Outdoor Events Center Gains Momentum

The Yavapai Outdoor Events center is making headway as it moves from concept to reality. The need for an on-campus facility of this type is not new. Several Yavapai sports teams have been forced to use outside facilities. The seven time national championship Yavapai soccer program currently uses Mountain Valley Park Amphitheater in Prescott Valley. The softball program also uses an outside facility owned by the City of Prescott. The events center will serve more than just sports interest for the school. "I foresee us using the facility for graduation, expanded PE classes, summer camps, community events." said Brad Clifford, Athletic Director. After speculative negotiations with the Yavapai-Apache tribe as to whether a partnership to build on tribal land could be considered failed to reach a consensus, the school sought a site on campus. In February a group of Yavapai faculty placed a sign on the north end of the campus  in order to move the project off the drawing board and onto a tangible site. Now that a site has been chosen the only challenge might be funding for the project. No school budget exists for the center and all funding would need to come from outside sources. A cost estimation for completion of the project by the school's facilities department comes in at around $1 million dollars. Clifford added in regards to funding, "We would be looking for partnerships; corporate or individual. A simple bake sale would not suffice. We have a tremendous Foundation Department that handles all of our fundraising on the campus." Once the facility is in place additional revenues for upkeep might be secured by outside organizations such as sports camps. "These camps would use our facilities, stay in our dorms, use our cafeteria. These would be outside entities renting our facilities. I have personally had many calls wanting to come to Yavapai College to use our fields. Obviously, they did not know that we don't have a multipurpose field." said Clifford who has served in the athletic department for over twenty years.

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Learning to Think Critically

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

~ George Orwell

Two thousand five hundred years ago a man dared ask questions. As a reward he was killed. This man was Socrates, an Athenian philosopher and teacher who is considered by many to be the father of critical thinking. By development of his “Socratic method” Socrates changed how we understand the seemingly unknowable within the world around us. By asking a series of inquiries, together as a group, the members would seek truths by eliminating contradictions. Critical thinking has evolved by including many other disciplines, but at it's root it is thinking in a clear, logical, rational and consistent method. Being able to synthesize information into a meaningful dialogue which would progress the collective understanding was at the heart of his method and adverse the dogmatic powers that be in his time which led to him being labeled a heretic and killed. So much for free thinking.

But the methods of Socrates have stood the test of time and evolved into the modern world in profound ways. By the use of reason, logic and rational, academia as well as media systems have benefited from his sacrifice. I believe, at it's bare essence, critical thinking is just asking questions. And when referring to gathering and reporting the news this simple truth holds true. We ask the basic who, what, where, and why, of a potential news story. We ask is the source credible. We ask contextual questions in order to understand the story's relationship to society as a whole. We ask if facts we wish to report are ultimately relevant to the piece. We ask if elements of the story are fair and absent of biases. We synthesize the information into clear, concise and readable language which the audience can digest. All of these are “Socratic” methods and go hand in hand towards furthering our collective knowledge base. Critical thinking is seeking truths and beliefs in a systematic way. And seeking truths when they are adverse to the state can be a dangerous thing, just ask Socrates.