Showing posts with label Casper College. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Casper College. Show all posts
Thursday, October 22, 2026
Saturday, October 10, 2026
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
CliffsNotes of the Zeitgeist 156th Edition. Name Changes, Go home Cynthia, The Merits of Packing Heat.
What's in a name?
Central Wyoming College Opposes LCCC Rebrand To "Wyoming State College"
I don't blame Riverton's Central Wyoming College for being upset, quite frankly.
Wyoming has a really good group of community colleges. They are Casper College (Casper), Central Wyoming College (Riverton), Eastern Wyoming College (Torrington), Gillette College (Gillette), Laramie County Community College (Cheyenne, )Northwest College (Powell), Sheridan College (Sheridan), and Western Wyoming Community College (Rock Springs). The best of them is Casper College, which has crept up over the university status in some things and accordingly offers some four year degrees. The University of Wyoming, which has always lived in fear of a second four year university being established in the state (it would frankly be quite an undertaking), has a Casper campus at Casper College.
LCCC has always baffled me a bit as its so close to UW that I'm not quite sure why somebody would go there. But it is actually the second biggest educational institution in Wyoming, second only to UW. It maintains a campus in Laramie for that matter.
So, the name change might make sense.
Bye, Felicia
Cynthia Lummis has not been in the public radar much since being elected to the Senate. Most of the time when she surfaces its on the topic of cryptocurrency.
Wyoming doesn't give a rusty rat's ass about cryptocurrency. We're in a climate change induced drought, diesel fuel is $8,000/gallon, mystery meat is being imported by King Donald into the country.
Just go home Cynthia. Nobody is really going to notice.
A good reason to pack heat.
I always carry when I'm traveling. Things like this are the reason why.
Truck Driver Accused Of Stabbing Man 17 Times In I-80 Restroom Before Fleeing
Of course, a person could say what are the odds of being attacked in such a fashion?
Not high, but not nonexistent.
Amy Roe Bechtel's killer had tried to gain control of a van driven by a family on I80 some years prior to her murder, they wrestled a rifle out of his hands and left him there. Of course, he later killed Ms. Bechtel. I knew one man who was carjacked, briefly, by a hitchhiker (he shouldn't have given the hitchhiker a ride). A kid that I was in high school with is serving a life sentence for being part of a highway side murder. I've been stopped once on the Medicine Bow Highway and then waved through as I had a rifle on my dashboard.
Things happen.
Last edition:
Friday, August 15, 2025
Lex Anteinternet: Wyoming crowd boos Hageman retort that protections...
Lex Anteinternet: Wyoming crowd boos Hageman retort that protections...: Wyoming crowd boos Hageman retort that protections against greenhouse gases based on ‘false science’ : U.S. Rep. Hageman's comment didn...
And it appears she will be visiting Casper.
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Wednesday, February 8, 2023
Nguyễn Chí Thanh. Accidental Legal Muse.
Nguyễn Chí Thanh. By Sử dụng hợp lí - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=118355303
Nguyễn Chí Thanh is the man who caused me to go to law school.
Eh?
Now, Nguyễn Chí Thanh was a General in the North Vietnamese Vietnam People's Army and former North Vietnamese politician who died in 1967, when I was just four years old. How could this be?
Well, he was the figure who thought of what became the Tet Offensive of 1968.
From a Vietnamese middle class family, Thanh's father died when he was 14 which forced Thanh into farming, as his family entered poverty. Perhaps it was this experience which lead him in 1937 to join the Vietnamese Communist Party, which in turn lead to being sentenced to French labor camps. He was both a political and military figure, and following 1960, was principally a military one. It was his idea to launch what became the Tet Offensive of 1968, a disastrous, in military terms, general uprising that cost the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese over 100,000 casualties, over twice as much as the Southern effort lost, and which ended so badly that Gen. Võ Nguyên, who accented to the plan and help prepare it, thought that he was going to be arrested and potentially suffer the fate of all who get blamed for stuff in Communist societies do.
Thanh didn't get the blame, for the military failure. Nor did he get the credit for the massive political success, as the offensive shocked the American public and lead to the US abandoning South Vietnam to its fate. He was killed from wounds sustained by a B-52 raid in 1967.
