In a terse statement, College offers no other explanation regarding the sudden departure of the outstanding and well-liked administrator from the Verde Valley

Editor Robert Oliphant

OPINION. The Blog has learned today that Dr. Tina Redd resigned her position as Verde Campus/Sedona Center Dean earlier this week. Dr. Redd was considered by most in the Verde Valley as a real gem.

The news reached the Blog via a somewhat informal explanation regarding her departure that came from Community College President Dr. Lisa Rhine who provided the following terse statement to the Sedona Red Rock newspaper:

“Dr. Redd has decided to move on and has submitted her resignation. We thank her for her service to the College and wish her well as she moves on to her next opportunity.

“She was not terminated; she resigned her position by her own choice. It’s really that simple.”

Serious questions, it seems to me, must be asked regarding what circumstances might have triggered Dr. Redd’s sudden and unexpected resignation. She was just too good to lose. The Blog suggests that some of the following may provide a modicum of insight into why such a talented person might suddenly pick up and leave the Dean’s position here in the Verde Valley.

From the outset, it appears that working conditions for Dr. Redd, or any person in her role, were less than ideal. For example, she was placed essentially under two bosses: First, Vice President and Prescott based Diane Ryan, was the boss to whom she directly reported. She did not report directly to the President of the College. This kind of reporting structure, although subtle, would on its own ensure a reduction in the prestige and independence of a Dean charged with running the Verde Campus and Sedona Center. Moreover, it is hard to believe it could not affect that person’s morale.

Second, the President of the College plays a significant role in the reporting structure of a Verde Dean. The President is by far the most powerful and most important boss in the organization. The President is someone a Verde Dean will most likely try to please, almost at any cost. Yet, the present reporting structure erects a barrier between the Verde Dean and the president. The Verde Dean’s voice is filtered by a supervisor, possibly at times muffled. Under the present reporting structure, a Verde Dean is viewed much more as a middle manager of a department store, not someone with a serious voice in Community College affairs who possesses any independent decision-making or has the kind of respect within the organization that allows that person to report directly to the President.  

In the case of Dr. Redd, it appears to most in the Verde Valley that she was kept on a tight tether by Prescott when it came to meeting and mixing with local community leaders. For example, in the fall 2021 President Dr. Lisa Rhine and Vice President Rodney Jenkins appeared and spoke at various city and town council meetings throughout the Verde Valley. The purpose of those visits was to update the elected officials on what is happening on the Verde Valley Campus and at the Sedona Center. They also were sometimes challenged with tough questions and asked about details of programs at those facilities. Astonishingly, Dr. Redd was not a part of that tour. One cannot help but wonder whether this kind of treatment at the hands of Prescott subtly reduced the prestige of the Dean’s position in the Valley and affected the morale of even the most hardened administrator.

Then there’s how the Prescott bosses handled assignments to the most influential committees at the College. For example, Dr. Redd was omitted from inclusion in the exceedingly important Capital Master Plan Steering Committee, which is working on an eight to ten-year development plan. It is a committee one would anticipate the Dean of the Verde Valley campus would automatically have been a part of, if not one of its leaders. However, the sixteen person Committee selected by the College Administration is totally dominated by Prescott based executives and employees with only two of the members from the Verde Valley. Conspicuously absent from the committee was the appointment of Dr. Redd. Might that affect morale? Does that reduce the prestige and influence of the office of Verde Dean?

Another group one would think the Dean of the Verde Campus/Sedona Center would automatically be a part of is Yavapai Community College’s President’s Executive Leadership Team. This team is viewed by many as the most important administrator decision-making group at the College. However, the Verde Dean is not included. One needs to continue asking the question: Does the absence of the Valley’s Dean automatically reduce the prestige of the Dean’s position on the Verde Campus and Sedona Center? Might it affect a career-administrator’s morale?

A factor that may have affected the prestige of the Dean’s position and morale in this particular case was an odd assignment handed to Dr. Redd by the Prescott administrators at the very beginning of her tenure. This assignment involved giving her the responsibility of apparently overseeing and evaluating a large number of faculty who worked on the west side of the County in Prescott. Reliable sources indicate that this work took her away from her duties as Dean on the Verde/Sedona campuses for at least one full day every week. Can there be any doubt that it interfered with her challenging work as Verde Valley Dean?

Adding to the oddity of the Prescott faculty assessment assignment is the fact that one of the conditions laid down by residents and accepted by President Lisa Rhine before a Dean was hired for the Verde Campus/Sedona Center was to ensure that the new Dean actually lived in the Verde Valley. So, after selecting Dr. Redd, she was given a task that caused her to spend a day away a week in Prescott. This most likely involved travel and could not help but interfere with the daily duties associated with running the Verde Campus and Sedona Center. It’s an odd assignment, to say the least, for a Dean already working extremely hard to develop the Verde Campus and Sedona Center, which alone is a major challenge.

So, it can be argued that from the very outset of her employment, Dr. Redd, or any Dean in her position, experiences diminishing prestige for the Dean’s office and minimal input into the future of the Verde Valley facilities. Decisions such as non-appointment to various important committees and being treated more like a middle manager than an influential member of the Community College must hurt. At times limiting the Dean’s visibility and contact with local politicos must also be hurtful. And add to that, in the particular case of Dr. Redd, an odd working assignment that sends the Dean out of the Verde Valley on a weekly basis only adds to the ache an administrator working in the Valley might experience.

Is it any wonder that someone possessing the background and experience of Dr. Tina Redd might one day just throw up their hands and say in frustration, “I resign.”  

MORE TO COME.