Majority of session attendees favor separate Gillette College

A majority of those attending a listening session held recently in Gillette appeared in favor of seeing Gillette College become independent of the Northern Wyoming Community College District.

Campbell County Commissioner Rusty Bell estimates as many as 50 to 60 people attended the event hosted by the Wyoming Community College Commission.

The listening session scheduled this past weekend is one of two scheduled by the community college district commission on the question of separating Gillette College from the Northern Wyoming college district. The second session will be Wednesday night in Riverton.

Bell said the college commission is also accepting public comments on its website.

Gillette College was created in 1969 as part of the Northern Wyoming Community College District, which also maintains Sheridan College. Bell has said a big reason for wanting to separate Gillette College from the Northern Wyoming district is that the college district board consists entirely of Sheridan County residents.

What that means, he’s said, is that decisions are being made about Gillette College entirely by people who live in another county, including what programs can be offered at Gillette College and even whether Gillette College continues to exist.

He said the separation needs to happen for the Gillette and Campbell County communities and, indeed, for the state of Wyoming.

The state college commission is expected to decide in November whether to recommend that Gillette College be made independent of the Northern Wyoming Community College District. If that happens, then the matter will go before Wyoming legislators in their session next year.