The Austin Community College District (ACC) is a public
community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior sec ...
system serving the
Austin, Texas, metropolitan area and surrounding
Central Texas
Central Texas is a region in the U.S. state of Texas surrounding Austin and roughly bordered by San Saba to Bryan and San Marcos to Hillsboro. Central Texas overlaps with and includes part of the Texas Hill Country and corresponds to a p ...
communities. The college maintains numerous campuses, centers, and
distance learning
Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...
options to serve about 100,000 students in academic,
continuing education
Continuing education (similar to further education in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is an all-encompassing term within a broad list of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada.
...
and adult education programs.
ACC offers
associate degree
An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree.
The fi ...
and career/technical certificate programs in about 100 areas of study. Most courses taken within the district are meant to apply for associate degrees, which help students qualify for jobs or which can be transferred to four-year institutions. ACC is the sixth largest community college system in the United States, and the fourth largest college in Texas.
History
In the 1960s, Austin residents and leaders discussed the possibility of establishing a community college for their growing city. The question was put to a vote repeatedly, but voters rejected the proposed taxpayer-supported college system in 1963, 1965 and 1968. In 1972, however, an alternative proposal that would allow the new college to be operated (and funded) by
Austin Independent School District
Austin Independent School District (AISD) is a school district based in the city of Austin, Texas, United States. Established in 1881, the district serves most of the City of Austin and surrounding towns, the City of Sunset Valley, the Village ...
won a majority of voters' support. This plan meant that (at least initially) ACC would not levy any taxes on local residents to fund its operation, relying instead on state bodies such as the
Texas College System Coordinating Board and the
Texas Education Agency
The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is the branch of the government of Texas responsible for public education in Texas in the United States. (as well as tuition and fees from students).
ACC received its accreditation from
SACS in 1978. As the system's student population grew, it quickly came to need more funding than its operation as a branch of AISD could provide. In 1981 the school administration petitioned voters in
Travis County
Travis County is located in south central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat is Austin, the capital of Texas. The county was established in 1840 and is nam ...
to make ACC a county-wide public college with its own taxing authority and to permit it to issue bonds to fund facility expansions and renovations. The initiative was initially rejected at the polls, but a similar measure was enacted in 1986, separating ACC from AISD and establishing its governing board and taxing authority.
[
]
District and service area
The system's service area has grown steadily across its history as surrounding regions have agreed to be annexed into the tax district in return for in-district tuition for their residents. The ACC District now spans all or most of seven counties in Central Texas
Central Texas is a region in the U.S. state of Texas surrounding Austin and roughly bordered by San Saba to Bryan and San Marcos to Hillsboro. Central Texas overlaps with and includes part of the Texas Hill Country and corresponds to a p ...
and parts of four more. As defined by the Texas Legislature
The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the US state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful a ...
, the official service area of ACC currently includes:
* Hays, Caldwell, and Blanco counties;
*Travis County
Travis County is located in south central Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,290,188. It is the fifth-most populous county in Texas. Its county seat is Austin, the capital of Texas. The county was established in 1840 and is nam ...
, excepting the territory within the Marble Falls Independent School District;
* Williamson County, excepting the territory within the Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico a ...
, Granger
Granger may refer to:
People
* Granger (name)
*Hermione Granger, a fictional character in Harry Potter
United States
* Granger, Indiana
* Granger, Iowa
* Granger, Minnesota
* Granger, Missouri
* Granger, New York
* Granger, Ohio
* Granger, ...
, Hutto, Lexington, Taylor
Taylor, Taylors or Taylor's may refer to:
People
* Taylor (surname)
** List of people with surname Taylor
* Taylor (given name), including Tayla and Taylah
* Taylor sept, a branch of Scottish clan Cameron
* Justice Taylor (disambiguation)
...
, and Thrall
A thrall ( non, þræll, is, þræll, fo, trælur, no, trell, træl, da, træl, sv, träl) was a slave or serf in Scandinavian lands during the Viking Age. The corresponding term in Old English was . The status of slave (, ) contrasts with ...
independent school districts;
* Bastrop County, excepting the territory within the Lexington Independent School District;
*the part of the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District located in Guadalupe County;
*the part of the Elgin Independent School District
Elgin Independent School District is a public school district based in Elgin, Texas (USA).
The district is located in northern Bastrop County and extends into small portions of Travis and Lee counties.