What's that have to do with law school?
Well, this.
In 1980, I had to write a paper in my community college freshman composition class. I was still in high school, but I only went half days and took freshman comp at the college in the afternoon. I wrote a detailed paper on the Tet Offensive of 1968, taking the position that the U.S. had won the battle militarily, but lost the war due to it due to the huge public reaction.
That thesis is widely held now, but at the time, not so much.
Sometime in the next couple of years, I had an American history class of some sort. I can't recall, but I do recall it was well attended. Unbeknownst to me at the time, the professor was a lawyer, but one who had largely not practiced, if he ever had, after doing a stint in the U.S. Navy. I had to write a paper, and what I did, which was legitimate, was to revise and dust off my preexisting one.
Keep in mind, this was in the typewriter days, so that was more difficult than it might sound. Indeed, writing in general was more laborious in those days.
Anyhow, when it came back, I had received an A, and the professor had marked "You should consider an analytical career".
The part of the story I usually don't tell is that I asked my father, "what's an analytical career"? That's probably as I don't want to have my father tagged with any other problematic career stories other than the one that's been mentioned before, which is unintentionally dissuading me from becoming a game warden. Anyhow, he mentioned lawyer. I think that's the only analytical career he mentioned. It's probably the only one that occurred to him, and frankly, it is hard to think of analytical careers.
And hence the seed was planted.
Tuesday, January 4, 2022
Tuesday January 4, 1972. The HP-35 introduced.
It was Hewitt Packard's first scientific calculator.
Priced at $395, over $2,000 in today's money due to absurd inflation, it was aimed at a specialized market.
It was also, quite obviously, the shape of things to come.
I've never been very good at math.
I'm not sure why, I wish I was. I'm better than some, but when I get into more advanced math. . . well I'm just not great.
My father, on the other hand, was great at math. And my grandfather on his side, who died long before I was born, was so good at math that he helped my father and his siblings with their high school calculus even though he'd left school at age 13.
My father tried to help me, but to no avail.
I first had a calculator at some point in junior high, so calculators must have come on really quickly. Mine was a Casio. It worked for years and years, but by the time I was in high school it had apparently already become obsolete, as my next one was some sort of Texas Instrument.
Not the really great Texas Instrument, which I wouldn't have really needed anyhow.
My last year of high school math was when I was a junior. It was geometry and I struggled in it. Later on, you couldn't have gotten away with only three semesters of high school mathematics, but I did then. I had my TI in that class, but it never worked right after I dropped it out of my Jeep one day upon coming home from school, and it spent a cold night on the driveway. No matter, I didn't take any more math in high school anyhow.
Then at Casper College I had to make up essentially an entire high school mathematics curriculum in one semester. I did it, but it was awful.
We weren't allowed to use calculators in that class.
My next one was a statistical calculator that we could use in statistics at the University of Wyoming. It was a great calculator, and that was a great and fun class.
At UW, as a geology major, I had to take through, if I recall correctly Calc 3. I did it, but I still can't say that I'm very good at really advanced mathematics, sadly.
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Today In Wyoming's History: Casper College Western History Center: Archival Ne...
Today In Wyoming's History: Casper College Western History Center: Archival Ne...: Casper College Western History Center:Archival Needs Assessment Report
Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Wednesday, July 29, 2020
Forty years ago right now I was between my junior and senior years of high school trying to decide what I was going to do for a living.
I knew that I was going to college after high school, and for that matter, I knew that I was going in the fall. I only had half days my senior year, so I had registered for the community college to get a jump start on my college "career".
In 1980 I wasn't sure what that career would really consist of.
Earlier, when I was in grade school and junior high, I'd thought I wanted to join the Army and have a military career. Even by junior high, however, that desire was somewhat waning and by the time I had entered high school, and the immediate post school world became more real, that desire was rapidly diminishing. I still thought of entering the service, but probably following graduating from college and maybe not for a career. Indeed, at that time my immediate plan was to go to UW and join Army ROTC, although I'd avoid JrROTC in high school. The loose thought, at the time, was that I'd major in wildlife biology and after a stint in the Army, I'd either get out and get into the Wyoming Game & Fish Department or make a twenty year career of the Army and then do that.
