Four-year degree planning approved for 2 Wyoming colleges

GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) - The Wyoming Community College Commission has given a college district permission to begin planning to offer four-year degree programs.

The recent approval applies to Gillette College and Sheridan College in the Northern Wyoming Community College District, the Gillette News-Record reports.

It's an essential step toward four-year applied science baccalaureate degrees in management and leadership at the two schools.

Four other Wyoming community colleges also are pursuing four-year degrees after the Wyoming Legislature and Gov. Mark Gordon approved a law allowing them to do so in 2019.

Two-year colleges in Wyoming also are seeking Higher Learning Commission approval to offer four-year degrees, a process that can take six months to a year, said Gillette College Vice President Janell Oberlander.

"It just depends on how quickly we can go through it and how thorough they are when they come for a site visit," Oberlander said Wednesday. "It's just a process that we have to get through."

Four-year degrees were a goal in a Vision 2020 plan for Gillette College that local residents and officials wrote in 1998 and updated in 2001.