Interim President of Western Nevada College, J. Kyle Dalpe, PhD., spoke this week at the Fallon Rotary Club, giving a report on the latest programs as the school, including successes at the Fallon Campus.
Dalpe has served at the college level in Nevada for over 20 years, first at Truckee Meadows Community College for 16 years and now at WNC for the past four years. He said the mission of the college is to provide effective educational pathways for the students and communities of Nevada and the college focuses more on developing a skill set in a student as opposed to focusing on a degree.
WNC serves nearly 5,000 students annually, with 3,528 total students enrolled during the fall of 2021. The average student is 24.9 years old, with 26 % of students under 18 (Jump Start), 39% between 18 and 24, and 35% over 24 years old. The average class size is 17 students, and Dalpe said this fall, WNC was the only Nevada school in the higher education system that had an increase in enrollment. There are 45% of WNC students enrolled in only online courses.
One of the strongest programs and focus for the college is what Dalpe called “the Workforce Ecosystem.” Offered at the college are programs for apprenticeships, Certified Nursing Assistant, Bachelor of Applied Science, the ROADS program that offers customized industry-specific training and certifications, a manufacturing lab, project management, and the only Commercial Driver’s License that is unique in the state.
“The CDL program was started in Fallon,” said Dalpe, “with $200,000 in CARES Act money for the simulators, and then GOED (Governor’s Office of Economic Development) gave us $400,000 to support this program and our federal delegation put in $700,000 so this has become a $1.3 million supported program.”
There is also a mobile manufacturing lab which is a giant van made to offer different instructional pieces. “We’ve used it at Oasis,” said Dalpe, “we can drive it anywhere and park it and deploy instruction.”
Currently, the college is pursuing $2.7 million in federal funding through the appropriation process to rebuild the nursing program on the Fallon Campus. There is also an effort to restore the veterans support position to Fallon since the Veterans Resource Center has been restored on the Carson Campus.
Dalpe said during the 2023 legislative session, the college will be working to recoup the 12% cut suffered over the past few years. So far $1.3 million has been restored for staffing, but there is still another $1.2 million that is needed to bring the college back to pre-COVID levels of service.
Primarily, the college is working to help meet the desperate need for employees, focusing on the needs of local communities. “There is a lot of need in Churchill County for agricultural needs and that can be anywhere from diesel mechanics to agriculture science, and even manufacturing which is a close drive from here,” said Dalpe. “We are working on the ag program, we do not have what I would call a solid agricultural science program, even a pathway into it, but we are developing that through some grant funding.”
Comment
Comments