STUDENT LOAN PAUSE EXTENDED THROUGH MAY 1, 2022

By R. Oliphant
Friday, December 31st, 2021

Extension intended to  allow the Federal Government  more time to assess the impact of the Omicron variant on student borrowers and provide additional time for borrowers to plan for the resumption of payments and reduce the risk of delinquency and defaults

COLLEGE LOAN REPAYMENT

The U.S. Department of Education has announced a 90-day extension of the pause on student loan repayment, interest, and collections through May 1, 2022. The extension will give the Government time to assess the impact of the Omicron variant on student borrowers.

 It will also  provide additional time for borrowers to plan for the resumption of payments and reduce the risk of delinquency and defaults after restart.

The pause  should help 41 million borrowers save about $5 billion per month. Borrowers are encouraged to use the additional time to ensure their contact information is up to date and to consider enrolling in electronic debit and income-driven repayment plans to support a smooth transition to repayment.

Categories : Loan repayment

EMBRY-RIDDLE UNIVERSITY BASED IN PRESCOTT GRADUATES 314 DEC 18 AT TOYOTA CENTER IN PRESCOTT VALLEY

By R. Oliphant
Friday, December 31st, 2021

There were 179 students from the Prescott Campus and 52 from the Worldwide Campus;  included were 12 students receiving military commissions from Air Force ROTC and  83 students impacted by pandemic-related scheduling changes returned to walk in the event

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University honored 314 graduates on Saturday, Dec. 18, at the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona.

There were  179 students from the Prescott Campus and 52 from the Worldwide Campus.  The graduating class included 12 students receiving military commissions from Air Force ROTC. In addition, 83 students impacted by pandemic-related scheduling changes returned to walk in the event.

The keynote graduation speaker was Dr. Janet Kavandi, a former NASA astronaut and current president of Sierra Space in Louisville, Colorado. There, she is responsible for the company’s space programs, including the Dream Chaser spaceplane, which is under contract to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. Dream Chaser is a winged vehicle and the only resupply vehicle capable of landing on a commercial runway. Student Government Association (SGA) President Melea Tucker also addressed the class during the event.

Categories : Embry-Riddle

VARIOUS CAPITAL PROJECTS MOVE FORWARD DURING THE HOLIDAYS

By R. Oliphant
Saturday, December 25th, 2021

PAC remodel includes new  HVAC units and technology allowing  Community College to tailor heating and cooling needs for every performance; several other projects on Prescott Campus and around the District continue

Performing Arts Center.

The extensive renovation on the  Performing Arts Center on the Prescott Campus is now complete.   After what the Community College describes as “extensive renovation,”  one of the last completed projects was adding   14 new HVAC units at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars.  New  Air Handler units were also  installed.   With improved  technology  and increased monitoring ability, these new units will help reduce overall energy consumption on  campus. By using the  Building Automation System, the Community College  will be able to tailor the heating and cooling needs so that the audience will be  comfortable for every performance.

Baseball Field Repair on Prescott Campus. The baseball field on the Prescott Campus was extensively damaged by flash flooding in the summer.  During September and October, grading, leveling, and sub-base preparation took place at the field. Along with site leveling, new sod was installed in October.  

New trail and two walking bridges being built on Prescott Campus.

A new trail is being constructed that will provide an access trail from Sheldon Street to the baseball field along the Prescott west campus boundary, behind the Performing Arts Center and Sculpture Garden. The scope of this work includes a nature trail with two bridges to span the creek that winds through the area. Staff will be spreading rock and decomposed granite on the new trail during the month of January.

The Community College reports that once completed, the project will open up this area for walking while improving visibility to help ensure safety and improve site drainage during flash flooding.

Expanding cafeteria at Career and Technical Education Center at the Prescott airport.

Work is projected to begin in the spring of 2022 at CTEC to increase space for more  seating in the dining area.

Prescott Valley Center has two marquees installed; work continues on access road; new LED lighting in place.

Construction of the deceleration lane off Glassford Hill Road (southbound) at the Prescott Valley Center is complete. Work continues with the Fain Signature Group to construct the shared access road, eventually connecting to the Prescott Valley Center parking lot. Both marquees are now installed and display  general information about Yavapai College and the Prescott Valley Center.

LED parking lot lighting has been installed. It is anticipated that one will see brighter lighting and a 40% reduction in energy consumption over the existing metal halide and high-pressure sodium lights.

Verde Valley Campus has renovation for new Brewing program.

