Gila College earns pre-accreditation/candidacy status

It has been nearly two years since Gila Community College leadership announced its intent to separate from Eastern Arizona College to the harsh criticism of its constituents, but in January the slings and arrows were deflected when the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) approved pre-accreditation/candidacy for the institution.

As of July 1, GCC will gain independence from EAC after a lengthy and tense standoff that will now mercifully come to an end, and the Gila County institution will become Arizona’s newest community college.

“I think the stars were aligned and everything just seemed to be primed,” says Dr. Janice Lawhorn, GCC Interim President and one of “the two Jans”—Dr. Jan Brocker being the other—who led the monumental effort. “The institution has tried to do this for 20 years, but when you have a five-member volunteer board and no support, this becomes a monumental task.”

With a solid board comprised of business and community leaders from both northern and southern Gila County—the Globe-Miami region and Payson, basically—and a tremendous amount of knowledge of the system Lawhorn accrued over her 22-year career at EAC, GCC leadership did in 18 months what was previously a pipe dream.

The move will localize control of the institution and save somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.5 million a year in overhead costs.

Additionally, it will allow GCC to continue to offer Career and Technical Education (CTE) through Cobre Valley Institute of Technology, which will also part ways with EAC.

“We’re ecstatic that they’ve got their pre-accreditation status,” says CVIT Superintendent Mike O’Neal. “We need each other to help meet the educational and the workforce needs of our community, so we’re just happy. It’s a step forward and we can continue to offer our programs to our students.”

One aspect of public concern for the separation was a widely held perception that CVIT’s nursing program—one of the top in the state—would crash and students might not be able to graduate on time or be shut out until all the issues were settled.

But the program is still fully intact, and if everything goes as planned with the State Nursing Board in its May meeting, students will be able to continue to pursue certifications unimpeded.

O’Neal says some of the harsher criticism came because the public “didn’t have all the facts” because GCC leadership was constrained by personnel and other issues that could have subjected the college to lawsuits.

“The leaders have kept their cool and they didn’t get their feathers ruffled from the community when they took that lashing,” O’Neal says. “They understood people’s emotions were involved and just kept going and plugging away.”

He added that if there are any glitches or unforeseen circumstances along the way, CVIT can temporarily partner with another Career Technical Education District (CTED) to continue the programs uninterrupted. O’Neal does not believe that will be necessary, though, and has confidence in the GCC Board and leadership.

According to Lawhorn, Nursing Program licensure is a multi-step process that will take about four months. While the application to the State Board of Nursing was submitted last October, it was not reviewed until candidacy status was earned. Between February 7 and May, the application will be reviewed by both the SBN and the State Board of Education.

Should the program get all of its necessary approvals, it will be licensed in the weeks before GCC becomes a standalone institution.

“We’ve done everything we needed to do to be ready for this process,” Lawhorn says. “But we still have to jump through the hoops of the Arizona State Board of Nursing, which is understandable.”

The relationship between GCC and EAC soured in late 2022 when EAC cut off communications between GCC and key personnel needed to run the college, including students and other employees.

This led to a vacuum of information for students and staff, which in turn fueled much of the frustration that overflowed in the August 2023 forums after GCC announced its intention to part ways with EAC.

The partnership was necessary for GCC to maintain accreditation, so when EAC announced it would terminate the relationship in September 2023, chaos ensued. EAC eventually relented, giving Lawhorn and the GCC board additional time to find a partnership to maintain accreditation.

They initially worked through the Higher Learning Commission, one of seven regional accreditors operating in the U.S. But when their efforts came to nought, the Board pivoted in February 2024 to work with the ACCJC, which had extended its reach in 2019, opening the doors for institutions such as GCC that had previously been outside the accreditor’s jurisdiction.

So now, after a year-and-a-half of intense and exhaustive work, GCC will become completely independent and will have two years from July 1 to go from candidacy status to full accreditation.

It will still be a heavy lift, as there will be a lot of hiring and infrastructure building to accomplish, but all indications are that independence is achievable within that timeline.

In its letter announcing pre-accreditation, ACCJC commended the college for its “ability to foster a sense of belonging and community with its students,” as well as “providing multiple opportunities for engagement, particularly with its older adults and high school populations via dual enrollment and career technical education partners.”

“On behalf of the Commission, we wish to express appreciation for the diligent work and thoughtful reflection that Gila Community College undertook to prepare for this review,” the January 21 letter stated. “These efforts confirm that peer review can serve the multiple constituencies of higher education by both ensuring and encouraging institutional quality and effectiveness.”

In addition to local control and saving the funds that would have gone to EAC, once GCC is fully accredited, it will be able to further expand its offerings and build infrastructure on both the Payson and Gila Pueblo (Globe) campuses in the future.

“I think the leadership of the two Jans was instrumental in getting us this far,” says GCC Board Vice President Mickie Nye. “I think the board is very cohesive. I don’t think there’s been a problem at all, but the leadership of Dr. Lawhorn and Dr. Brocker has been critical.”

In the future, Nye, who owns the Dairy Queen on East Ash Street, wants the leadership of the college to be recruited from local, Gila County talent that “you can meet in the grocery store.”

“The kids in this community, the businesses in this community, and our towns, everybody needs this college to succeed,” Nye says. “We need to grow this as a full-time, daytime and nighttime college, not just CVIT and high school classes, but we need to really grow our campuses in both Payson and Globe.”

Nye adds that in the future, that growth might include dorms to expand the student population, but for now the focus is on the next steps in the process.

There will be two informational and celebratory town halls scheduled at both campuses in March. The first will be at the Gila Pueblo Campus, 8274 South Six Shooter Canyon Road, Globe on Tuesday, March 4, at 6 p.m. The second will be at the Payson Campus at 201 North Mud Springs Road on Wednesday, March 5, at 6 p.m. Refreshments will be provided.

“The whole community has been extremely supportive with an outpouring of emails and thank yous and congratulations,” Lawhorn says. “It’s truly been a community project in that sense. We’re breaking away from the temporary and going to a permanent solution for the residents of Gila County and for the State of Arizona. But more importantly, this solidifies local control and is our opportunity to be more nimble and work more closely with our community.”