Gila County college students to start classes after split with Eastern Arizona College

Community college students in rural Gila County will start classes Monday but some students are still feeling left out in the cold by a messy split from Eastern Arizona College in neighboring Graham County.

Under the recently finalized agreement, one final group of two-year students will start classes Monday, Aug. 21, at campuses in Globe and Payson as Gila County Community College and Eastern Arizona College wind down their nearly 20-year-old partnership, which is now set to end in June 2025.

Initially, no students were going to be able to enroll in classes in Gila County this fall because of a messy breakaway by the Gila County Provisional Community College District from Eastern Arizona College, which administers academic services at the two Gila County campuses. Under mounting pressure, Eastern Arizona College at the last minute reversed course and agreed to extend the wind down for two years and allow students to enroll in classes in Globe and Payson this fall.

Nevertheless, some Gila County students caught off guard by the sudden split, feel cast aside.

Hannah Ballesteros, 21, planned to start the two-year highly regarded nursing program at the Payson campus next spring, at a time when there is a shortage of nurses. She completed her prerequisite nursing courses this past spring in Payson, after earning an associate degree at Scottsdale Community College, and she became a licensed nursing assistant. She was set to wrap up corequisite courses this fall in Payson.

By the time she heard about the split in June, the April deadline to apply to start the nursing program this fall had passed.

And now this fall will be the last time students will be given the chance to start the nursing program.

So Ballesteros can't start the nursing program in Payson in the spring as planned. Her only option is to apply for the nursing program at Eastern Arizona College in Thatcher. Instead of a 45-minute drive to Payson from her home in Heber, she will have to drive four hours each way to Thatcher. There is also a housing shortage in Thatcher, so finding an apartment will be difficult.

What's more, Ballesteros and her mother, Marti Ballesteros, said they contacted the dean of the nursing program, who encouraged Hannah Ballesteros to submit a late application to start the program this fall given the circumstances. She was given until 2 p.m. on Aug. 2 to submit the application, which she did.

The next day, they said they received a call from the nursing school dean who told them the late application would not be accepted. The Ballesteros said they were told that Todd Haynie, the president of the Eastern Arizona College, had overruled nursing school officials who had already lined up extra clinical instructors to accommodate several late applications.

"To be fair, it was a late application. She had missed the deadlines for this fall semester," Marti Ballesteros said. "They were just allowing her the late application process based on the totality of the situation and the circumstances. So it appeared to us that they were doing the right thing by her, by allowing her to apply."

But in the end, Haynie nixed the late applications "regardless of all the work that had gone on behind the scenes to make this happen," Marti Ballesteros said

Hannah Ballesteros said this caps a series of educational disappointments she has experienced starting with missing the final semester of her senior year of high school in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"If I don't get to start (the nursing program) in the fall, it'll just be another heartbreak, another emotional battle I have to go through. I'll be devastated," Hannah Ballesteros said.

Kris McBride, Eastern Arizona College's director of marketing and public relations, was firm. The college, he said, cannot accept applications for the fall semester submitted after the April deadline.

"It's not just a matter of adding a chair," McBride said. "There is a lot that goes into it," including reviewing documentation, making sure immunizations are up to date and lining up clinical locations for students.

What's more, "we have to be fair and equitable," McBride said. "We would have to open it back up to everyone who missed the application deadline. ... And we simply can't do that."

Janice Lawhorn, Gila County Community College interim president, said she doesn't buy that. Ballesteros is one of at least three students who tried to submit late applications for the nursing program after finding out no new students will be allowed to enroll in Gila County after this fall.

"Could they make an exception under the extenuating circumstances? Absolutely," said Lawhorn, who worked as an administrator at Eastern Arizona College before becoming the interim Gila County president last year. "Would the other students be all freaked out because you made an exception for them? ... I don't think that's the case."

She also pointed out there is a shortage of registered nurses.

As for Hannah Ballesteros, she is determined to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse. She's not sure, though, how she will do it.

"I'm supposed to be a nurse. It's my calling," Hannah said. "This is what I'm supposed to be doing. It's just roadblock after roadblock."

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gila County, Eastern Arizona colleges settle messy split