Renovations of Building G, rooms 111 and 118 for the new Brewing program were completed. They included new stainless steel wall treatment and sinks for brewing.

Categories : Construction

TWELVE CADETS COMPLETE YAVAPAI COMMUNITY COLLEGE FIRE ACADEMY SIXTEEN WEEK TRAINING PROGRAM

By R. Oliphant
Monday, December 20th, 2021

Spent much of the training  at the Central Arizona Regional Training Academy in Prescott Valley mastering the physical, intellectual and mental demands of the fire service

According to a news release from Yavapai Community College, twelve cadets celebrated completion of their 16-week training program at the Yavapai Community College Fire Academy on December 16.  The celebration was held at the Central Arizona Regional Training Academy in Prescott Valley.

In congratulatory remarks to the graduates, Central Arizona Fire and Medical Authority Battalion Chief Cougan Carothers said firefighters can expect to touch hundreds of thousands of lives during their careers. “We as individuals working together for something bigger than ourselves can change the world one person at a time.”

Lukas Becker spoke on behalf of his fellow academy graduates. “In the last sixteen weeks the instructors and staff of this academy have washed my brain of apathy and replaced it with empathy; removed laziness and replaced it with work ethic; and replaced self-centeredness with self-sacrifice,” Becker said. He pledged to his audience that the “12 strong” fall 2021 graduating class would be accountable for the values and skills the academy bestowed on them. “We are all personally responsible for living the lessons we learned here and applying them daily,” he said.

Lead instructors for the latest cohort of YC Fire Academy graduates were Matt Fischer, Mike Edgerton, Cory Fischer, Tim Tillich and Jim Bushman.

Following are the newest YC Fire Academy graduates:

Blake Armstrong

Thomas Barnes

Matthew Dalcerro

Jacob Loaiza

Tristan Newman

Daniel Smith

Trevis Baier

Lukas Becker

Matthew Gonzalez

Noah Medrano

Dylan Schoch

Cade Thein

Source:  Yavapai Community College news release by J.J. McCormack dated December 18, 2021 https://www.yc.edu/v6/news/2021/12/fire.html.

Categories : Fire Academy

PING PONG RULINGS BY DIFFERENT APPEALS’ COURTS KEEP YAVAPAI COMMUNITY COLLEGE ON EDGE WHEN IT COMES TO REQUIRING ALL EMPLOYEES TO BE VACCINATED

By R. Oliphant
Saturday, December 18th, 2021

Federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rules December 17 that employers with 100 or more employees must be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing; opponents of mandate already at Supreme Court asking for emergency action to delay ruling

Back in November 2021 Maricopa and Pima Community Colleges stated that they were going to require employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to meet federal mandates under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandate . The community colleges were following President Joe Biden’s executive order based on OSHA for federal contractors, which requires all employees to be fully vaccinated, with limited accommodations.

While Yavapai Community College remained silent in November, it appears it would fall into the category of a federal contractor given the funding it receives from the Federal Government for various projects. 

However, on Friday, November 12, 2021, the Federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously issued a  temporary injunction, striking down the Biden Administration’s attempts to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for private employers with 100 or more employees.

Now, on December 17 the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion upholding the Biden mandate, which effectively nullified the Fifth Circuit’s decision.  “Fundamentally, the [rule] is an important step in curtailing the transmission of a deadly virus that has killed over 800,000 people in the United States, brought our healthcare system to its knees, forced businesses to shut down for months on end, and cost hundreds of thousands of workers their jobs,” wrote Circuit Judge Jane B. Stranch. “The harm to the government and the public interest outweighs any irreparable injury to the individual petitioners who may be subject to a vaccination policy,” she said.

In addition to the vaccine and testing requirements, the rule requires companies to determine who among their workers are vaccinated and who are not, and to enforce a mask mandate for unvaccinated workers. The new deadline for those steps is Jan. 10.

OSHA had estimated that the vaccine-or-test rule could save more than 6,500 lives and prevent over 250,000 hospitalizations in the six months that it would be in effect.

In dozens of lawsuits around the country, Republican-led states, businesses, religious groups and some individuals have claimed  the Biden administrative order  is unconstitutional.  Saturday morning, dozens of business groups and religious organizations had already filed papers asking  the Supreme Court for a new emergency stay on the Sixth Circuit’s decision.

Categories : COVID 19

PINNING CEREMONY FOR YAVAPAI COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT NURSES HELD DECEMBER 10 ON PRESCOTT CAMPUS

By R. Oliphant
Friday, December 17th, 2021

Thirty-nine from both sides of the County take part in traditional ceremony

Thirty-nine student nurses took part in the traditional pinning ceremony on December 10, 2021 on the Prescott Campus of Yavapai Community College.  They represented both the spring and fall 2021 cohort and the Verde Valley and Prescott quad cities.

