A GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY FOR A PRICELESS IDEA

By University of Wyoming President Philip L. Dubois;
Wyoming State Senator John Barrasso;
Jenne Twiford, Principal, Douglas Middle School

What would you call an opportunity that allows Wyoming students to earn professional degrees in fields as diverse as medicine, occupational therapy, architecture, and veterinary medicine without leaving the West? That allows undergraduate students from throughout the West to attend the University of Wyoming at competitive tuition rates? That works to solve problems in educational telecommunications, mental health, and higher education policy?

We call it WICHE, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

This year marks the golden anniversary of WICHE, a bold new concept developed by one of the giants of Wyoming higher education, former UW President George Duke Humphrey. Duke, as he is fondly remembered, was driving in July 1945 from his home in Mississippi to Laramie, where he would take and hold the reins of UW for 19 years. Knowing that his son wanted to go to medical school but that UW did not have one, Duke stopped at the University of Colorado to visit with the dean of their school of medicine. The two men realized that many states within the Rocky Mountain region – and Alaska and Hawaii as well – were in the same situation as Wyoming. From those discussions was borne the concept of shared educational resources within the western United States.

Today, WICHE directly benefits families in the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

As individuals who are intimately involved with educational issues within the state of Wyoming, we are intensely proud of our state’s university. But, as Duke Humphrey quickly discovered, it is a relatively small university, with limited resources, charged with serving a far-flung population with unlimited aspirations. It is unlikely that Wyoming ever will be able to afford its own medical school but, thanks to WICHE, future primary care physicians, vital to the health of this state, have an opportunity to receive a quality medical education. It is equally unlikely that UW ever will have its own school of veterinary medicine but, thanks to WICHE, prospective vets can affordably attend Colorado State University for their professional training. Some students just feel they need to get away from Wyoming winters and enjoy superior surfing in Hawaii and, thanks to WICHE, they can do so without taking out a second home mortgage.

In 2001-2002, Wyoming families saved some $6 million that they would otherwise pay in nonresident tuition in other states by participating in WICHE’s Western Undergraduate Exchange program. More important, they were able to affordably give their children a giant step toward the realization of their dreams. And hundreds of students from throughout the West were able to live the dream that we call Wyoming. Some of them will stay following graduation, helping to build a stronger, better, state for generations to come.

Fifty years ago, geographic and political boundaries posed serious barriers to higher education. WICHE helped to erase those barriers by providing opportunities for cross-state enrollment at colleges and universities. Today, the Internet has erased the last of those boundaries, allowing people to cross oceans as easily as they once crossed mountains and prairies, and WICHE is determined to make the most of these technological opportunities.

NEON – the Northwest Educational Outreach Network – will broaden student access to higher education through an innovative interstate collaboration that taps the “anywhere, anytime” powers of technology-assisted instruction, particularly in fields that are undergoing rapid growth in the West, such as nursing and education.

And the Western Consortium for Accelerated Learning Opportunities is working to link up more minority and low-income students with Advanced Placement and other accelerated learning options, with online courses and testing among its tools.

Fifty years after its birth, WICHE has grown and matured far beyond Duke Humphrey’s mid-century vision for western higher education. As WICHE commissioners representing the state of Wyoming, we are dedicated to helping make the next 50 years even more beneficial for the people of Wyoming.

— January 2003

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