ACC Chancellor Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart held the April Virtual Employee Town Hall on Friday, April 4. More than 1,000 employees attended the discussion on Zoom.

After a tribute to QueenSamantha Ackers—whom he called ACC’s ambassador of joy—Russell provided updates on the facilities and operations reorganization and the student information systems (SIS) process. The town hall also included a state legislative update by Cassie Fitzgerald, director of Government Affairs, Elections & Regulation.

Below are highlights from the discussion.

Legislative Update

Fitzgerald reported that ACC is tracking several bills at the state legislature. 

One of the main ones is Senate Bill (SB) 1191 / House Bill (HB) 2321, which levels the playing field for dual credit courses by requiring school districts to give grades earned in dual credit course the same GPA boost as other forms of advanced academics, such as AP, IB, and OnRamp courses. Representatives from ACC were invited to testify before the Senate K-16 Education Committee, which passed the bill by a vote of 11-0. The bill is now headed to the Senate floor.

The College is also following SB 1 / HB 1, the General Appropriations Act, which has passed the Senate and is scheduled for House floor debate on April 10, with budget amendments due before then. The $336 billion appropriations bill extends property tax cuts, further prioritizes border security, increases Health & Human Services funding, creates a school voucher program, and boosts K-12 teacher pay. The budget bill is the only bill the legislature is required to pass. 

HB 500 is a supplemental funding bill that includes additional money for HB 8, the bill passed last session that restructured how community colleges are funded. It is necessary because community colleges outperformed estimates on HB8. It includes $89.5 million to fully fund boosts in short-term credentials and dual credit attainment under HB 8. 

Other bills ACC is tracking:

  • SB 1786 / HB 2110 provides fixes to HB 8. This bill expands FAST eligibility, tightens the definition of “credentials of values,” and adds students transferring to private institutions to Performance Tier funding calculations. Both the House and Senate versions have voted favorably out of committee. The bill is now going to the floor for both chambers.
  • HB 2768 allows state agencies to partner with community colleges on IT apprenticeship credentials to address state workforce shortages. ACC provided testimony on this bill. The bill has been voted out of Delivery of Government Efficiency and will be sent to the Calendars Committee before consideration by the full House.

Fitzgerald shared additional bills on the College’s radar and resources for employees to learn more about the state legislative process. 

Russell added that he was part of a small group that went to Washington, D.C., recently to meet with federal officials regarding higher education. He felt they were committed to workforce education and supportive of community colleges.

New AVCs Announced as Part of Facilities & Operations Reorg

To close the loop on the facilities and operations reorganization, Russell announced that the College has eliminated a vice chancellor position, replacing it with two new associate vice chancellor (AVC) positions under Neil Vickers, ACC Finance & Administration Executive Vice Chancellor. Aziz Hussani will serve as the AVC of Campus Planning, Construction & Sustainability, and Dr. Michael Garcia will serve as the AVC of Maintenance and Operations. 

Learn more HERE.

Student Information Systems Update

Russell reminded employees that he had paused the College’s Student Information Systems (SIS) transition to Workday when he started as Chancellor. The pause was intentional to provide time to further evaluate the College’s current systems, challenges, and needs.  

ACC has since completed a thorough assessment of Workday SIS based on what Workday said it could do and compared it against our business practices. Now, we will start assessing other options. One issue is that Workday does not have a function that would automate our state reports. This is a major liability that would require ACC to build its own systems if the College were to stay with Workday. 

Russell said he is unpausing the conversation to explore our options. Over the next three months, our SIS team will review other products, and we may go through another RFP process. Russell hopes to have clarity by the fall.

Rumor Busting

Q: If we don’t choose Workday as our SIS, would we change from Workday being our Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system?
A: No, or at least highly unlikely. It is actually not that uncommon for Colleges and especially Universities to have a different SIS solutions from their ERP. To be determined, but there are currently no conversations about changing HCM or Finance. 

Q: What is the status of the Compensation Review? When can we expect results? Will changes be made by the start of the 25-26 academic year?
A: Guidehouse will start delivering recommendations in the next month or so. We expect to have their recommendations early this summer and, therefore, are planning to implement as many of the changes as possible for the beginning of the new year. With that said, we do not yet know what the recommendations will be, so it is possible that we will have to phase the implementation, and therefore, some changes may need to come later. 

Q: What’s the plan for the professional development of employees? I heard some current programs may go away or change.
A: It’s a topic we take seriously and are closely examining in collaboration with a number of colleagues across the district during this time. It’s true that some things will change and evolve – this is to ensure the College’s offerings align with our Values, and align well with new offerings like the Chancellor’s Leadership Institute. To this end, we’re pausing the Supervisor Certification and Leadership Academy for the upcoming cohort. As we work to evolve strategically, we’re offering HR Bites – bite-sized weekly training on the topics we get the most questions about. More to come, and please do send suggestions or requests for more conversation to Kelly Torrico, or HR Support Mojo ticket.

Q: Any movement on the Chief of Police hiring process?
A: We will be focused on this this month. The committee should get started next week. We just need 2 or 3 more additions to the committee. 

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

Page updated Tuesday, April 8