I didn't do either of those things.
In 1980 I knew that what I wanted was an outdoor life.
What I really loved was hunting, fishing and being out in nature. I didn't want to be indoors. I didn't at that time even know how to tie a tie, and as my high school graduation the following year would show, I was in the class of people who were so unfamiliar with formal clothes that I couldn't wear them and look unnatural.
Next month will be the 30th anniversary of my admission to the bar. I've worked indoors now for thirty years.
How did that happen?
It's weird looking back as even now that's really not apparent.
What I do know is that I changed my views on attending UW in the fall by August of 1981. I went down to the orientation and didn't like it, so I enrolled at Casper College instead. I enrolled, moreover, as a geology student as my father had related to me how there were a lot of guys around with wildlife management degrees who didn't find work, and I didn't want that to happen. My plan then was to do two years at CC and then go down to US and I still planned on enrolling in ROTC.
However, the same summer I enlisted in the National Guard for a six year term of enlistment. That really wouldn't have kept me from joining ROTC but by the time I went down to UW two years later I knew that I really didn't want an Army career. It wasn't that I didn't like the National Guard, I did. It's that I didn't need to be an Army officer to know what being an Army officer was like, and that I had no interest in that as a career. The Guard served me really well in a lot of ways, that being one of them.
Geology was my choice as it was still outdoors. Living in a state in which extractive industries are such a big deal, it seemed like a safe employment choice. But the bust cycle was setting in even by the time I was getting ready to graduate from CC and it was fully in by the time I was ready to graduate at UW.
Law school as an option first occurred to me as a suggestion from a CC professor. I didn't know it at the time, but the professor, a history professor, was a licensed lawyer. I was surprised by it as I conceived of studying law as being really difficult and lawyers as being really smart, but I did toy with the idea a bit. In part I did that as my father was a professional and an outdoorsman and so were a lot of his friends. I was also worrying, by that point , how employable I was going to be. And I knew, by that point, that getting a job in geology meant going on to grad school and I had real personal doubts about whether I'd be able to get in, and if I did, whether I'd be able to make it through, geology grad school.
Frankly, I could have on both points, but at that point in time I labored under the burden of scholastic myths more than reality. When I did take the geology GRE I did really well and in retrospect the worries were self created. The same year I took those I took the LSAT, not really expecting to do well, but I did. I told myself that if I got into law school, and I only applied to one, I'd go. I did, so I did.
I didn't know any lawyers personally when I went to law school and I never bothered to ask them anything about what being a lawyer was like. That was an odd way to go about that, I guess, but then in the thirty years of doing this, I've only been asked what practicing law was like by young people perhaps two or three times. Indeed, of younger people I remotely know whom I know to be interested in the law, none of them have asked me nor, to my knowledge, any other lawyer.
But then I never asked any game wardens what being a game warden was like. In later years, when speaking to them, a couple of them have related a daily life much different than I would have anticipated. And for that matter I never spoke to any geologist either. I had spoken to soldiers, however, just because in those days it seemed like most men had been in the service.
And so, thirty years, thousands of depositions, lots of trials, and countless office hours later, here I am.
Is there a moral to this story? I don't know that there is, other than like the they sing in Truckin:
It's funny how we get where we are going sometimes without realizing that we're getting there, and when we get there, we're not only a lot further along than we realize, but it'd be pretty hard to get back.
None of this, I suspect, is uncommon.
My old high school, prior to renovations, at night. Up until my last year of high school I'd been on the swim team and saw a lot of the building from this prospective as we had early, early morning practices and evening practices too.
Earlier, when I was in grade school and junior high, I'd thought I wanted to join the Army and have a military career. Even by junior high, however, that desire was somewhat waning and by the time I had entered high school, and the immediate post school world became more real, that desire was rapidly diminishing. I still thought of entering the service, but probably following graduating from college and maybe not for a career. Indeed, at that time my immediate plan was to go to UW and join Army ROTC, although I'd avoid JrROTC in high school. The loose thought, at the time, was that I'd major in wildlife biology and after a stint in the Army, I'd either get out and get into the Wyoming Game & Fish Department or make a twenty year career of the Army and then do that.
