates each degree had.
They looked at how many students are interested in each course in the fall semester. Wittstruck said a good starting point or goal for the college is to have at least 12 students enrolled in a fall cohort. He said a class needs at least eight students in it to financially break even.
“We’ve been the only school in the state that has not made these tough decisions,” Wittstruck said.
Program Recommendation
The task force recommendation is to continue with 23 programs, while others are consolidating and some are being placed on hiatus for the time being. Oil and gas and compression, a program that was consistently successful in the past at Western, will be place on hiatus.
English, Chemistry, Spanish and Mathematics are also programs that will be closed. These courses would still be offered, but not for an associates degree.
Five new degrees were added, including performing arts, biological science, pre-health science, social science and secondary education.
Western President Kim Dale said all of these recommendations are based on limited resources and flexibility for students.
The complete list of course changes can be viewed below.
Public Comment
Prior to the board making its decision, Western Associate Chemistry Professor Randal Goff recommended tabling a decision on degree changes and deletions.
“I realize the college is challenged with having to make incredible cuts in the budget and there’s an urgency of reducing the budget and I don’t discount that at all.” Goff said. “However, I believe that we can serve our college and our students best by ensuring that we’ve established our viable degree programs…”
He said some classes need to be taught in order for students to obtain certain degrees or continue their pathways to a degree. Goff said the removal of some of the classes may actually have a negative budget impact as students seeking a certain degree may change schools.
The rubrics used to determine which degrees were maintained, added, placed on hiatus, or eliminated can be viewed below.
