Since becoming Yavapai College’s new president, Dr. Lisa Rhine’s main goal has been to understand the college as an institution intrinsically connected to the Verde Valley. 

During a talk at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute’s Lunch and Learn on May 1, she stressed not only the college but also the community part of a community college.

Changing Demographics

“The possibilities are bound to Yavapai College, but many of those possibilities are buried within the new challenges that we face as community colleges in 2019 ,” she said during her talk at the Sedona Center. “ Our institution is very different than it was when our doors opened in 1968, our student body is radically different and our world is radically different. 

“The typical college student is no longer the image the many of us hold in our heads: An 18 to 22-year-old who leaves his or her parents for the first time ready to begin the journey in an ivy-walled four-year college or university.”

Instead, Rhine pointed out, today’s average college student is 24 years old or older, employed and raising family. Moreover, about half are low-income and a third are students of color.

“Most notably, the majority of today’s students are beginning or continuing their post-secondary education in our nation’s community colleges, which offer critical point of access to first-time college-goers and students who are moving up the socio-economic ladder and out of poverty,” she added.

Rhine also shared information about the ALICE population — a term coined by the United Way, meaning Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed — which makes up for part of these college students. Although they are above poverty level and not eligible for federal government support, these individuals are struggling to make ends meet, she said.

According to Rhine, 41.2% of the Arizona population sits below the ALICE threshold; for Yavapai County, the percentage is 42.4% of the population.

Furthermore, to try to understand who Yavapai College students are, Rhine said she looked into research from the Wisconsin Hope Lab about needs and securities of community college students across the United States. The numbers indicate 2 out of 3 community college students are food insecure, while 1 out of 2 reported housing insecurity.

“How can we expect a student to learn and meet academic expectations without fuel for their body and brain and without a roof over their head at night?” Rhine asked.

The Example: “Hope”

However, sometimes numbers are hard to grasp. So, Rhine also shared a story to illustrate the situation. She talked about a student she called “Hope”: One of six kids and raised by a father who had an eighth-grade education and for whom English was a second language.

“It was a chaotic home environment, older siblings turned to drugs, they came in and out of the household gone for longs periods, months or years, returning short times and leaving again. At one point, the siblings were split up and spent short stints in foster care,” Rhine said.

To escape the chaos of home, Hope got involved in school by taking up extracurricular activities. Excelling academically and in sports, she ended up receiving a full-tuition scholarship to play field hockey at a university.

“All well and good, we might think. This is a student success story, right? But, as a first-generation college student from a low-income family, the challenges of navigating higher education was just the beginning,” she continued.

During college, Hope worked to pay for room and board, aside from school work and field hockey practice during the weeks and trips to games. Rhine said she wonders if, in this case, the community college could have been a better option for Hope.

“So, what happened to our student?” Rhine asked. “Fortunately, she went on to graduate with a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, she worked full-time and self-financed her way to a master’s degree and then a Ph.D. And then, on Dec. 6, 2018, she learned that she was selected as the 10th president of Yavapai College.”

As she finished the story, Rhine was overcome by emotion and unable to fight tears. Applause followed.

“I tell you my story not to impress you, but to impress upon you that getting your education can be an immense trouble,” she continued. “I want you to know about me because it informs my work and the decisions that I make.”

“I understand the struggle the contemporary student faces, I also know that if we create the right environment, provide the right support and meet students where they are, they’ll achieve their dreams and improve their lives, the lives of their family and ultimately that of the community,” she added.

Settling In

How has her own path influenced her work at Yavapai College so far? Back to the community context, Rhine said she spent her first three months meeting with staff at all YC’s location trying to listen and create connections. 

She also wants to know, in their own words, what was going well and what needed improvement. She did so in a series she created called Lunch with Lisa — which is exactly what it sounds: Groups of faculty and staff would meet with her during lunch and talk.

