Stefani Hicswa

Northwest College is a step closer to offering a bachelor of applied science degree.

In what President Stefani Hicswa called “a historic moment in the history of Northwest College,” the board of trustees voted unanimously last week to move forward with the new program.

Some question remains if the entire approval process will be complete in time to begin taking students into the program by the fall 2020 semester as was originally planned. But when the program is up and running, the college estimates about 12 to 24 students in the first cohort, with as many as 48 active in the program in future years.

Now that the NWC board has approved the program proposal, NWC will seek approval from the Wyoming Community College Commission. If the commission approves the program, NWC will then need permission from the college’s accrediting body, the national Higher Learning Commission, before the program can be offered.

After the HLC approves the proposed program, the commission will need to make a visit to the NWC campus “to make sure we are ready to offer this level of curriculum,” Hicswa explained.

Gerald Giraud, vice president for academic affairs, said the scheduling of that visit creates uncertainty as to when the college has the full go-ahead to begin offering the program.

“We hope for the fall, but it’s dependent on other people,” he said.

Central Wyoming College was told it could take several months to complete the approval process for its bachelor of applied science program. If NWC doesn’t get a response until next summer, there might not be enough time to launch in the fall, Giraud said.

Different degree

Bachelor of applied science degrees are professional degrees meant to give students — usually those with an associate’s in applied science — the education needed to move into a managerial position or run a business of their own.

The 42 credit hour program has 14 courses, including technical writing and communication courses, business ethics, risk analyis and introduction to marketing.

“We believe this content is the type of content that someone would need to progress in their organization to a supervisory or management level,” Giraud said.

Before the board voted to permit the college to propose the program to the Wyoming Community College Commission, Trustee John Housel raised concerns about a personal finance course; he said the wording of the course title and description made it sound more like a course about personal budgets and banking.

“I don’t think that’s what a professional degree would be about, but maybe I’m wrong,” he said.

Housel did vote in favor of the proposal but urged that the description of that course be clarified before it goes before the commission.

Historic moment

NWC developed the BAS program after extensive research into future workforce needs and student interest. The college is hoping the program will help improve enrollment figures, which have fallen precipitously in the past few years. The low enrollment, while undesirable, will allow the college to operate the program with existing faculty without their workload becoming overwhelming.

“We have faculty in all these areas that are qualified to teach these courses,” Hicswa said.

Board of Trustees President Dusty Spomer said the college spent a long time gathering data and planning the program before beginning the approval process. NWC leaders didn’t just put it together and hope interest would follow, Spomer said.

The board’s vote to proceed brought enthusiastic applause from the faculty and administrators who gathered to hear the board deliberate on Dec. 9. In the entire history of the college, this type of higher level degree has never been offered.

“Thank you very much,” Hicswa told the board after the motion passed.

Editor's note: This version corrects the definition of a bachelor of applied science degree and removes incorrect information about the ability of community colleges to offer them.