Dalpe maintains strategy of access for WNC

Western Nevada College President Kyle Dalpe wants to keep Western Nevada College visible to Northern Nevada’s three general communities in opportunity and appearance as much as possible. Both will take time, and both are about access and success, he said.

“We continue to offer more things online, and we’re trying, from my standpoint, to increase the visibility of WNC for people to support in the three communities we serve,” he said. “We’re doing more. We’re trying to create more programs that meet the needs, and that in itself will boost enrollment.”

Recently, the college has had its difficulties recruiting students older than 24 with most working or returning to work, but it’s focusing on programs to boost its admission numbers.

Dalpe said WNC’s dual enrollment rate is increasing and, thanks to Carson City School District Superintendent Andrew Feuling’s report this spring about the city’s shifting population, further drops in enrollment are accounting for new strategies.

“We’re watching that because we don’t want to put everything in a dual enrollment bucket or it’ll be the demographic cliff in 2026,” Dalpe said.

WNC is maintaining a 70% retention rate from fall to fall with full-time students. Numbers for part-time students can drift somewhat because they tend not to continue on with its programs.

Staffing is essential, and currently there are 165 full-time instructors between the three campuses in Carson City, Fallon and Minden as well as adjunct faculty. Dalpe said as of the end of August, there were still needs for positions in grant writing, a research director and a roads coordinator.

Academic programs remain healthy, with its commercial driver’s license truck driving still growing out of the Fallon campus. Three instructors are on staff, and employers have made

To keep its appeal with the community, improving upon infrastructure and student experience add to making students excited about coming every day, Dalpe said. The Carson campus’ parking lots are filling up again, he said, and he’s just fine with it.

“I’m probably the only one who says I’m so happy to have a parking problem,” he said.

Of course, he cautions not to park in front of hydrants or the colored curb zones illegally and initiate the parking ticket habit.

But to enhance the student experience where it’s enjoyable to be in the classrooms — and Dalpe adds everyone is excited to come already — occasionally it means refreshing the classrooms with a fresh coat of paint.

“For me, it’s a lot of the cosmetic stuff that seems to be hardest stuff to get done, you know, just paint the classrooms,” he said. “We can’t always do the floors, but we can replace the ceiling tiles that look bad and we can paint the walls as long as it doesn’t turn into a major project.”

Executive director of Advancement Niki Gladys is coordinating a signage project to reconstruct the campus monument, add targeted banners and help to identify the buildings clearly.

And with the Nevada Legislature behind the university system for two years and budgets set, Dalpe adds a funding formula study will be completed in the next year. WNC will choose its roster for a committee for the study to examine how to improve upon a 10-year-old formula and help benefit the state’s community colleges.

“We have to have the same infrastructure as a bigger community college or university,” he said of WNC. As far as staffing goes, we all have to have a financial aid office, a bookstore contract, regardless of the size. And a smaller size school tends to suffer because there’s not enough volume to make the numbers work.”

Dalpe said making sure WNC continues its partnerships with local businesses, such as Tesla, Panasonic and Redwood, by exploring open entry opportunities for students.

“The tricky part is most of the people that normally would come through our doors are working, so the work that we do with the employers is key,” he said. “And employers will always say they all want trained people, but they also have a business to run and they don’t want people off the job to get training. So it’s always hard to advance people from within.”

Working people who might want to pursue their degrees often might not return to school because it’s too much of a load to work and go to school, so WNC’s mobile labs can make sense for some candidates, he said. For younger students coming out of the local high schools, they’re easier to serve with access from their counselors and wraparound services they’ve been embedded with through their administrators or educators in their local school district.

“We’re just pushing it out and trying to get more people into these classes, and that’s about all we can do,” he said. “The high school group, I feel good about. Because our numbers are up in high school, and if they graduate high school with some of our credits, with or without a degree, and then jump straight to a university or workforce, it doesn’t offend me that they don’t come to our campus because we’ve basically already served them for two years.”

Finally, Dalpe said he would like to see WNC eventually bring student housing to Carson City’s campus through the acquisition of properties nearby, but to achieve that would mean having residential life services and accreditation requirements in place, all things the college still needs time to develop. 

“I always do high-level goals, access and success,” he said. “Get them in, get them through.”