Nursing Professor Dr. Barbara Durham  welcomed   the graduates and described the unprecedented nature of their training, which has covered two or more years. She said that the challenges included practicing nursing skills on family members and even pets at home and vying for internet bandwidth with others in their households who also were studying or working from home.

Durham also said the warmth and fellowship that student nurses regularly experience was lost in pandemic-induced separation. “Not being able to hug each other when someone is stressed, anxious or suffering… the face masks that hide smiling faces… we were missing basic human connections.”

Yavapai Community College President Dr. Lisa Rhine expressed pride in the nursing graduates for their fortitude, diligence and sacrifice in uncertain times. “To say that it is a very difficult time to be a nurse is truly an understatement.”

Dr. Rhine also said that “because of your kind and loving hearts that attracted you to this calling in the first place, make sure that you take the time to care for yourself and your own health and wellbeing. It’s only when you are at your best that you can perform at the highest levels and give your best to others.”

Following are the fall 2021 nursing graduates:

Abigal Adams

Kelli Balensky

Jennifer Bergstad

Rebecca Broderick

Alyssa Bugarin

Nick Buller

Ronny Criswell

Klara Ford

Lanai Ford

Carl Jackson

Sarah Jackson

Shilee Jones

Laura Ludvick

Kacey Martinez

John Mattison

Angelique McKnight

Halleigh Milian

Anna Miller

Danielle Mitea

Chelsea Murphy

Anna Nardo

Corey Noeldner

Samantha Paine

Jinnapat Puangwipat

Kelly Pulanco

Emma Pundt

Aidan Raute

Alfredo Rodriguez

Amy Runo

Jennifer Santoyo

Aubrey Shaw

Brittney Sherman

Sarah Stickel

Alma Toribio Salgado

Dalis Townsend

Collina Young

Participating in the fall cohort pinning ceremony were these spring 2021 nursing graduates:

Maria Contereas

Nissa Labhart

Macer Svec

SOURCE:  New release by Yavapai Community College, by JJ. McCormack, 15 December 2021. Click on the following link to view news release in full. https://www.yc.edu/v6/news/2021/12/nursing.html

Categories : Nursing

SEDONA REDROCK NEWS EDITORIAL SAYS YAVAPAI COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD MEMBER KUKNYO FAILS TO GRASP TAXES ARE THE PUBLIC’S MONEY

By R. Oliphant
Friday, December 17th, 2021

Managing Editor Christopher Fox Graham argues “Verde Valley tax dollars provide more than a third of his college’s budget, ergo, we should have a third of the programs we pay for”

Managing Editor Sedona Redrock News, Christoper Fox Graham

Sedona RedRock News Managing Editor Christoper Fox Graham took strong issue with the views of Yavapai Community College’s Fourth District representative, Chris Kuknyo, who made them known at the November 16 Governing Board meeting held at the Career and Technical Education Center located at the Prescott airport.  This was Editor Graham’s  second editorial based on comments made by  Governing Board members at that meeting.  In this  editorial, published December 12, Editor Graham argued that “Kuknyo fails to grasp taxes are public’s money” when discussing the Verde Valley.

At one point during the November 16 meeting Graham noted that  Kuknyo had expressed dismay with Third District Paul Chevalier’s routine effort to ask questions related to the impact a Community
College program may have on the Verde Valley (or the fact one did not exist there).  “It makes me not want to help and just push away and concentrate on the other stuff,” Kuknyo said.

Editor Graham responded to Kuknyo writing that he:

“fails to comprehend that Verde Valley tax dollars provide more than a third of his college’s budget, ergo, we should have a third of the programs we pay for.

Yet, how would Kuknyo’s `sudden decision’ to ignore the Verde Valley’s concerns be any different than the last 40 years of the community college ignoring, cheating, short-changing and stealing tax dollars and programs from the Verde Valley to benefit the Prescott side?

Editor Graham also wrote that:

“The previous community college president and her then-board picked a fight with the Verde Valley a decade ago, and in so doing lost a huge land endowment that went to the Pima County-based University of Arizona instead and faced a Verde Valley secession drive that only diminished with the president’s retirement and Chevalier’s election. The risk of secession still looms if ignorant board members want to revive abuse.

