University of Wyoming President Tom Buchanan will be in Gillette next week to continue gathering information on expanding the university’s educational opportunities in Gillette, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Richard Strahorn.

“It could be described as a Step 2 phase.  Certainly the first phase was doing a survey and finding out if there’s anybody interested and we found out there was over 400 interested,” Strahorn says.  “I’m pleased that UW has contacted Gillette now and they indicated they would follow up and it’s rather quickly that they’re doing so.”

Strahorn says the tentative plan is go get community leaders from Campbell County together with representatives from UW together on February 7.

The higher education survey was available during the month of December.  In all, 423 people completed the survey.

In December, UW President Tom Buchanan told Basin Radio Network the university already has plans to expand its educational programs in Gillette, including classroom instruction for those interested in pursuing a degree, along with their popular Saturday University program.

“I think it’s pretty clear to us that Gillette has grown, the population in Campbell County has gotten large enough that our presence is not in proportion to the population and the significance of the northeast corner of Wyoming,” Buchanan said near the end of 2011.

As it stands now, UW’s Outreach Program at Gillette College allows residents in Campbell County and other parts of the state to earn a degree from UW without traveling to Laramie, via classes delivered on the Internet and video and telephone conference.  The expanded services would add UW accredited face-to-face classroom instruction in Gillette, similar to UW’s partnership with Casper College.

Saturday University, on the other hand, is a program that began roughly four years ago in Jackson.  A few times each year, Buchanan says they fly about six of their best faculty lecturers to Jackson, and they spend the entire Saturday doing a lecture series on various topics, such as art history, marketing, management, and energy resources.  Since then, Saturday University has been wildly successful, Buchanan says.