Will effort fail like Film School because of lack of affordable student housing in the Verde Valley?
Yavapai Community College has an official name for its culinary program: The Sedona Culinary Institute of Yavapai College. It has enrolled 70 students in its first semester.
In an interview with Sedona Redrock News reporter Zachary Jernigan of 10 October, 2017 Institute instructor and acting director Jennifer Jackson said that the name was “deliberate.” She said she was “emphasizing regional identity and encouraging destination travelers.” She told Jernigan that ““We want people from out-of-state.”
Those of us who have watched the College for the past decade heard a similar message coming from the Internationally acclaimed Zaki Gordon Film school, which later became the Yavapai Film School.
However, repeated pleas over a ten-year period from students and staff to find affordable housing for the film school students fell on deaf Prescott based Yavapai Community College Administrators. The obvious need for residence facilities was ignored by the three-member West County voting bloc on the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board. (Recall in December 2013 the West County voting bloc members said in a 4-1 vote that they were willing to close and sell the Sedona Center.)
Unless the Culinary Institute is to suffer the same fate as the Film school, the Community College must locate a residence hall on the Verde Campus or on land adjacent the Sedona Center. Without it, ten years from now the College will once again be readying the Center for the auction block, just as it did back in 2013.
You may read all of Mr. Jernigan’s interview with Jennifer Johnson by clicking here.