THATCHER — “To be truthful, as much work as went into making this happen, the work has just begun,” said Eastern Arizona College President Todd Haynie.
Haynie is referring to Arizona’s community colleges being able to offer four-year degrees. A bill on that issue has passed the House and the Senate, and now awaits action by the governor.
“From our perspective, now it’s a lot of work in terms of determining what programs we can reasonably offer that will be of most benefit to our students (and) benefit to the community as well,” Haynie said.
Haynie estimates it could take as much as three years before the college can offer a four-year degree if the governor doesn’t veto the bill. Once the college administration selects the initial degree program or programs, that plan has to be approved by the college’s governing board. If the board approves, the college still must get the OK of the Higher Learning Commission, the school’s accrediting body.
The bill, as amended by the Senate, does not limit the number of four-year degrees that can be offered by a community college in counties with a population of less than 750,000. However, Haynie said it’s his intention to identify one or two programs that would have sufficient student and community support.
“The Chamber of Commerce, community members, everywhere I go people have asked about this for years. Our board has been very supportive of this so we, together, have worked to make this happen,” Haynie said. “Now that we’ve gotten this far, now it’s on us to do that due diligence and do the research and find the best programs, like I said, that will benefit our students as well as the community.”
Haynie praised the work of Rep. Becky Nutt, R-Clifton, who sponsored the bill the past two legislative sessions, as well as the late Bill Konopnicki who, while serving in the Legislature in the early 2000s, made the first try to get four-year degrees at Eastern Arizona College.
