Governor Gordon signed Senate File 111 allowing community colleges to offer a new degree program

On Friday, March 15, 2019, Governor Gordon signed Senate File 111. The signing of this bill officially allows community colleges in Wyoming to form baccalaureate degree programs for applied sciences.

Officials for both the University of Wyoming and Laramie County Community College did not want this to create tension between the university and community colleges against one another. The introduction of bachelor's degree programs at the community college level is something LCCC President Joe Schaffer says will allow workers who want to stay close to home to add even more to the workforce. He said, "What we hear from the business community is that these are students who currently aren't being served with programs that really don't exist or aren't available for them and so across the state, there seems to be general interest in these types of programs established at the community colleges."

President Schaffer says that usually, programs take some time to get started, but that he wouldn't be surprised if we see these programs starting up in the fall of 2020.