It includes parts of Manor.
In 2009, ...
located in Lee County; and
*the part of the Smithville Independent School District located in Fayette County.
Campuses
In the fall of 1973, the college held its first classes in the former Anderson High School building in east Austin, which ACC named its Ridgeview Campus. Evening classes were also held at several Austin public high schools. The Rio Grande Campus, the system's second, was opened downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...
in 1975 in the building recently vacated by Austin High School.[
Over succeeding decades the college added the Riverside Campus in the East Riverside neighborhood of southeast Austin, on the former site of the Austin Country Club (1984); the Northridge Campus on the northern edge of Travis County (1989); the Pinnacle Campus in Oak Hill in southwest Austin (1990); the Cypress Creek Campus in Cedar Park (1991); the Eastview Campus in east Austin (1999); the South Austin Campus (2006); the Round Rock Campus (2010); the Elgin Campus (2013); the Highland Campus, on the site of the closing ]Highland Mall
Highland Mall was a shopping mall located in north Austin, Texas, United States, on Airport Boulevard west of Interstate 35 in Texas#Austin, I-35 and north of US Route 290. Opened in 1971, Highland Mall was Austin's first suburban shopping mall. Hi ...
in north Austin (2013);[ the Hays Campus in ]Kyle
Kyle or Kyles may refer to:
Places
Canada
* Kyle, Saskatchewan, Canada
Ireland
* Kyle, County Laois
* Kyle, County Wexford
Scotland
* Kyle, Ayrshire, area of Scotland which stretched across parts of modern-day East Ayrshire and South Ayrshi ...
(2014); and the San Gabriel Campus in Leander (2018). The Ridgeview Campus closed in 1989, and Pinnacle closed in 2019. ACC's administrative offices are located in north-central Austin.
Administration
ACC has a nine-member Board of Trustees
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...
whose members are elected by residents of the taxation district. Each member is elected at large (by the entire district) and sits for a six-year term. In addition to developing policies for the organization as a whole, the Board is responsible for appointing the College President, who then selects the rest of ACC's administrative staff and directs the day-to-day operation of the college as its chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
.
Academics
ACC offers associate degree
An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree.
The fi ...
s and certificates in more than 100 fields, as well as offering career and technical training programs, adult education
Adult education, distinct from child education, is a practice in which adults engage in systematic and sustained self-educating activities in order to gain new forms of knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralp ...
/GED
The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills. It is an alternative to the US hig ...
programs, and continuing education
Continuing education (similar to further education in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is an all-encompassing term within a broad list of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada.
...
programs. The school also facilitates transfer of core curriculum credits to bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six y ...
programs at four-year institutions; tuition costs for two years of study at ACC are significantly lower than those at major Texas public universities
A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national university ...
, leading many students complete basic course work at ACC before transferring as a way of reducing college costs. The college system and its degrees are accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is an educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This agency accredits over 13,000 public and priva ...
. ACC also has an honors program which is intended to "develop the ability and potential of highly motivated students."
In 2017, the Texas Senate
The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per con ...
Higher Education Committee granted ACC permission to offer bachelor's degrees in nursing; in fall 2018, the college began offering registered nurse
A registered nurse (RN) is a nurse who has graduated or successfully passed a nursing program from a recognized nursing school and met the requirements outlined by a country, state, province or similar government-authorized licensing body to o ...
s with an associate degree or diploma the option to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from its RN-to-BSN Program. The college also announced plans to launch its second bachelor's degree program, a Bachelor in Applied Science in Computer Information Technology, in spring 2020.
Notable alumni
* Alex Jones, radio host and conspiracy theorist[Howard Stern Radio Show, February 26, 2013.]
*Richard Linklater
Richard Stuart Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for films that revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies ' ...
, film director
References
External links
Official website
{{authority control
Two-year colleges in Texas
Community College
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior sec ...
Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
Community colleges in Texas
School districts established in 1973
Education in Blanco County, Texas
Education in Caldwell County, Texas
Education in Gillespie County, Texas
Education in Hays County, Texas
Education in Travis County, Texas
Williamson County
Education in Gonzales County, Texas
Education in Guadalupe County, Texas
Education in Bastrop County, Texas
Education in Lee County, Texas
Education in Fayette County, Texas
1973 establishments in Texas