Yavapai Community College president Dr. Lisa Rhine says implementation two or three years away

Governor Doug Ducey

Governor Doug Ducey signed legislation this past Tuesday that will allow Yavapai Community College to offer some baccalaureate degrees in the future. According to an interview given to Mr. Bill Helm, in the Verde Independent of Sunday, May 9, 2021, College President Dr. Lisa Rhine said the “process for implementing new baccalaureate degrees will take time.”

Dr. Rhine indicated that offering certain new upper division programs is two  to three  years away. She said that programs must be identified and approved by the District Governing Board. She also said that the curriculum has to be created and that any proposal then submitted to the Higher Learning Commission for approval.

The legislation contains specific requirements for any Community College considering offering new upper division programs leading to a baccalaureate degree. As noted by Dr. Rhine in her interview with the Verde Independent newspaper, the bill  requires a district governing board to determine if there is a local workforce need for the degrees that would be offered. There is also a provision that requires  a study of the costs and a determination of whether  a similar degree is offered by other Arizona colleges.

There are specific restrictions on Pima and Maricopa counties. In those districts, community colleges are limited to offering no more than 5% of their degrees at the baccalaureate level for the first four years. After four years, the number is  capped at 10%.

Community Colleges  also cannot charge tuition for the  courses offered to  juniors and seniors that is 150% higher than the fees for courses in the first two years. Finally, before new degrees can be offered, public universities are given an opportunity  to provide a written response to any planned community college degrees.

Dr. Rhine said during her interview that she will direct her staff to begin researching possible new programs by using “labor market data and community needs to determine what would have a lasting impact on our students and communities.”

Sources: Verde Valley independent, Sunday, May 9, 2021 article by Mr. Bill Helm; Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services, https://tucson.com/news/local/arizona-lawmakers-ok-bill-to-allow-4-year-community-college-degrees/article_6aa4fafa-a847-11eb-9f54-e3a56056748a.html; April 30 Blog.

Fall semester scheduled to begin Monday, August 17

College President Dr. Lisa Rhine has scheduled Yavapai Community College to  begin classes on Monday, August 17.  At that time, it is estimated that about 30 percent of the classes will be face-to-face.

Details of the plans regarding classes and the reopening of the College on August 17 follow below.

Northern Arizona Audubon Society, Greenwood Fund and College partner in development of course

Members of the Northern Arizona Audubon Society have created a course titled An Introduction to Natural History Field Studies and Yavapai College has agreed to incorporate it into the curriculum at Clarkdale Campus starting September 5.

This four-session course will introduce students to the diverse habitats of the Greater Verde Valley region with special emphasis on understanding why these habitats exist where they do and the characteristic species found in each.

Participants will visit the Bubbling Ponds and Sedona Wetlands sanctuaries and other natural areas, learn about the region’s plants and animals and get a hands-on introduction to the art of birding and other aspects of natural history field studies.

The class will focus on the identification of local species and stress the interdependence of species within each habitat discussed.

Opportunities to participate in natural history studies through a variety of citizen science projects will also be discussed.

Those interested in signing up for the course can do so on the Yavapai College website. All participants completing the course will receive a $50 tuition subsidy from the Greenwood Fund. For further information, please contact Brent Bitz at birdsedona@gmail.com

Pond near Page Springs supports small population of endangered Northern Mexican Garter snake.

Why not turn loose creativity in educational design?

Yavapai Community College shows little creativity in its educational design.  This is especially true when you see the months it is closed down with no students on campus.  For example, the fall-winter break for students runs from December 14 to January 14. 

With a new President, there is hope that serious creativity may return to change the current stodgy educational paradigm where there are hundreds of hours of potential learning going unused.  However, a serious creative change in how things have always been done will, of course, require a lot of very hard work and commitment.

One of the first and easiest changes to the College’s current educational design is to begin using all the down time you find in its year-long schedule for FLEX courses.  Why not, for example, use this period in the fall-winter break as an opportunity to teach one or two credit courses not regularly offered in the curriculum in an intense compressed-format?  Or, occasionally a three-credit course. Call the period something like “Our Intense Flexible, Creative offerings.”

Studies of Colleges using intense ;short courses have shown they have advantages.  David Gooblar, writing in the Chronicle Vitae observed the following:  “Whether they are taught in the summer or at other times of the year, these short  intensified courses are increasingly a standard feature at North American universities. Cramming a whole semester’s worth of material into as little as three weeks often appeals to older students, to students with inflexible work schedules or family commitments, and to those trying to make up credits for various reasons.”

He went on to write that “In a paper published in the Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education, William Kops, a professor of general studies at the University of Manitoba, surveyed the literature on compressed-format courses and found a surprising amount of unanimity.

“There’s not a huge amount of research into the quality of these courses, but what there is almost entirely supports the conclusion that they are as good as semester-long courses. Using a variety of metrics, researchers over the past 20 years have concluded that intensive courses do no disservice to students, and may ever offer some advantages. For example, students tend to be more focused, discussions deeper, and teacher-student relationships closer in compressed courses than in traditional ones.”

The College could, for example, consider Flex courses like the following: Sport and American Society, Cross-Cultural Communication, Living with Quakes,  World Music, Dance in Culture,  US National Government. Highly specialized Career and Technical Education courses could also be taught as a part of the Flex program.

It’s time to think creatively; really outside the box.  Considering Flex courses is a mere beginning.

College Administration appears to continue emphasizing and developing the west side of the County educational opportunities to the detriment of those outside the Prescott area

The disparity in development of post-secondary education between the west side of Yavapai County and the East side is obvious to the Blog when the summer 2018 college class schedule was  reviewed.  It listed summer classes that were scheduled as of April 4, 2018. It  listed 99 classes scheduled for the Prescott Campus on the west side of the County.  The same publication listed 17 classes to be offered on the Verde Valley Campus.  There was one class listed for Prescott Valley and no classes listed for Chino Valley.

The Blog is concerned that the 50 year focus of creating post-secondary educational opportunities for residents on the west side of Yavapai County to the detriment of the 70,000 residents living on the East side of the County continues despite enormous efforts by East County folks to convince board members to better distribute resources and opportunities.

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