Sample pastries and tour facility | learn about culinary programs, admissions to credit programs and meet OLLI Ambassadors | meanwhile, culinary enrollment falling; Hotel and Restaurant program suspended for the year
Yavapai Community College will hold an in-person open house at the Yavapai Community College Sedona Center on Wednesday, October 6th, from 10 am to noon. It is located at 4215 Arts Village Drive, Sedona.
The open house will provide visitors with an opportunity to tour the facility, sample pastries prepared by culinary students, learn about its programs, and meet Osher Lifelong Learning Institute ambassadors.
Opened for first time: The Center was constructed in 1999 and opened in 2000. It was essentially closed down by the end of 2014 when the Community College was considering selling it. The Prescott based plan was to maintain a Community College presence in Sedona by merely renting space somewhere in the city for the OLLI program and any needed classes. However, outrange from Sedona/Verde Valley citizens, politicians, and educational advocates brought a halt to the plan. It re-opened in the fall 2017 after extensive remodeling.
Land deal: Yavapai Community College and Sathcupa L.L.C., owner of the Sedona Cultural Park, completed a land-swap agreement in August 2014. The Community College received about three acres of property contiguous to its facility in exchange for five acres the college owned elsewhere in the Cultural Park. The contiguous property was to be used for student parking and direct access to the main thoroughfare, Highway 89A. The college planned to spend about $1.5 million to complete the agreement and add the needed parking and access road. Prior to the agreement, the land immediately surrounding the Center was owned by the Cultural Park and made immediate access to the facility somewhat challenging.
The Community College also announced in August 2014 that it would focus on what additional programming can and should be offered at its Sedona Center. The Sedona Film School, which had been housed at the center, was suspended by the fall 2014 while the college reviewed the program. The College also began studying the possibility of creating a hospitality certificate and/or degree program in the Verde Valley and Sedona and a Culinary Institute.
Critics: The Community College eventually decided sometime in 2015-16 that it would shift from offering a Film School to developing a Culinary Institute at the Center in addition to the Hotel and Restaurant Management program. Major renovation was needed for Culinary Institute training.
Construction of the Culinary Institute’s training facilities, which went on in 2016-17, was considered inadequate by some in Sedona and the Verde Valley. One reason was that a citizens’ group asked to help advise the Community College about renovating the Center had studied how culinary facilities were designed at other institutions. The group had strongly recommended four training kitchens to provide adequate training. However, the Community College rejected their ideas and built only two.
The Center was remodeled and reopened in the fall of 2017. The Community College then sought to establish culinary training and restaurant and hotel management programs.
Suspends Restaurant and Hotel Management program in fall 2021: Unfortunately, the Community College was forced to suspend the Restaurant and Hotel Management courses in 2017 just after announcing it was offering them. The reason given was poor enrollment. The program was re-launched in fall 2018. However, in the fall of 2021 the Community College once again announced it was not going to offer any courses in this program. When and if it will re-offer courses in Restaurant and Hotel management is not clear.
Governing Board considers additional land purchase at Sedona Center: It may come as a surprise to some that at both its February and March 2020 meeting, the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board members discussed a purchase of additional land at the Sedona Center. In March the Board received a detailed study commissioned by the College that was intended to determine the efficacy of possibly purchasing land and locating a hotel on property adjacent the Center. The Board appeared most interested in purchasing an additional five acres adjacent the Center. If a purchase was made, the Board would then decide its best use.
The study commissioned by the Community College claimed that “Market justification exists for development of a hotel adjacent to Yavapai College’s Sedona Center.” Third District Representative Paul Chevalier appeared to oppose a hotel (owned by a third party who leased land from the College) while urging the College to pursue a possible purchase of an additional five acres. His vision was to use the land, if it could be purchased at a reasonable price, to consider expanding the existing culinary school.
It was clear that no one on the Board (or College executives) wanted the College to consider building and owning its own hotel. Nothing more was heard about the proposal or purchase after the March meeting.
Enrollment difficulty at Culinary Institute: Enrollment at the Sedona Center for its Culinary programs was doing well in 2018, according to Sedona/Verde Valley Executive Dean James Perey. He updated the District Governing Board on February 13, 2018, about enrollment in culinary courses for the spring semester. He said there were 169 students enrolled. He also said he was considering adding another section in fall 2018 to accommodate the demand for the culinary offerings.
However, enrollment appeared to have suddenly taken a downward slide by the fall of 2021. The Community College Administration reported to the Sedona City Council on September 30, 2021, that it was having enrollment difficulty in its culinary program. Early registration reports for the fall semester found only 20 students signed up with 68 open seats available. The Community College administrators did not provide any final registration figures to the Sedona City Council at the September 30 meeting.
Facilities: The Sedona Center sits on what is described by the Community College as “an inspiring location, the perfect environment to achieve your educational goals.” It houses a variety of classrooms and community spaces. The Sedona Culinary Arts Program and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Yavapai College (OLLI) are its current occupants. Osher is an independently well-financed Institute that receives some operational financial support from the Community College.
OSHER is successful: The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which operates on the east and west sides of the County, offers a rich and evolving array of courses, lectures, and special activities, taught by distinguished faculty, scholars, and community experts. Members, who must be over 50, come from all walks of life and bring a lifetime of experience to the classroom and OLLI’s activities. It is considered a very successful program.
Going back 20 years: Twenty years have seen great change in the Center’s operation. Back in 2001, the Center had been open only one year when in June 2001 the Administration began looking to purchase up to 80 acres of land of the Coconino National Forest adjacent the Center. The purpose was to expand the facility to meet the unexpected huge number of students seeking admission to the Zaki Gordon Film Institute, which was then based at the Center and worked cooperatively with Yavapai Community College.
The Red Rock News of June 13, 2001, reported that Keith Harwood of the special projects office of the Community College president’s office was interviewed about the lack of space to accommodate applicants to the film program. He said, “we’re bursting at the seams. In the short term, we expected to have 100 in our Sedona multimedia program, and we have 500.” The 20,000 square foot Center had only six classrooms. It was also reported that there was a two-year waiting list to get into the program.
The Community College did not purchase any additional land at this time.
However, the film school training program began to collapse following a 2011 dust up between the Film Institute’s Director and the Community College president over curriculum and control. Shortly thereafter the Independent Film Institute fled to a private university. The College insisted the program would continue to thrive and remain open. It did not.
In 2014-15 the film school was closed by the Community College President and the Community College director of the Sedona programs (who lived in Prescott). The Community College then began moving video training to the Verde and Prescott campuses. Today, what little is left of original film training program appears to be mostly based in Prescott.
Despite the recent renovation and focus, it appears that the Center has been able so far to sustain strong enrollment. Moreover, the Community College has resisted offering a wide variety of class since reopening in 2017.
For the Community College, the Center remains a work in progress.