I didn't do either of those things.
In 1980 I knew that what I wanted was an outdoor life.
What I really loved was hunting, fishing and being out in nature. I didn't want to be indoors. I didn't at that time even know how to tie a tie, and as my high school graduation the following year would show, I was in the class of people who were so unfamiliar with formal clothes that I couldn't wear them and look unnatural.
Next month will be the 30th anniversary of my admission to the bar. I've worked indoors now for thirty years.
How did that happen?
It's weird looking back as even now that's really not apparent.
What I do know is that I changed my views on attending UW in the fall by August of 1981. I went down to the orientation and didn't like it, so I enrolled at Casper College instead. I enrolled, moreover, as a geology student as my father had related to me how there were a lot of guys around with wildlife management degrees who didn't find work, and I didn't want that to happen. My plan then was to do two years at CC and then go down to US and I still planned on enrolling in ROTC.
Me as a geology student. I'm one of those people in the photo.
Geology was my choice as it was still outdoors. Living in a state in which extractive industries are such a big deal, it seemed like a safe employment choice. But the bust cycle was setting in even by the time I was getting ready to graduate from CC and it was fully in by the time I was ready to graduate at UW.
Geology building class room, 1986.
Frankly, I could have on both points, but at that point in time I labored under the burden of scholastic myths more than reality. When I did take the geology GRE I did really well and in retrospect the worries were self created. The same year I took those I took the LSAT, not really expecting to do well, but I did. I told myself that if I got into law school, and I only applied to one, I'd go. I did, so I did.
M110 howitzer. I was an artilleryman.
But then I never asked any game wardens what being a game warden was like. In later years, when speaking to them, a couple of them have related a daily life much different than I would have anticipated. And for that matter I never spoke to any geologist either. I had spoken to soldiers, however, just because in those days it seemed like most men had been in the service.
And so, thirty years, thousands of depositions, lots of trials, and countless office hours later, here I am.
Is there a moral to this story? I don't know that there is, other than like the they sing in Truckin:
Sometimes the light's all shinin' on meOr maybe that's just lame.
Other times, I can barely see
Lately, it occurs to me
What a long, strange trip it's been
It's funny how we get where we are going sometimes without realizing that we're getting there, and when we get there, we're not only a lot further along than we realize, but it'd be pretty hard to get back.
Amen, amen, I say to you,j when you were younger, you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.John 21:18.
None of this, I suspect, is uncommon.
Sunday, March 31, 2019
I've found it hard to get too worked up about the firing of UW President Laurie Nichols . . .
and I'm not sure why.
I probably ought to be concerned, as something is going on and I'm completely clueless about it. As the state's only four year university, what happens at UW really matters.
And I did take offense when the prior President, Bob Sternberg, who resigned received so much faculty heat, basically bringing about his resignation. The heat was, in no small part, due to faculty getting upset about his trying to focus the direction of the land grant school on what counts in the state, which they didn't like. During that period the law school's Dean Easton resigned over what he saw as interference of that type and I frankly think that Sternberg had the high side of that argument. No matter, they both went.
Nichols has been best by all sorts of problems at UW during her term in office, including the need to eliminate degree programs and the entire weird flap over the schools recruiting slogan, which turned out to be a huge success, but which brought some really predictable and dim reactions. You' can read about that here:
It continues on from there.
Part of the reason that I may be exhibiting less interest than I should be is that there was no build up of controversy prior to this event and when it occurred, the first negative reactions I read came from the same predictable corner that the reaction to the slogan did. Indeed, one of the exact same faculty members was quoted, and I'm tired of him. So that may have colored my view a bit.
Be that as it may, Nichols seemed to be doing a good job. She weathered the slogan flap and turned that around, or at least it turned around, and she did a seemingly good job of scaling down where need be.
