Despite support from Gov. Mark Gordon, strong backing from local lawmakers and no serious opposition, an effort to secure $10 million for a new student center at Northwest College failed in the Wyoming Legislature this month.

The funding for the proposed Trapper Center was tied into a large capital construction bill that ultimately died when the House and Senate couldn’t agree on whether to fund three projects at the University of Wyoming.

Northwest College “just got sucked up in that quagmire of the university project funding,” said Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody. “So we didn’t get it done.”

Coe added that the inability to secure the state dollars “was probably my biggest disappointment of the session.”

The funding would have covered half the cost of the new student center, and the college was in the process of raising the other $10 million. The current DeWitt Student Center is beyond its 50-year lifespan and has a number of health and safety issues. The maintenance demands for the facility are a drain on the college’s budget, and engineers have recommended against renovating the building.

Coe called a replacement a “dire need.”

“I mean, the DeWitt Student Center’s about to fall in a big pile,” he said.

Unless another source of funding comes through, there’s no financially feasible way for NWC to get the replacement off the ground in the immediate future.

“I’m really disappointed. We all worked really hard on it, and unfortunately, it just wasn’t in the cards this year,” said NWC President Stefani Hicswa.

Hicswa thanked Rep. David Northrup, R-Powell, Sen. R.J. Kost, R-Powell, and Coe for all their work to try getting the project funded. She said the college isn’t giving up on the new Trapper Center and plans to “regroup” to see what options are available.

Since that interview, the COVID-19 pandemic has eclipsed concerns over capital construction issues for the time being.

Northwest College has been planning to replace the student center for years and received state funding for planning efforts in previous years. Everything was set to pursue state support for the project’s construction.

In his budget released in November, Gov. Gordon recommended the state provide the $10 million. As the capital construction bill wound its way through the legislative process, there was no pushback against the college’s request. Senate File 119 passed the Senate on a 22-8 vote and a modified version passed the House 43-17.

However, the House and Senate were unable to resolve their differences before they adjourned, which killed the entire bill — and the NWC student center funding along with it.

Sen. R.J. Kost, R-Powell, called it a “difference of philosophy” between the two chambers. The House approved $50 million in funding for UW construction projects — including a replacement for Corbett Pool. The Senate, though, wasn’t open to providing the university more funding, after the institution received $500 million in construction funding in the last four years.

“... Many senators are not happy with the University of Wyoming and the handling of [former President Laurie] Nichols,” said Rep. Northrup, referring to the controversy surrounding the university board’s decision not to renew Nichols’ contract.

After the unexpected decision, the university refused to release information on why the contract was not renewed and was sued for documents related to an investigation it launched into Nichols. The events left a perception that the university acts with a lack of transparency.

Northrup said, the senators “really feel the University of Wyoming needs to have some recognition that people see what’s going on.”

There was some back and forth between the House and Senate on the $50 million worth of UW projects in hopes of finding a compromise. Ultimately, the House insisted the university receive its funding, and the Senate wasn’t going to agree to it.

“Everyone stuck to their guns, and the bill died,” Northrup said.

Kost and Coe wrote a letter to Gordon after the bill failed, hoping to find another avenue to get NWC funding for the project. Kost said he had not heard anything so far, but it’s likely such concerns are taking a backseat to the pandemic response.

While the capital construction funding failed to pass, Kost said some operational funding managed to make it through. The seven community colleges in Wyoming had requested $30 million to support a variety of operational needs, hoping to close budget shortfalls due to decreased enrollment and declining support from the state. The governor had not included the funding in his budget recommendations, but suggested legislators look into why the colleges were asking for the money.

“We knew they weren’t going to get $30 million no matter what,” Kost said. “But we worked to figure out something we could do.”

A series of negotiations between the House and Senate resulted in two pots of $5 million to be shared between the seven colleges. One pot provides $500,000 to each and divides the remaining $1.5 million according to a formula based on enrollment. Northwest College will get about 7% of the shared amount.

The other $5 million in funding will be divided up equally, but colleges will be required to match their share before receiving any of the dollars

While nothing is certain, Kost and Northrup suggested a special legislative session might be held in the coming months in order to revisit the capital construction funding, but social distancing efforts could make meetings difficult for some time.

Next year’s session will not be a budget session. It’s possible appropriations bills could be considered then, but it’s not as common.