Austin Community College District (ACC) Chancellor Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart helped open the Chronicle Festival 2025 on Tuesday, September 16, joining a national leadership panel on “What It Takes to Support Students Now” He was joined by Dr. DeRionne P. Pollard, president of the American Association of Community Colleges, with Jasper Smith, staff reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, serving as moderator.

His message? Colleges must change their systems to match today’s students, not the other way around.

“Now we are defining success as completing with a degree or certificate that leads to a family-sustaining wage. Community college students are the hope of this country. They are smart, ambitious, and capable, but their challenges are different, and our systems must adapt.”

What this means for ACC students

ACC is committed to building systems of support that help students succeed, including:

  • Accelerated classes for faster completion
  • Tutoring that is integrated directly into coursework
  • Expanded basic needs support, such as food, housing, child care, and transportation
  • Comprehensive advising to guide students through every step of their academic journey

“To change performance gaps, you have to change the systems that created them. Historically, what we have done is use disaggregated data to train the students how to navigate colleges. That is the wrong approach. Our job is to use the disaggregated data to know how we need to change and adapt to our students. There are some core things that we know help performance gaps across the board, which ACC is tackling through our Theory of Change,” said Lowery-Hart.

ACC is working to redefine success and create systems that help you not only finish, but finish with a degree or certificate that leads to a career and a future.

At the core of these efforts is ACC’s Theory of Change, a framework aimed at increasing the student completion rate from 46% to 70% by 2030. It focuses on four pillars for change: helping students start strong, encouraging full-time enrollment, supporting students’ basic needs, and fostering belonging.

For more details on these exciting changes, visit austincc.edu/toc.