Our History
The seed for the college took a long time to grow as a disagreement over whether the college should be located in Lander or Riverton and district boundary conflicts postponed the college planning until 1960. The Wyoming Community College Commission in 1964 informed the planning groups in Fremont County the location dispute must be resolved before the proposed college would receive its serious consideration.
Though the main campus was located in Riverton, Lander School District officials immediately made classrooms available for classes and over the years Central Wyoming College became a true community college by extending the campus to Lander, and later to other locations in Fremont County. Eventually the college's service area grew to also include Hot Springs and Teton counties.
A year after the college was established, the University of Wyoming leased its Sinks Canyon experimental farm to CWC and the college's Field Station was established. In the beginning, the 210-acre farm south of Lander had a few small houses and a barn, but today it has a classroom building, a caretaker's residence and facilities for picnics and other recreational uses. Over the years, many couples were united in marriage at the beautiful site along the Popo Agie River until recently, when the college agreed it should be used more for educational purposes rather than for large social activities.
Before campus buildings were constructed, the first classes at the college were held in the basement of a downtown bank. Three facilities, a library, science and utility buildings, opened September 23, 1978. The college's newly formed Foundation also dedicated a portion of the campus property to a Technical Park with a philosophy the community would attract industry to Riverton oriented toward education.
With the first full-time students enrolled, CWC officials appealed to the people of Riverton for suitable housing. A local contractor built a girls dormitory housing 14 students in 1968. CWC was truly able to recruit from beyond its commuter area when a Residence Hall was constructed in 1976. An apartment complex, later named the East Apartments, was constructed in 1978 and was utilized by students with families as well as single students. In 1979, the West Apartments were built.
Also in the ‘70s, the campus grew with the construction of a student activities building in 1972 and a vocational-technical building in 1978. The college's programs and services expanded with the campus and the community's needs as well. Programs, such as construction trades, diesel mechanics, drafting and electronics, came about as the community flourished with a minerals industry. With the times, and a change in the college service area's economy, those programs went away and others, such as nursing, broadcasting, equine studies and computer networking were established. Being a comprehensive community college, CWC was also offering non-credit community services courses and adult basic skills classes as well.
In the early years, CWC had intercollegiate athletics - and even won regional titles in basketball, volleyball and tennis. But budget woes in the early 1990s forced the college to eliminate round ball sports. CWC converted the scholarships offered to athletes and beefed up its academic scholarships. Activity awards for visual and performing art students were also added because CWC had established itself as the cultural center of the region with the construction of the Arts Center in 1983.
Also in 1983, Wyoming's first public television station, KCWC-TV, went on the air. At the time, the college was awarded the largest single federal grant to operate the PBS station, and with the studios located on the CWC campus, it opened the doors for an instructional laboratory for the college's broadcasting program.
In the early ‘90s, the college was faced with a huge decline in local tax revenue and a new problematic state funding formula. The institution was forced to take severe cuts in its budget. At the same time, the college was serving a severely economically depressed population, and these dismal factors were reflected in the college's student body, which was primarily educationally disadvantaged, low-income and older than average. The combination of limited resources, changing technology, traditional curricula, and a diverse, rural and disadvantaged student population with a high attrition rate presented the college's administration enormous challenges.
The college staff became aggressive in pursuing outside resources, and stepped up grant writing activities to help get the college back on track. As a result, CWC has secured millions of dollars in grants to assure the college was responsive to the educational needs of its community. CWC is the only Wyoming community college with a federally supported Student Support Services Program, which supplies tutorial support, counseling and transfer advisement free of charge to students. In 1996, CWC secured a $1.75 million Title III grant, which has had a major positive impact on the college in terms of curriculum development, computer-aided instruction and student retention. In 1997, the college was awarded a $10 million grant to implement distance education technology to improve access to education for rural and isolated schools, and to provide teacher training in the use of high tech multimedia and curriculum development.
The college was also awarded federal Gear Up, Upward Bound and Talent Search grants, ensuring pre-college age students in CWC's service area have more opportunities to enter into higher education.