Instruction in the Trades at Western Nebraska Community College will shrink following a special meeting this week of the WCCA Board of Governors.
On Wednesday, the Board approved ending the institution’s Automotive Collision Repair program due in part to a long-running decline in student enrollment, and to approve a Reduction in Force involving the program instructor.
2008 program graduate Creighton Grant was among those speaking in favor of keeping the program at least another two years to try to turn around student interest in the field.
Grant said it gave him the skills determining where he is today as an owner of four automotive-related businesses.
Sarah Stillahn, a member of the program’s Advisory Board, lobbied for the school to keep the program to see if interest could be boosted during another two years.
Stillahn noted her company, Bumper to Bumper Body & Paint, has hired program graduates in the past, whose skills can transfer over to other industries as well.
It’s been more than a decade since the institution made a similar move, when in 2015 WNCC decided to close down instruction in cosmetology.
The Governors ultimately voted 7 to 1 in favor of taking the necessary steps to close down the program at the end of the current school year.