“Kuknyo is impressed by the Verde Valley wine center at Yavapai College as well as “… the food-makin’ place …,” which we can only assume is what the officials like Kuknyo who run the board of a higher education institution call the “Sedona “Culinary Arts Program.”

“The wine center is in the Verde Valley because Prescott college officials can’t physically steal and move the land the Verde Valley vineyards sit on.”

There is much more to Editor Graham’s editorial.  You can read it in its entirety by clicking here:   http://www.redrocknews.com/2021/12/12/yavapai-college-board-member-kuknyo-fails-to-grasp-taxes-are-publics-money/

Categories : Editorials/Essays

REPORT FROM ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS INDICATES LESS THAN HALF OF ARIZONA HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES WENT ON TO COLLEGE LAST YEAR

By R. Oliphant
Tuesday, December 14th, 2021

This is the lowest percentage in at least the last decade

A report from the Arizona Board of Regents indicates that less than half of Arizona High School graduates went on to college last year.  This is the lowest percentage of high school students moving on to college in at least the last decade. Last year, about 46% of Arizona’s 2020 public high school class enrolled in a two- or four-year college, down from about 53% in 2019 and compared with 66% nationally in 2019.

According to the analysis from the Board of Regents, if these “patterns continue, more than 75% of current ninth graders will have only a high school diploma or less six years after their class graduates.  The analysis also says that the low college entrance rate “poses a significant concern for the state’s economic future, which is expected to demand more educated workers.”

Arizona has set a  goal of having 60% of adults with any postsecondary certificate or degree by 2030.  Arizona is now  at 46%, compared with 45% in 2019.

Source:  Arizona Republic report  by Alison Steinbach, December 13, 2021.  

 

Categories : Educational material references

REPORT INDICATES YAVAPAI COMMUNITY COLLEGE RECEIVED $12.6 MILLION IN CARES FUNDING FROM FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

By R. Oliphant
Sunday, December 12th, 2021

Report also indicates $9.1 million spent so far on student support

It appears from a report prepared and posted on its website that Yavapai Community College has received $12.6 million in grant support from the Federal Government under the CASES Act.  (Click here to go to Community College site.)   The report also indicates that it has so far spent about $9.1 million on student support.

The grant requires that at least 50% of the CARES assistance be in the form of emergency financial aid grants to students. The Community College appears to have easily exceeded that requirement.

The report notes that in order  to qualify for CARES assistance, a student must meet the following criteria:  First, the applicant must be a Yavapai College student. Second the applicant must have expenses or loss of income due to the Coronavirus.

The report prepared by the Community College covers four quarters.  A copy of the grant CARES Act analysis appears below.  You may see this chart and additional data by going to the Community College website. The chart below is the HEERF (CARES ACT) combined report.

Categories : CARES GRANT

ENTHUSIASTIC/HOPEFUL SEDONA/VERDE VALLEY RESIDENTS TURN OUT FOR MASTER PLAN FORUM ON DECEMBER 6

By R. Oliphant
Thursday, December 9th, 2021

Participants express strong views on need for significant ten-year development on the Verde Valley Campus/Sedona Center for  housing, enhancing CTE, expanding viticulture program, developing Sedona Center Culinary, paying more attention to outlying areas, and much more

Sedona/Verde Valley residents gathered in room 137 of building “M” on December 6 to voice their views on the future of the Verde Campus in Clarkdale and the Sedona Center. The gathering  of around sixty included political representatives  including Sedona’s mayor and  vice mayor and members of the local town and city councils. There were also  interested east side citizens and a few faculty from the Verde Campus.

For about 45 minutes the attendees  shared their ideas on the future of the Verde Campus/Sedona Center. In general, they saw a need for faculty/student housing on campus, enhanced and expanded Career and Technical Education facilities, an enhanced and expanded vineyard and viticulture program, an  expanded  and improved  culinary facility at the  Sedona Center, and continued support and expansion of the allied health programs. They also encouraged the College to consider adding  programs that are not included on the east side of the County (such as music and theatre).

There were concerns from some about the composition of the present ten-year plan steering committee, which consists of fourteen persons from Prescott and only two from the Verde Valley.

There were also expressions of concern among some that ten years ago the same planning team now once again doing the planning  had created a $103.5 million dollar development plan with over 95% of development on the west side of the County.     There were hopeful expressions that a new ten-year plan would not yield a similar result.

The discussion was directed by a member of the Smith Group consulting organization, the group that has been again  hired to draft a ten-year development  plan for the Community College.

Categories : ADMINISTRATION, OPINIONS, Politics
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