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Volume 38 Issue 7
December 12, 2000

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District’s story may be retold at request of board member

BY J.W. WATSON
MESA LEGEND
Submitted December 12, 2000

The 35-year history of the Maricopa Community College District may have to be re-written.

"The Turbulent Evolution of An Education Giant," a 300-page tell-all book chronicling the rise of the largest community college district in the nation, was praised by administrators, faculty members and the MCCD Governing Board upon its release in late April.

MCC faculty member Richard Felnagle's book about the rocky, yet successful, history of the Maricopa Community College District.

However, the book’s first printing of more than 2,500 copies is in danger of becoming recyclable fodder, not for what is within its pages, but because of who is not.

Nancy Stein, a Governing Board member since 1994, said the author, MCC faculty member Richard Felnagle, has written a "factually incorrect" book. She has suggested the book be re-published, despite as much as an additional $42,000 in printing costs coming from the pockets of Maricopa County taxpayers.

"All that I’m proposing is that the book be re-written in a factually correct manner and that new copies be provided to those who received the first printing," said Stein, adding, "There would be no additional costs if (the book) had been done correctly the first time." Stein says shortly after the book’s release, she noticed that her name and her contributions to the district were absent.

"That’s when I became really disappointed and felt that my service had been ignored."

Felnagle, who took on the project more than five years ago, said the omission of Stein was neither personal nor intentional. "I have already acknowledged that the omission of (Stein’s) name was an oversight," said Felnagle, who was paid approximately $15,000 for his work on the project, which had an overall price tag of $76, 082.

"There are still a few typographical errors and some minor inaccuracies in the book. But perfection is not possible in a book of this kind."

Felnagle also said his coverage of the district’s history and of those who helped to define it stopped at the creation of all 10 MCCD colleges with Estrella Mountain, which began offering classes in 1990, being the last.

To date, 336 copies of the book have been sold, mostly to MCCD employees and retirees around the time of its release, with all sales going back to the district to recoup the costs of the project.

But without promotion of the book, as outlined in Elton-Wolf Publishing’s proposed bid for the project, Felnagle believes selling out the first printing is unlikely.

"From the very beginning of this, when I first accepted this job, the marketing and promotion of the book was extremely important," Felnagle said. "It is not a coffee-table book. It’s not a book that should simply be gathering dust in a warehouse somewhere. I wrote this book for it to be read."

Publicity for "The Turbulent Evolution of An Education Giant" was supposed to, and may still, include a regional tour by the author involving television talk shows and local interest programs, radio talk programs, and reviews in local newspapers, regional magazines and national educational journals after Elton-Wolf assigns a publicist to Felnagle. Additionally, the book was to be sold within the campus bookstores of all 10 Maricopa community colleges.

However, none of the publicity has begun because, according to Felnagle, Stein’s desire for a reprint is holding up the process.

Stein said she is not alone in her dissatisfaction of the project’s finished product. "My constituents (on the Governing Board) were also very disappointed that I was not in the book. How can you leave out a board member?" Stein said. "I think that when you’re ignored in an already factually incorrect book, that’s something very troubling."

MCCD Chancellor Fred Gaskin said at the Nov. 28 Governing Board meeting that several options are being discussed regarding the future of the book and that a reprint is possible.

Felnagle says he had hoped all 2,510 copies of the first printing would have been sold by now and that he would be correcting the inaccuracies in its second printing.

"I have had to take on more executive authority in regards to this project than I ever should have had to," Felnagle said. "And now I will wait. I stand ready to do whatever the district says to do."

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