On scaling down, UW went from 30 departments to 21 by necessity. That's a hard thing to do, and I don't agree with all of the changes. Probably nobody would. In today's paper it was revealed that the degree program in geography will be housed in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, the Department of Geography having been eliminated.
That's a bad idea as other than sharing the Greek root "geo" in their names, Geography has nothing whatsoever to do with Geology/Geophysics. I'd not do that.
I'm not too sure what I think of the expanded degrees in the community colleges where the university has a presence as well. In some ways I think that's good, and in others bad. UW seems to make sure that its heavyweight degrees don't stray off the Laramie campus, and I can see why, but if we're going to offer four year degrees at an increasing rate in the community colleges, that's going to have to change. Indeed, while it's been a losing fight, the time has really come for one of the community colleges, and Casper College is the best candidate, to become a university.
Well, at any rate, the Trustees really do owe the state, and Nichols, an explanation. There's some reason for their decision, even if its trivial, and as the state only has one four year university, they should let us know what it is.
I probably ought to be concerned, as something is going on and I'm completely clueless about it. As the state's only four year university, what happens at UW really matters.
And I did take offense when the prior President, Bob Sternberg, who resigned received so much faculty heat, basically bringing about his resignation. The heat was, in no small part, due to faculty getting upset about his trying to focus the direction of the land grant school on what counts in the state, which they didn't like. During that period the law school's Dean Easton resigned over what he saw as interference of that type and I frankly think that Sternberg had the high side of that argument. No matter, they both went.
Nichols has been best by all sorts of problems at UW during her term in office, including the need to eliminate degree programs and the entire weird flap over the schools recruiting slogan, which turned out to be a huge success, but which brought some really predictable and dim reactions. You' can read about that here:
The University of Wyoming adopts an unneeded slogan and some faculty reveals themselves to be trendy twits
Black cowboys. Oh my, this would suggest that certain faculty members at the University of Wyoming are, well, ignorant, sanctimonious, twits.
One third of all cowboys in the Frontier Era were black or Mexican.
It continues on from there.
Part of the reason that I may be exhibiting less interest than I should be is that there was no build up of controversy prior to this event and when it occurred, the first negative reactions I read came from the same predictable corner that the reaction to the slogan did. Indeed, one of the exact same faculty members was quoted, and I'm tired of him. So that may have colored my view a bit.
Be that as it may, Nichols seemed to be doing a good job. She weathered the slogan flap and turned that around, or at least it turned around, and she did a seemingly good job of scaling down where need be.
On scaling down, UW went from 30 departments to 21 by necessity. That's a hard thing to do, and I don't agree with all of the changes. Probably nobody would. In today's paper it was revealed that the degree program in geography will be housed in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, the Department of Geography having been eliminated.
That's a bad idea as other than sharing the Greek root "geo" in their names, Geography has nothing whatsoever to do with Geology/Geophysics. I'd not do that.
I'm not too sure what I think of the expanded degrees in the community colleges where the university has a presence as well. In some ways I think that's good, and in others bad. UW seems to make sure that its heavyweight degrees don't stray off the Laramie campus, and I can see why, but if we're going to offer four year degrees at an increasing rate in the community colleges, that's going to have to change. Indeed, while it's been a losing fight, the time has really come for one of the community colleges, and Casper College is the best candidate, to become a university.
Well, at any rate, the Trustees really do owe the state, and Nichols, an explanation. There's some reason for their decision, even if its trivial, and as the state only has one four year university, they should let us know what it is.
Monday, February 4, 2019
Tuesday February 4, 1919 and the Legislature of 2019. Ideas that come around again. New four year schools.
It's interesting to look back and realize how some ideas that are current have been around for quite awhile.
Recently there's been discussion of allowing the state's several community colleges to offer some Bachelors degrees. The way I understand it, and I may understand it incorrectly, they're basically applied degrees, although frankly the legislation that would authorize it is a bit confusing, at least to me. That bill is House Bill 263.
2019
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STATE OF WYOMING
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19LSO-0524
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HOUSE BILL NO. HB0263
Postsecondary education and economic development.
