The Austin Community College District (ACC) Board of Trustees held a work session followed by its regular meeting on Monday, November 4, at Highland Campus. Below are highlights from the meetings.

H-E-B Donation

The Board of Trustees and ACC Foundation accepted a $100,000 gift from H-E-B, a long-time supporter of ACC. The gift will be allocated to programs that address Basic Needs and to the College’s Free Tuition pilot program to establish an endowment. In recognition of the donation, Trustees unanimously approved renaming the College’s Student Care Center at the Highland Campus the “H-E-B Student Care Center.” Learn more here.

Bond Program Update

ACC Chancellor Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart provided an update on the College’s 2022 General Obligation Bond projects. He informed trustees that the administration is planning to move forward with the Health Science expansion at the Hays Campus. The expansion includes a new building as well as a Campus Central Utility Plant and parking and road improvements for the campus. More information coming soon.

College Website Redesign

The board’s work session was focused on the College’s new web redesign project. Office of College Relations & Marketing Vice Chancellor Brette Lea and College Web Director Edward Terry presented an assessment of the current website and options to upgrade it for an improved user experience.

Lea called the College’s website the single most important communications channel, and shared challenges in its structure when it comes to effective communications and information sharing. The vision for a redesign project is to build a site that can better serve everyone who uses it—from students to employees and the community. 

The College currently has approximately 300 websites and 270,000 individual web pages, making it nearly impossible to maintain. Lea said the College has undergone web redesign projects in the past, most recently in 2007, but those were mostly cosmetic and not structural. 

When asked by trustees how ACC got to this point, Terry cited several factors, including hyper decentralization when it comes to creating web pages at ACC, allowing the website to “grow without rails,” and the continual growth and needs of the College. He said that the College has made some progress by collaborating with departments.

Lea said she is coming to trustees now to let them know that they are in the process of creating a plan to improve the website. It is expected to be up to a three-year process to restructure the website. The next steps in the process are:

  • To decide the scope of work
  • Put out a request for proposal (RFP) to bring experts to the table
  • Develop a communications plan to make sure everyone is included
  • Create a web advisory committee  

Watch the recording of the full work session here.

Contract Approvals

Trustees unanimously approved allowing the administration to move forward with contract negotiations for American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreting Services with 3 Bridges Sign Language Services LLC.

The board also authorized the administration to contract with three suppliers for districtwide fire protection services: 1st Fire Protection Services, Johnson Controls Fire Protection LP, and FireTron Inc. These firms will be used on an as-needed basis to inspect, maintain, and upgrade the fire protection systems for all campuses.

View all agendas and recordings from the meeting here. Recordings are usually available by the Thursday following the meeting.