NPC President Answers Questions To Close Listening Sessions Series

There had been comments and discussions that led people to think that SHS had not been encouraging students to participate in dual enrollment programs at NPC. Mark Vest, vice president for Learning and Student Services at the college, clarified the discussion regarding SHS.

“One concern I have in the discussions is that the community is beating up its own school district unfairly” said Vest. “There is a lot of work being done by the (Snowflake Unified School) district.” Vest said that when they started the college bound scholarships, one school district in the county that brought parents and students into a meeting and that was the Snowflake District.

“We’re actually up 150 students under the age of 20,” said Vest noting that the number of students above that age range is down.

SHS has a higher percentage of students who participate in dual enrollment and a higher percentage of students who participate in Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT) programs, and those students generally return to NPC to finish their degrees. There is better participation in the College Bound program, said Vest, who said he felt it was because NPC has moved the meeting to the high school campus.

SHS NAVIT secretary Sherry Cosper noted that they haven’t seen NPC representatives as often as they do those from other colleges.

“That falls back on the college,” said Vest, who explained that they have hired a new person for that position.

Vest said that SHS dual enrollment increased 10 percent last year.

Swarthout noted that 65 students living in Snowflake and Taylor are enrolled at NPC, compared to 110 in Holbrook, 122 in Winslow and more than 300 in Show Low. She said that they don’t look at headcount for students, “because we have so many students go back and forth on campuses.”

Regarding questions about the fine arts program, Swarthout explained that it takes time to put together a new program and there has been a revolving door of musical faculty. They hired a man to run the theater department, and this fall there will be a new film and digital video program.

NPC officials were also asked how they plan to successfully offer classes on a campus that does not have a library.

Swarthout explained that the proposal to the Navajo County Community College District Governing Board was that the stacks of books would go, but there would be an area of computers that could be used for community and student research. “That is the predominant use all our libraries have right now,” said Swarthout, noting that in 2012-13, the Silver Creek Campus library served 244 student borrowers and 2,750 students used computers. She explained this is the direction that is being taken by most schools. NPC has limited bandwidth and has attempted to cut down on Facebook use and business use of the computers, with the priority of use being students and faculty. NPC provides a large database for students to utilize for online research for classes.

Regarding a question regarding reformulation of the 1987 expenditure limit approved by legislature, Swarthout said that they do not want to change the constitution on expenditure limits, but to change the statute to be more up to date. She noted that a bill sponsored by State Senator Sylvia Allen of Snowflake had gone to committee, and it generally takes three years for something like this to go into effect if it is approved by the legislature.

Swarthout explained that the proposal was not about classrooms, stating, “Actually we’re cutting no classrooms.” She said that they won’t know until September or October what parts the governing board is moving forward with, because they are waiting for a space study of campuses to be completed in August. “We are not cutting classrooms; we are bringing other things up to this campus,” she reiterated.

Swarthout explained that increased enrollment is not a silver bullet, noting, “There is no way we can increase enrollment to get the expenditure limit off our back.

“It’s actually cheaper to grow your enrollment by keeping students in class than it is to find new students,” she continued. “We are looking at both sides of that.” She went on to explain that some of the most valuable programs are those that they partner on with others, such as NAVIT and dual enrollment, and explained that those partners have lost money or funding.

“We’ve stabilized that now,” said Vest.

When asked if the necessary classes are being offered to help further area residents’ academic and employment needs, Swarthout said, “Yes,” including programs in welding, auto and nursing.

Vest explained that each community cannot have all the programs offered, stating, “The college has written in the policies that we’ll be a diverse college.

“This community has better access (to programs), 30 minutes or less, than anywhere else in the county,” he said.

“We’ve got to think in terms of how do we set programs up in a way people can get to them, and in those terms, this community has it better than any community does” said Vest.

“It is really important to reiterate and reaffirm that decentralization had full board support,” said Swarthout, explaining that if they had all classes offered on each campus then it could be said that it was NPC officials’ fault they were in financial difficulties because there were too many campuses.

In response to a question regarding the goal of NPC, Swarthout said her personal goal is, “In 2020, this college is financially more stable than any other community college.”

“We have a 25 percent increase in the number of students that are going to walk in commencement over last year,” said Vest. “That’s happening without enrollment going up.”