LCCC Earns “B” Grade

The report card is out and Laramie County Community College has earned an overall "B" grade for 2014-2015.

"I think the college is certainly on the right track and we're making some great progress," said LCCC President Dr. Joe Schaffer, who delivered his State of the College Address to a room full of staff, faculty and community leaders Tuesday morning. "Slowly and painfully we've been working on changes to our approach and it's nice to finally be able to celebrate some of that forward movement."

Despite a drop in enrollment, Schaffer says the college has seen an impressive 72% increase in graduation rates over the past decade.

"It's one thing to see increases in completion when enrollment is increasing," said Schaffer. "What's impressive is that we had double-digit enrollment decreases and yet at the same time we've had two record setting graduating classes. That tells us we're actually getting better at helping more of our students earn their credential. And so it's not an enrollment function, it's a fact that we're actually starting to see some returns on the investments we've made in our services and programming."

Schaffer says one of his biggest concerns, moving forward, is the long-term revenue picture.

"Even though we can get through this next year and probably even the first year of the next biennium, we have to think strategically about the long-term investments we make now for what could happen down the road if those revenues really do start to drop," said Schaffer. "Wyoming is blessed to have the most affordable community colleges and I hate to see us march down the same train that everybody else in the nation is doing, where that cost of education is just escalating and escalating. That's one of my biggest concerns, is that we don't pass those expenses on to our students unless we absolutely have to."