Attendees will have the opportunity to tour the campus and learn what it’s like to be a Yavapai College Roughrider. Meet the people who will help you learn more about the programs that YC has to offer. Participants may secure assistance in completing an application to Yavapai College, and can learn more about scholarships, financial aid, and how to pay for college.
Visit www.yc.edu/openhouse for more information.
“We’re excited to be able to provide members of the community the opportunity to see for themselves the wide variety of academic offerings and top-flight facilities at YC,” said Dr. Diane Ryan, Yavapai College Vice President of Academic Affairs.
The campus features well-equipped classrooms, computer labs, a modern library, a new student union, an art gallery and arts center, learning center, fitness center, veterans’ program, the iconic Mabery Pavilion and other community gathering places, a robust data center, and state-of-the-art labs.
The Verde Valley Campus is home to a state-of-the-art 10,000 sq. ft. Skilled Trades Center. This facility is used to train students in career and technical education programs. These programs include Residential Trades/Construction, Residential Electrical, Residential HVAC and Residential Plumbing.
Yavapai College operates six campuses and centers throughout Yavapai County and offers over 100 degrees and certificates, a baccalaureate degree, student and community services, and cultural events and activities.
To learn more about YC, visit www.yc.edu.
The Prescott Regulators & Their Shady Ladies nonprofit organization recently donated $10,000 to the Yavapai Community College Foundation in support of the Foundation’s Veterans, Military and Family Fund. This is a scholarship fund created for student veterans and their families pursuing life-lifting education and career training at Yavapai Community College. The contribution is the largest to date deposited in the Veterans, Military and Family Fund.
The Prescott Regulators & Their Shady Ladies established the scholarship for veteran students in 2016. “Several of the members of our group themselves are veterans. That’s why we chose to support veterans at Yavapai College,” said Monty Packard, the group’s sergeant of arms.
Scholarship recipient thank-you letters and success stories, which are shared at meetings and functions, are all the reward and inspiration members need, said Paige Phares, the organization’s president. “I know that helps our fundraising.”
The Prescott Regulators & Their Shady Ladies, Inc. are an award winning 501(c)(3) re-enactment group. They are the “Official Old West Ambassadors of Prescott” and for over 12 years have represented Prescott in parades, re-enactments and events around the State of Arizona.
They were chosen by the State of Arizona as one of only three Western re-enactment groups to perform at the State’s Centennial Celebration “BestFest,” both in Prescott and in Phoenix. The organization has been honored by “True West Magazine” as the “Best In The West” re-enactment group twice in the last five years and hosted the “Western Area” of the City’s Sesquicentennial Celebration.
Yavapai Community College President Dr. Lisa Rhine renegotiated a portion of her existing five-year contract with the College District Governing Board at a secret executive meeting held during a “workshop” Monday, November 14. Despite everyone on the Board being “satisfied with her performance,” the President, and apparently at her lawyer’s advice (who was not present), persuaded the Board to insert a new severance provision.
The severance provision would ensure that she receives hundreds of thousands of dollars if she is fired for poor performance. No reason was offered by anyone regarding a need for this unusual and substantial severance provision. Recall she is already by far the highest paid executive in Yavapai County and only last May received a 10% increase in her salary. It is surmised that she is earning somewhere around $300,000 a year in salary and benefits.
Because the executive session regarding the contract was held in secret, little is known by the public about either the reason for the severance or the actual dollar amount of the severance package. What is clear is that if Dr. Rhine is fired for poor performance, this provision ensures she will receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in severance.
The final motion agreed upon by the Governing Board 4-1 reads that “there would be a two-year severance payout with cause only for poor performance or 50% of the President’s remaining obligation by the College, whichever is greater.”
You may view the brief nine-minute discussion following the secret executive meeting regarding Dr. Rhine ‘s salary by clicking here.
The Yavapai College Athletics Department is scrambling to replace its head Baseball Coach and one of his assistants, both of whom resigned earlier this month (July). Ryan Cougill has been with the Community College for 14 years and has been head coach of its baseball team for ten years.
