LCCC considers downsizing, closing Albany campus
Plummeting enrollment, state funding cuts, and shifting local needs have LCCC leadership reevaluating the college’s presence in Laramie. The Albany County campus could be revamped in a number of ways.
Laramie County Community College could be leaving Albany County — that’s at least one of the options college leaders are considering.
LCCC’s campus in Laramie has seen a precipitous drop in enrollment, as well as cuts to its state funding — both of which have left LCCC’s largest satellite with far less money and with fewer instructors and staff.
This shrinking has prompted LCCC’s Board of Trustees to reevaluate the future of the Albany campus — considering, among other options, closing the campus and withdrawing from Albany County altogether.
LCCC President Joe Schaffer said continuing with business-as-usual is off the table.
“Doing nothing is probably not an answer at this point,” Schaffer said. “We know we have to pivot and adjust just because of the environment we’re navigating right now.”
LCCC has a unique role in the local community. Many of its students are university-bound and the college offers general education courses for hundreds of future University of Wyoming students. The satellite campus also offers dual and concurrent enrollment for Albany County’s high schoolers.
Laramie City Councilor Andi Summerville said the college has been an important part of the local community since its humble beginnings in the Laramie Plains Civic Center decades ago.
“They are critical not only in providing education opportunities for our high school students or adults that want to go through community college,” Summerville said. “They also support workforce training and things along those lines. They’ve really become an integrated part of the community.”
While no decision has been made yet, President Schaffer has identified three options for the board and community stakeholders:
“Return to our roots” — Refocusing on concurrent and dual-enrollment offerings for high schoolers, while partnering with UW to offer general education courses.
“Shift to LCCC Online” — Transform the Albany County campus into LCCC’s online campus, using its resources to offer any and all of the college’s online instruction.
“Exit Strategy” — Greatly reduce or even shut down the Albany County campus.
LCCC is headquartered in Cheyenne in Laramie County. While Laramie County is the college’s district, Albany County is included in the college’s wider service area.
(If you are new to the region, the place names can get confusing. Albany County, not Laramie County, is not home to the city of Laramie. The city of Laramie, in Albany County, is where one finds LCCC’s Albany campus. But the rest of LCCC is in Laramie County next door.)
Taking a closer look at the future of the Albany County campus is just one facet of LCCC’s ongoing review of the entire institution.
“We’ve already had to close our center at F.E. Warren Air Force Base here in Cheyenne, and have reduced the footprint of our Eastern Laramie County Outreach Center (in Pine Bluffs),” Schaffer said. “So this is a natural conversation for our largest outreach center in Laramie.”
Enrollment at the Albany County campus has dropped by about 35 percent since 2016 — no matter how one measures enrollment.
The college’s headcount dropped from more than 1,700 to just more than 1,100. Meanwhile, the full-time equivalent — a standardized measure that treats, for example, two half-time students as one full-time student — dropped from more than 600 students to less than 400.
While the campus saw an increase in distance students last year — as more students chose exclusively virtual education during the pandemic — the campus saw a much more pronounced decrease in hybrid and on-campus students. On-campus students dropped from 552 to 268.
Since 2016, the number of classified staff has dropped from 17 to four.
Since 2018, the number of employed faculty members dropped from a high of 17 to 12.
The campus still has the same number of administrators — two — that it has had since 2016. Managerial, professional and part-time staff figures have also stayed relatively consistent.
The number of part-time adjunct faculty members has seen the biggest decrease, from 64 in 2016 to just 26 now.
In addition to enrollment, state appropriations have also been slashed.
“Our state funding has reduced substantially — just like it has at the university,” Schaffer said. “But we’re on our third round of budget cuts, so the amount of state funding that’s available to be spread across the entirety of LCCC’s entire operation is reduced substantially.”
Now the college is more than $600,000 in the red.
“Even after the cuts we’ve done and people we’ve laid off, the cost of operating the Albany County campus right now — with the current state funding and at the current enrollment levels for tuition — is actually exceeding the revenue we’re generating,” Schaffer said.
The college’s Board of Trustees will be meeting with the Albany County Campus Advisory Committee next week to discuss — though it probably won’t decide — the fate of the satellite campus.
It probably won’t be the last meeting on the topic. Councilor Summerville said the city council and Albany County Commission will also plan a joint work session, probably for the end of October or early November.
“When there’s any sort of changes or consideration of long-term development, the city certainly has an interest in that,” Summerville said. “It certainly is concerning to hear that (closing entirely) is one of the options that has been discussed. But I also recognize the challenges in funding that have cropped up for community colleges — and frankly all kinds of other agencies — over the last five to eight years.”
Albany County is one of the few communities in the state that does not offer direct, financial support to its local community college. Elsewhere, communities within a college’s service area often support that college with a mill levy. Neither Albany County, nor the city of Laramie, currently does that for LCCC — but it could be something that’s discussed as talks move forward.
Schaffer said he also wants to meet with Albany County School District No. 1, given the close collaborations between the school district and the community college that make dual and concurrent enrollment possible.
“I hope to have at least a decision for the short term before the end of our semester because I need to give some stability to the campus and the people who are there,” Schaffer said. “If there are bigger changes needed, then we’ll likely develop and have a longer term solution.”