Sponsored by: Representative(s) Harshman and Simpson and Senator(s) Dockstader, Driskill and Pappas
A BILL
for
AN ACT relating to postsecondary education and economic development; making legislative findings; authorizing community colleges to confer baccalaureate degrees; providing for community college commission approval of a limited number of baccalaureate degree programs as specified; conforming Hathaway scholarship statutes; specifying certain programs to be reviewed for inclusion by higher education institutions; providing for review of baccalaureate programs provided by colleges; modifying duties of the economically needed diversity options for Wyoming executive council to include consideration of the need for postsecondary programs for continued economic development and diversification in Wyoming; requiring reports; authorizing additional uses of economically needed diversity options funds for required reviews; specifying date for approval of additional baccalaureate programs; and providing for an effective date.
Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:
Section 1.
(a) The legislature finds that:
(i) The availability of baccalaureate degree programs in Wyoming impacts Wyoming's ability to promote and achieve the goals of the legislative and executive branches' economic and education initiatives;
(ii) There exists a need to increase the availability of baccalaureate degree programs in Wyoming to enable:
(A) Increased educational opportunity, particularly for students who must remain close to home for reasons related to family, health or work while earning a college degree; and
(B) Increased skill development, which will lead to economic expansion and diversification.
(iii) Increasing the availability of baccalaureate degree programs in the state is compatible with the continued legislative support of the University of Wyoming.
Section 2. W.S. 9‑12‑1402(a)(xii), 9‑12‑1404(a)(iii)(A) and (B), 21‑16‑1303(f)(iv), 21‑16‑1304(b), 21‑16‑1305(a)(iii), 21‑18‑102(a)(i), 21‑18‑202(b)(v), (d)(i) and (h)(ii) and 21‑18‑303(a)(xvi) are amended to read:
9‑12‑1402. General powers and duties of the council; economic diversification policy and strategy; authority of governor.
(a) The ENDOW executive council shall:
(xii) In consultation with the University of Wyoming, community colleges, the department of education, department of workforce services and Wyoming business council:,
(A) Review existing career technical education programs and develop recommendations regarding opportunities to better coordinate existing public and private programs, and develop or acquire existing career technical education facilities to further technical education opportunities in the state;. The
(B) Review existing, proposed and potential baccalaureate degree programs which may be provided at a Wyoming community college to determine the need for the program in light of the state's economic development and diversification efforts and recommend specificbaccalaureate degree programs for consideration by the colleges and Wyoming community college commission;
(C) Make recommendations regarding its review under this paragraph. Recommendations shall be included in the council's twenty (20) year economic diversification strategy and may be included in the council's four (4) year action plan as determined appropriate by the council.
9‑12‑1404. Economic diversification account created; authorized expenditures.
(a) There is created an economic diversification account. All monies in the account are continuously appropriated to the office of the governor to be used for the purposes of this article and as otherwise specified by law, including per diem, mileage and other administrative expenses of the ENDOW executive council. Notwithstanding W.S. 9‑2‑1008 and 9‑4‑207, funds in the account or subaccounts of the account shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal period. Interest earned on funds in the account shall be deposited to the account or appropriate subaccount. Within the account shall be subaccounts. For accounting and investment purposes only all subaccounts shall be treated as separate accounts. The subaccounts are as follows:
(iii) The Wyoming workforce development‑priority economic sector partnership subaccount. Funds within this subaccount may be expended:
(A) As approved by director of the department of workforce services for administrative costs incurred by the department of workforce services associated with administration of the Wyoming workforce development‑priority economic sector partnership program under W.S. 9‑2‑2609 through 9‑2‑2611; and
(B) As approved by the governor or his designee:
(I) To provide funding for agreements entered into pursuant to W.S. 9‑2‑2609 through 9‑2‑2611; and
(II) To fund expenses associated with the council's study under W.S. 9‑12‑1402(a)(xii) of education programs and, as specified by law, to fund other studies regarding the potential expansion of educational programs to support economic development and diversification efforts.
21‑16‑1303. Hathaway scholarship program; eligibility requirements.