Director of Athletics Brad Clifford thanked Ryan for his years of service. “He oversaw the baseball program with integrity, uprightness and success,” said Mr. Clifford. “I’m sorry to see Ryan leave Yavapai but wish him and his family the best of luck in his new endeavor.”
Ryan will become the eighth head coach of the Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa. “We are excited to have Coach Cougill and his family join the Reiver Family!” said Dr. Dan Kinney, President of Iowa Western. “He has a strong winning background that will take the Reiver Baseball program to the next level with his previous coaching positions. We wanted a winner and that is what we got with Coach Cougill!”
There was no information available on the future plans of Miles Kirtzer, who spent three seasons with the Roughriders as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator.
Another free OLLI Community Brown Bag program will be held on the Verde Valley Campus, room G-106, on Wednesday, March 2 from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. The speaker will be Paul Chevalier.
Mr. Chevalier is the Third District Yavapai Community College Representative. He brings more than seven years of experience as a Verde Valley leader in community college development in Sedona and the Verde Valley. He was chair of the Verde Valley Governing Board Advisory Committee in 2016 that worked on encouraging the College Administration to spend more time and money investing in the Verde Valley. He was elected to his current position on the Governing Board in 2018.
He will speak on his vision of the future of the Community College in the Verde Valley.
Although the program is free, registration is required.
The Yavapai Community College District Governing Board will hold its February Budget Workshop and General meeting on Tuesday, February 22 from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Rock House on the Prescott Campus.
Under Arizona law, the public has a right to attend, listen, tape record or videotape these meetings. The public may not disrupt, but may speak if the Community College places a call to the public on its agenda. See Ariz. Att’y Gen. Op. No. I78-001. It does not appear from the Sunday posting of the agendas that there will be a call to the public. But, the agendas could change. The meeting as posted Sunday, February 20, can be viewed by clicking here for the morning budget workshop meeting and here for the afternoon general meeting.
The Community College has changed its decade-long policy of providing the attachments to the agenda when it posts an agenda for a Governing Board meeting on its web site. While there are a handful of attachments to the February Agenda, most attachments were not posted. This reduces the amount of information relevant to the agenda that the citizens of Yavapai County might find useful prior to deciding whether to make a 150-200 mile round-trip drive to attend a meeting. Or, useful in deciding whether to speak when a call to the public is allowed.
This process also does not treat internet viewers equally with those citizens who attend in person. If you attend in person the Community College has a number of bound booklets containing the Agenda attachments on a table available for citizens to pick-up. However, those persons with disabilities, in particular, who are interested in the Community College but cannot attend a meeting in person and will view it on the internet, are not treated fairly when it comes to the Agenda because the attachments are not posted.
Moreover, the Community College likes to boast about being open and transparent. That is hardly the case when it comes to attachments to the Agenda when posted on the Governing Board website.
Note that The Yavapai Community College District covers all of Yavapai County consisting of 8,125 square miles. The size of the County is comparable to states such as Connecticut (5,543 sq. miles — 12 community colleges and universities), Delaware (1,982 sq. miles — three community colleges and universities), Rhode Island (1,214 sq. miles— one public and two private community colleges) and New Jersey (8,723 sq. miles — 19 community colleges and universities). The state of Israel encompasses 8,550 square miles (ten universities and 53 colleges). Moreover, there is no public transportation from the east and west sides of Mingus Mountain and the roads from the east to the west are few.
The University of Arizona has updated its COVID-19 protocols for the spring semester in response to the omicron variant that is spreading throughout the state of Arizona. A major change to its mitigation protocol plan is that all students, faculty, staff and visitors will be required to wear surgical — or higher-grade — masks such as a KN95 in indoor spaces at all campus locations where continuous physical distancing cannot be maintained.
Cloth masks will no longer meet the university’s requirement, according to a statement issued January 6 by University President Robert Robbins. President Robbins is also encouraging students and employees to get tested for COVID weekly and get vaccinated.
The University will use Campus signage to indicate spaces where masks are required.
The University will provide surgical masks for free at classroom and building entrances, or through building managers.
Dorm residents are now required to get tested before they return or when they first arrive back to campus. The university offers a variety of free testing options.
Source: https://covid19.arizona.edu/face-coverings