May - Wingspan

May 2, 2011wingspan.lccc.wy.educampus newsWingspan 5No student-teacher ratio reporting standard setBy Jamille SmithOpinion EditorThe question is“What is an accuratenumber for studentto-teacherratiosat Laramie CountyCommunity College?”The answer is “Thereisn’t one.”A question askedamong faculty andstudents are studentteacherratios beingadhered to at LCCC.According to AnnMurray, manager ofinstitutional researchat LCCC, there isn’t acommonly expectednumber for the beststudent-to-teacherratios at LCCC.No state or collegelaw requires studentteacherratios to be atan exact margin.Murray said thaton the state andfederal reports, it’srecorded by full-timeequivalent student tofull-time equivalentfaculty member.The other sourceLCCC uses for datais the IntegratedPostsecondary DataSystem (IPEDS).IPEDS representsfull-time equivalentstudent to full-timeequivalent faculty, butit doesn’t quite matchwhat’s on the statereport because for thestate when full-timeequivalent studentsare considered,students who are auditingclasses can becounted as well. Eachfall, LCCC has 100-200students auditingclasses, Murray said.But, for the federalIPEDS data auditingstudents cannot beincluded.Another importantdifference betweenIPEDS is the data hasa different definitionfor full-time equivalentstudent (FTE)than is used for statereporting. IPEDS usesthe number of fulltimestudents, plusone-third the numberof part-time students.Wyoming uses thetotal student credithours divided by 12,which is consideredfull time.“When we’ve got 5,000students, it’s not goingto skew it that much,so it went down slightlyon the most recentreport,” Murray said.There is also nothinginstitutional forhow many teachersneed to make up anyspecific department.Murray said itjust depends on thedemand for a specificarea. “We have manyEnglish and math instructors,because wehave many Englishand math students,but in some areaswe don’t even have afull-time instructor atthe college becausethere’s not thatmuch demand. Forexample, in foreignlanguages there isa full-time instructorthat coordinatesit, but there not afull-time Germaninstructor.”When LCCC doesseek new positionrequests’, the basisis on demand andon a demonstratedneed. The collegelooks historically athow many studentsthe college has beenserving, how manypart-time instructorsit has hired to meetthose needs, andthen the college balancesthose areas todetermine, which arethe most critical to goforward.IPEDS Data for thepast five years showsthat the FTE studenttoFTE-faculty ratiosare as follows: In fall2006 through fall2010 it was a ratioof 17:1; fall 2010 theratio was 16:1.However, themost recent reportsby the WyomingCommunity CollegeSystem for fall of 2009ratios of full-timeequivalency facultyand students showthat Central Collegeratio was 18:1 witha faculty size of 98;Eastern WyomingCollege ratio was19:1 with a facultysize of 65; NorthwestCollege’s ratio 20:1with a faculty size of104; Casper College’sratio 20:1 with afaculty size of 183;LCCC’s ratio of 21:1with a faculty sizeof 182; NorthwestCommunity CollegeDistrict (Sheridanand Gillette) ratioof 21:1 with afaculty of 120; andWestern WyomingCommunity Collegeratio of 23:1 with afaculty size of 103.Also, accordingto the WyomingCommunity CollegeCommission, theFTE credit report forthe number of LCCCstudents is as follows:fall 2006, 3,252students enrolled; fall2007, 3,411 students;spring 2007, 3,491students; fall 2008,3,549 students; spring2008, and 3,441 students;fall 2009, 3,737students; spring200, 3,695 students;and fall 2010, 4,095students.Comparing thosestatistics to CasperCollege, the FTEcredit report for thenumber of students isas follows: fall 2006,3,190; fall 2008, 3,459students; spring,2008, 3,061 students;fall 2009, 3,691 students;spring 3,191students; fall 2010,3,374 students.Skills USA securesnumerous awardsThe LaramieCounty CommunityCollege Skills USAClub led by adviserRobert LaFaso wonseveral awards at thestate competition inCasper recently.In collision repairtechnology, GeraldStossel placed first;Michael Tlemensplaced second, andMike Kaliszewskiplaced third.In automotiverefining technology,Tlemens placed first;Stossel placed second,and Kaliszewskiplaced third.In automotiveservice technology,Jason Christensonplaced second andJoey Sanchez placedthird. A competitorfrom Gillette placedfirst but chose tocompete in a differentcategory at thenational competitionin Kansas City, Mo.,so Christenson willrepresent Wyomingin the competition.In diesel equipmenttechnology,Travis Dopp placedthird.The students inthe competition participatedin a writtenexam and a hands-oncompetition.LaFaso, an instructorof automotivetechnology, gave aprogram update at theApril 20 LCCC Boardof Trustees’ meeting.