“What I’m finding in the conversations with individuals is that we need some improvement and we have some pockets of excellence and things are going well but there’s some areas where we need attention and care and then I, as the leader, need to make sure that we have the healthiest organization before we start to pile on new initiatives, so we can really execute at the highest level,” she said. “I’ve also been meeting with external stakeholders like yourselves and just all the community partners to see how we can best serve each of our communities — they have very different needs.

“Our work over the next year will be to create our next academic plan that will serve as the foundation for a strategic plan for the college.”

Q&A

After sharing her initial thoughts, OLLI members had a chance to ask questions to Rhine about issues they saw around the college and community, as well as get a better look into her plans for developing the college. Some of the highlights:

• Academic Plan: When asked if she would rather focus on enhancing students’ academic path or job skills, she said YC needs to do both. 

“We have a dual mission,” she said. “We not only need to fuel the economy and prepare students for … the jobs that are out there that are actually very high paying jobs, high demand, high pay. And then we need to make sure that we’re working with the four-year institutions, so that we have seamless transfer for those who just want to do the first two years and then transfer to a four year.”

“We need to do both and we need to do both as well as we can. So, I don’t think it’s an ‘or,’ I think it’s an ‘also.’”

• Financial Situation: “I’ve had some very, very positive conversations with potential donors already in such a short time and we’ve connected over these idea of the stakes I shared today, so I feel like we’re going to hit that mark [of $20 million for the college endowment] and we’re having conversations on the potential for a major gifts campaign at some point to fund some of our major priorities at a later date,” Rhine said.

According to Dennis Garvey, Yavapai College’s dean of lifelong learning, 85% percent of the college funding comes from property tax, about 11% comes tuition, 1% is from state funding and the remainder comes from grants.

However, a goal of the school is looking for ways to help students, so they don’t have to rely on financial aid or other loans. They already did so by not charging fees and having a tiered system of tuition in which technical classes and classes with extensive lab work are more expensive. Adding to that, YC has introduced three new scholarship programs: YC Promise, which reimburses students who pay tuition out of pocket if they complete a program in up to seven semesters; 15 to Finish, which incentivizes individuals to take 15 credit hours by making three of those credit hours free; and a senior discount for credit classes that don’t fill by the first week of the semester.

• Advising and Mentoring: YC is looking at helping students advance in two ways. The first one is by encouraging faculty to think of student success.

“Faculty are the individuals that spend the most time with our students so their impact is extremely important,” Rhine explained. “We have a summer institute for faculty that’s coming up and my whole keynote there is going to be about shaping the mindset of our faculty and staff to improve student success. So, there’s things that they can do, it might seem psychologically small that can have a huge impact on their future.”

As for specific advising, the institution is following a national reform effort called Guided Pathways, in which community colleges now need to offer courses that apply to a degree, so students go through their two years quickly and enter the workforce. 

YC is building an advising model around that and working to require students see an advisor to create a graduation path.

• Mission: “If you would look at our current strategic plan, there’s four goals in there,” Rhine said. “They’re pretty high-level goals, but the four goals in achieving the mission include preparing students to transfer to a four-year institution, to prepare students in career-technical areas to enter the workforce, the third one is to grow economic development in our communities and the fourth one is to provide cultural and social enrichment and life-long learning for our community.

“Because we are a community college, not a university, not a college, a community college. And particularly here, with taxing authority, we owe the community that opportunity. “

• Sedona Campus: Talking specifically about the east side of the county, Rhine said the college’s goals are credit and non-credit opportunities, as well as creating programs for skills that are high pay and in high demand in the area. According to her, community leaders she met also said there is a need for career technical education, which the college plans to look into, too.

“Increasing opportunities particularly for those who meet that ALICE group,” she added. “I keep hearing that there’s a group of individuals in this community that are impoverished and it’s a big group and they’re underemployed and under-educated, so finding a way to tap into that to fill the seats and substantiate the programs is going to be important.”

Natasha Heinz can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 117, or email at nheinz@larsonnewspapers.com