Northwest College weighs in on colleges cutting sports.
In a statement released last week, Northwest College President Stefani Hicswa discussed a previously unfathomable possibility – discontinuing sports at the college. This is in light of both Sheridan College and Gillette College announced they would be discontinuing most of their NJCAA Division 1 athletic teams: men’s and women’s basketball, soccer and volleyball. This move should save around $2.8 million dollars for the institutions. Hicswa said their hearts go out to the Generals and Pronghorns, given the difficulty of this decision.
As far as Northwest College is concerned, Hicswa wrote, quote “Our Board of Trustees meets next on July 6 to discuss and hopefully approve a fiscal year 2021 budget that will allow us to use carry-over from this past year to maintain current programs, services and staffing for the 2020-21 academic year. This will give us the time we need to be thoughtful and strategic in our budget cuts next year,” unquote. She says that difficult decisions are incoming for the college, as the Governor is asking all of Wyoming’s community college to find ways to trim their budgets. Without new revenue streams, NWC will simply not continue to be funded at the same level as in the past.
There is a total of 7 NJCAA Division 1 teams in Wyoming:
- Casper College Thunderbirds in Casper
- Central Wyoming College Rustlers in Riverton
- Eastern Wyoming College Lancers in Torrington
- Laramie County Community College Golden Eagles in Cheyenne
- Northwest College Trappers in Powell
- Sheridan College Generals in Gillette
- Western Wyoming Community College Mustangs in Rock Springs
