The Austin Community College District (ACC) Board of Trustees met for its regular meeting on Monday, March 3. Highlights include an update on state legislative priorities, starting talks of the next budget, and an enrollment update focused on Free Tuition and the Affordability Scholarship.
Prior to the Board meeting, Trustees received an update on the Employee Classification and Compensation study from ACC Human Resources Vice Chancellor Kelly Torrico.
Below are highlights from the Board meeting.
Acceptance of Major Gift and Naming Opportunity
The board accepted a gift of $250,000 from ACC Foundation Board member Jimmy Ferguson and his wife, Cindi. The money will be used to establish a new scholarship and food pantry for students at the Elgin Campus. In recognition of the generous donation, the College will name two spaces at the Elgin Campus in their honor. Read more HERE.
Free Tuition Pilot Program Update
Drs. Shasta Buchanan, Student Affairs Vice Chancellor, and Jenna Cullinane Hege, Institutional Research & Analytics Vice Chancellor, provided an enrollment update on the Free Tuition Pilot Program.
They report strong enrollment in the program, with 4,982 direct-to-college (DTC) students enrolled in the fall—the first semester of the program—and 5,020 enrolling in the spring. This represents more than 40% growth in the DTC population in fall 2024 compared to fall 2023.
The school districts matriculating the most students to ACC in the fall were Austin ISD (864 students), Round Rock ISD (625 students), and Leander ISD (582 students), with the trend continuing in the spring.
The program served higher proportions of in-district (6 percentage point increase) and Hispanic students (4 percentage point increase) than prior DTC cohorts.
Interestingly, the rate of full-time enrollment did not increase over prior years; instead, the program almost doubled the number of part-time students. Due to the free tuition program, many who weren’t planning on attending college at all decided to take at least 1 to 6 semester credit hours.
More Free Tuition students earned successful grades than prior DTC cohorts (11,124 students in fall 2024 versus 8,734 in fall 2023 and 8,909 in fall 2022); however, the success rate dropped to 67% versus 72% in 2023 and 70% in 2022.
There was an 80% persistence rate from fall to spring, similar to previous years for DTC students; however, due to increased enrollment, that number persisting was greater, with 3,893 students persisting from fall 2024 to spring, versus 2,571 from fall 2023 and 2,393 from fall 2022.
To find out why students chose not to enroll in the spring, the college called and asked them. The top reasons included:
- Personal issues such as child care, transportation, experiences in the home, etc.
- Financial
- A tie between academic support and wanting to take a gap year
- Transferred
- No reason
- Advising
- Tech support
Due to time constraints, trustees did not get to hear a report on the affordability scholarship.
FY26 Budget Study
Executive Vice Chancellor of Finance & Administration Neil Vickers provided a preview of the fiscal year 2026 budget including some of the trends and issues that may affect it.
He started by laying out the timeline of board discussions for the months-long process:
- April 2025
- Board discusses FY26 revenues, including tuition and fees for fall 2025
- May 2025
- Board adopts fall 2025 (FY26) tuition rates
- Technology & facilities
- New campus expenditures, if any
- June 2025
- Compensation & benefits
- Strategic Plan initiatives
- July 2025
- Board adopts FY26 budget
Vickers said that he expects property taxes, the College’s largest source of funding at 67%, to be negative next year due to the area’s sluggish real estate market. The amount of state appropriations, which makes up about 14% of ACC’s funding, is contingent on the 89th Texas Legislature’s supplemental appropriations bill. The rest of the College’s revenue comes from tuition & fees (15%) and other sources (3%).
As for expenses, 65% of the budget goes to salaries and benefits, 16% to debt service, 16% to operating costs, and 4% to equipment & technology. Compensation is dependent on the results of the Classification & Compensation Study, the annual Faculty Market Study, and the minimum wage and annual increase the board approves.
Vickers also shared that ACC is seeing strong enrollments, partially thanks to the Free Tuition Pilot Program, along with a strong labor market — Austin’s unemployment of 3% is below the national average of 4% — which is an unusual combination.
Additionally, Vickers noted that Lockhart ISD will be added to the property tax rolls, and that the new revenue will be used to fund the new Lockhart facility. He also said that some of the big-ticket technology items to keep in mind are the student information systems (SIS) implementation and a data center relocation and modernization, which the College is currently in the process of.
FY25 Financial Report
Vickers also provided trustees with a look at ACC’s current financial situation. The College is projecting a $26 million surplus for FY25, partially due to strong property tax revenue this fiscal year, which will be set aside for future years when property taxes might slow down.
An increase in spring enrollments of nearly 14% caused the Tuition & Fees revenues to be $10 million over budget. He said that increase in revenue was partly offset by higher Free Tuition enrollments which resulted in a $3 million overage. The Affordability Scholarship is projected to cost $10 million this year, which was not originally accounted for in the annual budget.
He added that the Riverside Golf Course saw a large jump in valuation — from $1 million to $21 million — which resulted in a significant increase in our tax bill, from $30,000 to $400,000. Vickers said he is looking into the change.
ACC District Police Department Reports
Interim Police Chief Jesus Brantner briefed the board on the department’s 2024 Activity Report, State Required Profiling Report, and Report of Revisions to ACCDPD General Orders as well as a Training Report for October 2024 – February 2025.
Trustees asked questions regarding hiring efforts. Brantner reported that the department’s Police Cadet Initiative to recruit existing ACC employees to apply for the Basic Peace Officer Academy at no cost to them has not yielded any applicants.
View all agendas and recordings from the meeting here. Recordings are usually available by the Thursday following the meeting.