(f) Students meeting the requirements of this subsection shall not be subject to the six (6) academic year limitation on scholarships under this article, the satisfactory academic progress requirements of W.S. 21‑16‑1304(c)(i) and 21‑16‑1305(b)(i) or the continuous enrollment requirements of W.S. 21‑16‑1304(c)(ii) and 21‑16‑1305(b)(ii), but shall be subject to the following:
(iv) Within the earlier of eight (8) years of initial Hathaway scholarship eligibility or four (4) years of last attending an eligible institution while receiving a Hathaway scholarship, have enrolled at the University of Wyoming or a Wyoming community college to complete a baccalaureate of applied science degree and have applied for reinstatement of the student's Hathaway scholarship;
21‑16‑1304. Hathaway opportunity, performance and honor scholarships.
(b) Scholarships under this section shall be for a maximum of the equivalent of eight (8) full‑time semesters. Except as specified under subsection (g) of this section, A scholarship under this section shall be available for attendance at a Wyoming community college for not more than a maximum of the equivalent of four (4) full‑time semesters,. except as follows:
(i) As specified under subsection (g) of this section; or
(ii) A scholarship for a student enrolled in a baccalaureate degree program at a Wyoming community college shall be for a maximum of the equivalent of eight (8) full‑time semesters.
21‑16‑1305. Hathaway provisional opportunity scholarships.
(a) Any student who meets the criteria under W.S. 21‑16‑1303 is eligible to receive a Hathaway provisional opportunity scholarship to pursue a certificate or degree as follows:
(iii) A student who receives a scholarship under paragraph (i) of this subsection and who earns a certificate from the community college with a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.25 may extend the provisional opportunity scholarship to pursue either a certificate or a degree at a Wyoming community college or if the student earns a degree from the community college with a minimum GPA of 2.25, may extend the scholarship to pursue a degree at the University of Wyoming if the student maintains a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.25 and otherwise remains eligible for a scholarship under this article. A student who receives a scholarship under paragraph (i) of this subsection, is enrolled in a community college baccalaureate program and has received a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.25 after four (4) full‑time semesters may extend the provisional opportunity scholarship for an additional four (4) full‑time semesters to complete the baccalaureate degree if the student maintains a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.25 and otherwise remains eligible for a scholarship under this article. The scholarship under this paragraph shall be for the same amounts and subject to the same limitations as provided for scholarships under paragraph (a)(i) of this section, except that the student may continue a baccalaureate program or pursue either an additional certificate or a degree and the student may use this scholarship while attending a Wyoming community college or the University of Wyoming.
21‑18‑102. Definitions.
(a) As used in this act:
(i) "Academic program" means those programs approved by the commission which provide credits:
(A) Resulting in a two (2) year associate degree;
(B) Resulting in a baccalaureate degree; or
(C) Which may be transferred to an accredited four (4) year college or university.;
21‑18‑202. Powers and duties of the commission.
(b) The commission shall perform the following coordination functions. In performing these coordination functions all affected colleges and the commission shall be involved:
(v) Coordinate the provision by means of electronic internet or similar proprietary or common carrier electronic system technology, by a community college or several community colleges, the general education courses necessary for completion of an educational program in the field of nursing at a community college, including a baccalaureate degree if offered, or a baccalaureate degree program in nursing at the University of Wyoming;
(d) The commission shall perform the following approval functions:
(i) Approve all new programs, including baccalaureate degree programs, qualifying for state funding pursuant to the statewide community college strategic plan developed under subsection (h) of this section;
(h) The commission shall prior to the beginning of each biennial budget period, review, update and modify the statewide college system strategic plan. The plan shall clearly prescribe the components of the educational program and attach program components to statewide system priorities. This plan shall serve as the basis for state operational andcapital construction budget requests and funding of the statewide college system for the applicable biennial budget period. In developing, reviewing and updating the strategic plan, the commission shall:
(ii) Include mechanisms within the planning process which adhere to the state's interests in establishing a statewide college system identified as assuring statewide access to:
(A) Academic programs, including one (1) baccalaureate degree program at each community college, and an additional baccalaureate degree program at each community college if a community college demonstrates sufficient community need;
(B) Career‑technical education and training programs;,
(C) Dual and concurrent enrollment programs;, and
(D) Remedial and continuing education programs responding to needs of students, employers and the state workforce, including program access through outreach or coordinated electronic system technology.;
21‑18‑303. District board generally; powers; board approved additional mill levy.
