BENTONVILLE — On Oct. 26th, 1881, about 3 p.m. in Tombstone, Ariz., the most famous gunfight in the history of the American Old West occurred: The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. If you saw the classic movie western “Tombstone,” you may remember the scene in which Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp, accompanied by their loyal friend Doc Holliday, face down the bloody “Cowboy” gang.
There is just one slight, pesky detail: the actual gunfight was not even close to the O.K. Corral, but occurred in a vacant lot next to Camillus Fly’s boarding house and photo gallery and a small house.
While the more accurate “Fly Fight” or “The Gunfight at the Vacant Lot” monikers never quite stuck, you might ask how in the world the name O.K. Corral was applied. There is a simple answer: the anti-Earp faction had one of the daily newspapers called The Tombstone Daily Nugget on their side.
The Cowboy gang was not supposed to be armed while in town. They had to reclaim their guns when leaving. By using the misleading name of the O.K. Corral, the newspaper implied the fight took place outside of town. This, in turn, provided a reason the gang had firearms when Wyatt Earp became a legend that day.
Upon hearing how a revenue squeeze forced the administration of NorthWest Arkansas Community College to eliminate a $250,000 market equity adjustments fund they had only recently created for 2013, I thought back to the O.K. Corral. As the Daily Record recently commented on, all of that was just fancy verbiage for a slush fund (i.e. an auxiliary monetary account or a reserve fund) from which they planned to give themselves raises next year. But unlike The Daily Nugget, this newspaper called this spade out.
With a 2.2 percent decline in enrollment, money is getting tight at the college. This is prompting the school to start a process to cut $1.8 million from annual expenditures, of which the aforementioned market equity adjustment fund was wisely one of the first things to go. Unfortunately, some board members may not have got the memo on cutting costs; especially taking the luxury of outsourcing your responsibilities.
Case in point is the decision to spend $30,000 to hire a search firm to find applicants to replace outgoing President Becky Paneitz. Leaving aside that a Board of Trustees loaded with executive talent feels the need to pay someone else to do the heavy-lifting (they’re job creators!), state law requires expenditures of that size to be bid competitively. If you think that makes sense in today’s tight market, you would be wrong. The board opted instead to have the NWACC Foundation “donate” the money for the job search, which is kind of like robbing Peter to pay Paul. (And no bids.)
To quote the foundation’s own website, “Through scholarship, academic and capital support, your donations enhance the quality of teaching and student life at the college. As our students take classes to lay the foundation for future success, your gifts give them the tools to get there.” Apparently your gifts also help give the Board of Trustees some much needed-assistance, because, hey, they’ve all got day jobs, too.
Let me be clear: NWACC is an absolute blessing to our community and provides affordable access to education to thousands of students. Three of my children and my wife have taken classes there as well. All of this gives tremendous importance to the upcoming election on Nov. 6 when three of the trustee seats will be up for election. Keeping things in the open, being plain-spoken, and above all, continuing to improve the trust necessary between an educational institution and the public it serves is what the new president and board members will need to do.
A look at the candidates for the Board of Trustees shows a good combination of experience and common sense for the voters to choose from. One of the candidates said, “The next president needs a strong Board of Trustees that will build a partnership of respect and trust.” To that I would add a maxim passed down by Sam Walton years ago when I was working there. Some associates objected to random security checks and said they should be trusted.
At that meeting where they complained, he responded simply: “Trust, but verify.”
I think Wyatt would agree.
SEY YOUNG IS A LOCAL BUSINESSMAN, HUSBAND, FATHER AND LONGTIME RESIDENT OF BENTONVILLE.