Dr. Kirk Young, President of Western Wyoming Community College, called into the Weekday Wake-Up on Monday, April 6 to report on the 2026 Progress Report released by the college last week.

(0:00) Good morning, Star Valley, Kemmerer and Bridger Valley. (0:03) Thanks for starting your day with the weekday wake up on the SBI radio network. (0:08) It’s 8.35 this morning live on SBI radio, Swift 98 and The Spur heading into our guest (0:14) interview for today.

(0:15) Dr. Kirk Young, president of Western Wyoming Community College is on the air today, recently (0:20) gave a 2026 progress report and we’ll discuss that with Dr. Young this morning. (0:26) Dr. Young, good morning. (0:27) How are you doing today? (0:28) I’m great.

(0:29) Yeah, doing great. (0:30) I’m doing really well. (0:30) Thank you.

(0:31) Appreciate your time today. (0:33) And you recently discussed this report in a town hall in the Rock Springs community. (0:38) So wanted to have you on the air.

(0:39) Of course, Western serving us here in Lincoln County as well and Star Valley and Kemmerer (0:43) Diamondville. (0:44) So maybe just summarize this report for us, Dr. Young, that was given by Western Wyoming (0:49) looking ahead to 2026 and beyond. (0:53) Yeah, you bet.

(0:54) It really was an opportunity for us to get together with our community and just communicate (1:00) what’s going on here at Western. (1:02) So really provide an update as to what’s been happening over the last really year or so. (1:08) And then talking about where we’re looking, moving ahead.

(1:11) We’ve had a lot go on here at the college. (1:13) We’ve had a lot of change over the last year and we’ve worked really hard. (1:17) We hold town halls every month with all of the employees and with our students and we (1:21) work hard to make sure people here in the college are well informed.

(1:25) But we realized we need to do a better job of kind of making sure the community knows (1:29) all that’s going on. (1:30) And so really the goal was to provide that progress report, help people see what the (1:35) focus is right now and where we’re going moving forward. (1:39) You know, one of the one of the big struggles for Western Wyoming recently has been going (1:44) through the difficult process of staff reductions.

(1:48) Maybe walk us through that process and what that has meant for Western Wyoming. (1:53) Sure. Yeah, and you’re right, that has been a significant challenge for us over the last (1:59) several months.

And when I came in, so I’ve been here almost two years. (2:04) And so when I started here just under two years ago, our board of trustees communicated (2:10) to me that there had been a significant amount of work that had been done really kind of (2:15) assessing our compensation here at the college and how we were doing it, you know, (2:20) compensating our employees. (2:21) And it was pretty widely known before I got here that we had lagged significantly behind (2:28) over the years when it comes to just having competitive wages with really the market, (2:34) but then also our higher education market.

(2:36) And it was it had gotten really hard for us to be able to hire certain positions. (2:41) We’d had certain positions, faculty positions that had been open for three years plus, and (2:47) then it also gotten really hard to hang on to really good employees. (2:50) And so the board just said, look, we know this is an issue.

(2:53) We need you to fix it. (2:55) And it was a really clear directive from them. (2:58) And so that first year, we worked really hard to really understand what that was going (3:02) to take.

And then going into this year, my second year, you know, it was time to get to (3:08) get the ball rolling when it came to that. (3:10) And so we had to in order for us to be able to fund our these compensation adjustments (3:15) and we had hired an external firm that came in and helped us see just how far off we (3:19) were. And we were off significantly with a lot of our pay.

(3:24) But, you know, we don’t have a whole lot of additional revenue coming in from the state (3:29) and other things. Really, the place to find the resources to pay for that really had to (3:34) come from a staff reduction. (3:35) And and that was a big part of it.

(3:38) Western also has not had we had not been in the habit of really kind of rightsizing (3:44) the institution over the years. (3:46) Our enrollment has dropped by about 30 percent since 2013. (3:51) The other six community colleges in the state really kind of throughout that period of (3:56) time had every few years just worked to right size and reduce their staffing structure to (4:02) kind of align with their student population.

(4:06) Western hadn’t really done that. (4:08) And and so we had to we needed to realign anyway. (4:12) And so going through that process of kind of realigning our staffing structure also helped (4:16) us to be able to get the funds that we needed to fund and pay our people the way they (4:20) should be paid.

So it really was I know it’s a tough concept and a tough process for us (4:28) to talk about laying people off. (4:30) But the point of all of that was also to make sure that our employees were compensated at (4:36) a fair market wage. (4:38) And so it was this weird dynamic for us of having to go through some really hard steps.

(4:44) But the whole purpose of it was to really take care of our people. (4:48) And so it’s been it’s been work and it’s been a challenge for us to navigate that and (4:52) then layered on top of that. (4:54) And we just went through a recent reduction just a couple of weeks ago.

(4:57) We had to lay off another nine people. (5:00) That had to do with additional factors we weren’t anticipating. (5:04) And those were the factors related to property tax reductions.

(5:07) So the revenue we’re receiving from our local property tax that was somewhat (5:13) unanticipated. And it was an additional thing that we had to address. (5:17) And so it kind of worked out where we had we were planning to do this big restructure (5:24) anyway to help pay our people well.

(5:26) But then that also came at a time when local property taxes have seen a significant (5:31) reduction. And so that kind of compounded the whole project that we have going on. (5:37) Dr. Young, you mentioned when you talk funding like this and state funding, of course, the (5:41) University of Wyoming’s funding was a huge talking point during the legislative (5:46) session.