(a) The community college district board may:
(xvi) Confer degrees, including baccalaureate degrees in programs approved by the commission, and certificates and grant diplomas as are usual for community colleges and authorized under its accreditation by the regional accrediting agency;
Section 3.
(a) In consultation with the University of Wyoming and community colleges, the community college commission shall evaluate the funding, other implementation needs and appropriate timeframe to:
(i) Establish health care provider programs at community colleges. The commission may consider potential undergraduate and postgraduate health care provider programs under this paragraph;
(ii) Re‑establish a career and technical training program by the University of Wyoming as an outreach program at Casper, Wyoming;
(iii) Establish a baccalaureate program in education at Central Wyoming community college.
(b) The community college commission shall consult with the department of workforce services, the department of education, the economically needed diversity options for Wyoming executive council and Wyoming business council regarding the effect the programs specified in subsection (a) of this section could have on economic development and diversification efforts in Wyoming. The community college commission shall report the results of the study under subsection (a) of this section, including any responses by the entities specified in this subsection and recommendations of the community college commission, to the joint education interim committee not later than September 1, 2019. The joint education interim committee shall sponsor legislation implementing recommendations of the commission as it determines appropriate for consideration in the 2020 budget session of the legislature.
(c) The governor or his designee may authorize funding from theWyoming workforce development‑priority economic sector partnership subaccount as provided by W.S. 9‑12‑1404(a)(iii)(B)(II) for purposes of the commission's study under subsections (a) and (b) of this section.
(d) The community college commission shall not approve a baccalaureate program pursuant to this act prior to April 1, 2020. The community college commission shall review each baccalaureate program offered by a Wyoming community college and report on the costs and benefits of each program to the legislature by June 1, 2025. In its report, the community college commission shall recommend whether community colleges should continue to have the ability to offer baccalaureate degrees and report on any recommended changes to this act.
Section 4. This act is effective July 1, 2019.
(END)
A person can read the legislation set out above and realize it does more than just that, but the basic gist, I think, is to allow for four year degrees that have a technical aspect. I wouldn't call these trade degrees, as they are not, but they're degrees that differ in that fashion from classic BS and BA degrees in that they have a technical aspect to them. Not surprisingly, the University of Wyoming is opposed to this.
The bill will be taken up for consideration today.
I've written on this earlier, but there was move back in the 1970s to allow at least Casper College to become a full university. This was a hugely popular idea here locally but adamantly opposed by UW. UW responded, after the move failed, by coordinating with the community colleges so that some UW programs could be offered at the community colleges, so there's some ability to get some four year degrees here now. Indeed, while it hasn't drawn much attention, Casper College has an arrangement with at least one other four year university to offer some of its degrees, up to the masters level, locally.
Given that, you'd think there'd be more support for this now than there was in the 1970s, but my suspicion is the bill will fail.
As a graduate of Casper College and the University of Wyoming, I can see both sides of the argument actually. I've never developed the huge romantic attachment to UW that some people, including some people who never went there, have, but my undergraduate level was taken to the next level up after I left Casper College and went there and its likely a good thing, for me, that a four year program wasn't available at CC back then. Indeed, I've heard some people claim that leaving your home and going to a distant university is part of the necessary part of an education, although that would leave some open questions about people who simply go to work after high school (a diminishing few) or those who go to work after finishing an associates degree. I can see both sides of the argument, but I do think UW has one.
Anyhow, I was aware of the move in the 1970s, and the bill in the 2019 legislature, but I wasn't aware of such a bill in the 1919 one. There was.
UW is a land grant college so it's always had a close relationship to agriculture, so its all the more surprising to see that back in 1919 a Goshen County legislator wanted the Agriculture out of UW and vest it somewhere else. I'm sure UW was not thrilled. I don't know what motivated the move at the time, but Laramie is in Albany County which features a high plains environment that isn't suited for farming. That may have been on the mind of a legislator from Goshen County, which is.
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