For 45 years, the focus has been on Prescott to the detriment of the Verde Valley
Occasionally, a skeptic appears who questions the view that the Verde Valley is being underserved by Yavapai College. To this doubting Thomas, I say: “Just look at the facts.” If you do, you will find an unmistakable 45-year pattern of underservice. In fact, since the beginning of the County Community College system in the late 1960s, the goal has been to build a first-class community college in the Prescott area while simultaneously underserving the Verde Valley.
A combination of political domination, cynical public relations manipulation, and unimpeded opportunity have allowed Prescott to achieve the goal of creating a thriving community college climate on the west side of the county while quietly but effectively suppressing significant development in the Verde Valley. Along the way, the administrators have mined the Valley for excess property tax money while grabbing local student tuition and state aid to use on Prescott projects.
In the last decade, the administrators have reduced classes in the Verde Valley by around 80 percent, closed the Camp Verde campus, and attempted to close the Sedona campus. They have consistently built educational facilities and developed educational programs for Prescott area citizens to the exclusion of Verde residents. This pattern of underserving the Verde Valley continues to this very day as the analysis that follows makes so clear. Read More→
Artist Jim Romberg is a Professor Emeritus from Southern Oregon University. At the University he headed the
Ceramics Department for nineteen years. He lives and maintains his studio in Sedona, and is program director for the Eagleheart Center for Art and Inquiry.
In response to increasing pressure by Verde Valley residents over Prescott based administrators concentrating almost all major cultural events on the Prescott campus, the Community College has announced it will bring a series of cultural performances to the “East Yavapai County” during the 2014-15 academic year. The first of these performances is the T.S. Monk Jr. Jazz Trio, which is scheduled to perform Friday evening, August 22 on the Verde campus. The College has said that later in the season, performances such as 
In the programming area, Sedona/Verde Valley respondents sent the College a list of issues that concerned them. They included:
Professor David Gorman, president-elect of the Yavapai Community College Faculty Association, provided the Governing Board with the priorities it has set for the coming academic year at the August 12 Board meeting. They include: (a) continuing the student success initiative, (b) creating department chairs for some departments with the goal of improving two-way communication between faculty and the administration, (c) getting faculty more involved in the budgeting process, and (d) carefully reviewing the dual enrollment program. To hear and view Professor Gorman’s report to the Governing Board in its entirety, you may 
Chandler argues that the governance model, which is purchased from salespeople who market it nationally, acts as a rubber stamp for an administration. He contends that “if one wishes to see the end of local control, the erosion of democratic practices, and more shifting to authorities in far away places,” then Policy Governance has much to offer.
Yavap
ai Community College is sponsoring one of those rare concerts on the Verde campus on Friday, August 22 at 7 p.m. at the Maybery Pavilion with the T.S. Monk Jr. Jazz Trio. In a Community College flyer tickets for the concert were advertised at $20 and $10 dollars. In an advertisement in the Sunday, August 17 Verde Independent, readers were urged to go to