When it comes to the junior college level, like Western Wyoming, I know (5:50) there’s some some extra money given to the Hathaway scholarship. (5:52) But when it comes to state funding outside of property taxes, how did things fare (5:58) through the session for Western Wyoming? (6:01) That’s a great question. (6:03) And I wish we had a lot more time to really discuss the dynamics of it.

(6:07) Quite frankly, the community college sector really came out kind of flat. (6:14) So we didn’t really see any significant increase. (6:18) The state funding, yes, there was in addition to Hathaway.

(6:21) That is not money that comes directly to the colleges. (6:24) That’s money that funds our students. (6:26) And so hopefully that will help attract more students.

(6:29) You know, maybe there are some students that are thinking of going to college and they (6:32) just haven’t been able to because of the financial burden. (6:35) Now, hopefully they’ll be able to access some additional money that will help them to (6:39) come to college. And so that would benefit the colleges in hopefully seeing a bit of an (6:43) increase in enrollment.

(6:45) And then there was some other money that was given to the K-12, so kind of our public (6:51) education partners, to help fund the courses that their high school students will take at (6:56) the colleges. There’s some potential revenue there for the colleges, but, you know, (7:05) we’ll have to wait and see. So there was no direct increase to what the colleges, you (7:11) know, need.

And quite frankly, we had gone through a study a year ago with the Community (7:18) College Commission and actually identified that the commission, so all of the colleges (7:22) together, would need roughly about 50 million dollars added to the amount that is given (7:30) to the colleges every year just to be able to have the purchasing power that the (7:34) colleges had about 10 years ago. (7:37) That’s, you know, that’s all due to inflation and other things. (7:41) And so to not see any kind of an increase to help address that, that was challenging for (7:45) us.

We’ll wait and see what happens with Hathaway, see if we can see a boost in (7:48) enrollment. And then, you know, maybe see if we get a few more high school students (7:53) taking courses at the colleges as well. (7:55) Dr. Kirk Young, president of Western Wyoming Community College.

(7:57) So, Dr. Young, when you look at this outside of the Rock Springs campus and talk about (8:02) the outreach locations in Afton, Kemper Diamondville, how are those locations moving (8:08) forward? And do any of these impacts, maybe impact some of the outreach stuff? (8:14) Great question, and I appreciate you asking that. (8:17) So, one, you know, Western covers a 29,000 square mile service area. (8:24) That’s bigger than some states.

(8:26) And so we depend so much on these outreach areas, these sites that are out there to (8:33) help support the work that we’re doing here. (8:35) And so they do a tremendous job. (8:37) You know, in Lincoln County, we’ve got Kemper, we’ve got up in Afton, they do such a (8:41) tremendous job to help support, you know, the needs that students have.

(8:46) Western has done a really good job over the years of increasing our ability to deliver (8:51) online education, but then also our ability to work with these outreach sites to provide (8:55) classes for our for people that, you know, obviously can’t commute to Rock Springs on a (9:01) regular basis. We are, with this additional funding through the K-12 system, we’re hoping (9:09) to see some increased opportunities for students to take additional courses through (9:13) Western at our outreach sites. (9:16) I started here, like I said, almost two years ago and immediately went on kind of an (9:20) outreach visit tour and I went to each of these outreach sites.

(9:23) Well, I was brand new and, you know, it was more of a listening opportunity for me to (9:28) hear what the areas needed. (9:29) I’m going back out this fall, as soon as we get through the summer, I’ll hit every one of (9:33) those sites. I hope that the people listening to your program will pay attention to when (9:37) those dates are.

We’d love to see them and hear from the people in these communities on (9:42) what we can do better. (9:43) But then we’re also going to share with them some ideas and some plans that we have to (9:47) help enhance opportunities for people in each of those areas. (9:50) Dr. Young, appreciate your time as we wrap it up here.

(9:53) Maybe just a two part question. (9:54) What do you see as the future for Western Wyoming Community College and why should a (9:59) prospective student consider Western? (10:02) Yeah, so honestly, and I know there’s been some challenging press lately, but honestly, (10:07) the future is really bright for Western. (10:09) I mean, we took these steps with our budget and so on to help position Western to be in (10:15) the most ideal situation possible moving forward.

(10:18) And so our employees are going to be paid well. (10:21) We’re going to have people that are going to stick around even longer and are going to (10:24) invest in Western. (10:26) And so in addition to that, we have opportunities to look for new programs, new things (10:33) that are needed out in our service area.

(10:36) And then why should somebody come to Western? (10:38) Honestly, one is just that personal touch. (10:40) We’re a small college that provides that one on one opportunity and support that students (10:47) need to the especially on our academic and even on our workforce side. (10:52) Our people have been working so hard to make sure that the programs we offer at the (10:55) college are programs that will prepare students for the workforce, will prepare students (11:00) to be able to get out and make and increase the amount of money they can earn, prepare (11:05) themselves to go to the university if that’s what they want to do.

(11:08) And so we’ve worked really hard to make sure that we have those programs in place to set (11:13) people up for a really, really bright future. (11:16) And so we just say, come on over, come check out what we’ve got going on here at (11:21) Western. Our enrollment has seen a significant increase.

(11:23) I think it’s because we’re offering the right programs to help people prepare for their (11:27) future. And so come and see what we’ve got going on and take advantage of that. (11:32) Dr. Kirk Young, president of Western Wyoming Community College, thanks for your time, Dr. (11:35) Young, and look forward to seeing you when you make your tour around the outreach (11:39) locations this fall.

(11:41) Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate your time today. (11:43) And yeah, we’ll look forward to seeing you soon.

(11:45) It’s all part of the weekday wake up this morning on SVI Radio.