Austin Community College District (ACC) held its October Virtual Employee Town Hall on Friday, October 10. More than 1,000 employees tuned in to hear updates from the Advising and Paying for College Theory of Change Design Teams and learn more about the College’s new Intersectionality Center.

Chancellor Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart kicked things off with a moment of reflection, reminding us that “trials and tribulations bring perseverance, and perseverance proves your character and character brings hope, and hope grows in our values,” setting a positive tone for the transformative work ahead.

Below are highlights from the remainder of the discussion.

Reimagining the Student Experience: Theory of Change Updates

Colleagues from across the College presented frameworks for two key Theory of Change initiatives aimed at transforming how we support students.

Designing a Better Advising System

David DeRouen, Arun John, and Maze from the Required Advising Design Team shared their work on designing a seamless, integrated advising system.

The team identified a current fragmented system where advising and instruction aren’t well-integrated. A major hurdle is our current advisor-to-student caseload of nearly 500:1, far exceeding the recommended best practice of about 300:1.

After visiting and benchmarking against successful models, the team proposed a three-pronged approach:

  1. Enhance the Student Journey: Students will have someone to guide them from interest to completion. A new Start Strong Navigator position will guide new students before they are assigned a permanent advisor at required orientation, ensuring a warm hand-off. Their assigned Academic Advisor will then be their main contact and support through their college journey, with required check-ins each semester and personalized, documented referrals across the College.
  2. Integrated Advising System Design: Establish a high-level administrative body to set clear policies and roles for both faculty and staff advisors. Advisors would be aligned with division as opposed to areas of study. Faculty advisors will transition into a role as specialized mentors.
  3. Improve Technology: Develop a unified student interface so our platforms can communicate, allowing us to see where students have been and better guide where they are going.

Simplifying How Students Pay for College

Karina Hernandez and Lottia Windham outlined the Paying for College Design Team’s plan to make college more affordable and accessible.

The challenge is that students face a complex financial aid process, barriers to FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) completion, and limited awareness of alternative funding like Credit for Prior Learning (CPL).

Their recommendations focus on connecting people with the right resources through:

  1. A Tech-Enabled Experience: Use AI tools and proactive “tech nudges” to provide students with fast answers and financial readiness alerts.
  2. Holistic Financial Support: Streamline scholarship applications, expand the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) to cut textbook costs, and adopt a comprehensive promise program.
  3. Financial Empowerment & Awareness: Embed financial education into orientation and courses, build partnerships with employers, and amplify student success stories.
  4. Championing CPL: Create a central CPL office to promote it as a key completion strategy, especially for the 40% of new students not covered by the Free Tuition Pilot Program — a group that makes up roughly 60% of our total student population and typically comes with prior college or work experience.

View the full presentation with more detailed information for each recommendation on the Theory of Change Paying for College Design Team web page.

ACC Leads the Way With New Intersectionality Center

ACC will be home to a new Intersectionality Center — one of the first to be established at a community college. Given that community colleges serve more students than all other colleges and universities, and our students often reflect the widest spectrum of student demographics, we are uniquely positioned to contribute insights on student success, belonging, and persistence.

The new academic center will be led by Dr. Tomas Boatwright, Student Development faculty. Rooted in instruction and grounded in institutional research, the Center will innovate approaches to promote access and address educational disparities by exploring how our students navigate their college experience. The name comes from the theory of intersectionality, which invites people to think about the multidimensionality of lived experiences.

Boatwright worked with partners throughout the College on the foundational proposal and has met with members of the Full-Time Faculty Senate and the Adjunct Faculty Association (AFA) president to learn about the work that faculty and staff are already doing to support student development. They plan to meet with the full AFA in November and the full Senate soon.

Boatwright shared some ways employees can get involved:

  • An advisory committee of staff and community stakeholders will help guide the strategy, partnerships, and relevance of the work.
  • A faculty council will shape curricular strategies and professional development in the context of academic freedom and an environment that acknowledges and values discipline expertise.
  • The search for a Program Coordinator is underway.

The Center’s physical space is currently being developed and will open later this semester. For questions, email [email protected].

Board Votes to Reduce Out-of-State Tuition

At its regular October meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to lower out-of-state tuition from $335 to $200 per credit hour. This comes after Trustees discovered that ACC has the second-highest out-of-state tuition rate in the state. The new rate brings ACC in line with the average rate of our peer institutions in Texas and will hopefully help attract more students to high-need programs statewide and nationally. 

Important Updates & Announcements

The town hall wrapped up with a few key items:

  • The College is still awaiting a ruling on whether we have standing in the Board of Trustees’ lawsuit seeking guidance on the recent repeal of the Texas Dream Act. Meanwhile, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has issued some new rules and will hold a hearing on the proposed rules at the end of October.
  • All are invited to a screening of ACCTV’s “Day In the Life: Parenting Students” documentary on Thursday, October 16. The screening highlights the real-life challenges our parenting students—which make up 28% of ACC’s student body—face, and includes panel discussions of the students in the docuseries as well as partners at the College and in the community who directly support parenting students. Employees can RSVP here.

View the recording and Q&A transcript on the Virtual Employee Town Hall web page.