Claims they wanted to look just at the Sedona Center and CTEC—is there something odd going on here?
President Penelope Wills exhibited surprise to the District Governing Board at a visit by the North Central Higher Learning Commission to the College on November 9, 2015. According to Wills, they came back “because they wanted to look at our centers. They selected, which is their right to do, both Sedona and CTEC.” (You may click here to view Wills’ statement to the Governing Board.)
Wills said that“they had no recommendations for us, and in fact commendations for the planning that went into CTEC and the planning that is being planned starting tomorrow, um, in Sedona. And they very much appreciated that. So here’s a third party saying we’re doing this right.”
An odd visit, to say the least? Or, one set up for political purposes?
There are a few issues regarding the Wills’ report that are odd: First, visits to Colleges are normally arranged with an Administration before the evaluators arrive on campus. Wills’ suggested to the Governing Board that the visit was a surprise to her. That is odd.
Second, checking the on-line accreditation records from the Higher Learning Commission (shown above) do not indicated that any accreditation visits to Yavapai Community were planned or anticipated in 2015. In fact, the next accreditation visit of any kind to the Campus is scheduled for 2017. So this visit is odd. (You may also view the Higher Learning Web site showing dates for accreditation of Yavapai College by clicking here.)
Third, the lack of access by East County residents and high school students is a fact and under scrutiny in many quarters at present. It seems odd the evaluators would select CTEC and fail to see the obvious inequity in how the County Community College is treating about one-third of its residents.
Fourth, the Sedona Center is likewise under intense scrutiny in many quarters at the present time. Yet, it was also selected by this mystery evaluation team. Wills’ did not explain what she meant by the “planning that is being planned” for the Sedona Center so the public is left in the dark about what she meant. So is the Governing Board.
Was this a political effort by the Wills’ administration to gain outside support for its paltry efforts to serve the East side of the County? Or what was it? The Blog will continue to try and find out. But according to the commission online dates for accrditation, the visit must have been for something else. Ummm?