The Austin Community College District (ACC) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

community college A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...

system serving the

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

, metropolitan area and surrounding

Central Texas Central Texas is a region in the U.S. state of Texas roughly bordered on the west by San Saba, to the southeast by Bryan- College Station, the south by San Marcos and to the north by Hillsboro. Central Texas overlaps with and includes part ...

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 school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

options to serve about 100,000 students in academic,

continuing education Continuing education is the education undertaken after initial education for either personal or professional reasons. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada. Recognized forms of post-secondary learning activities within the d ...

and adult education program ACC offers

associate degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree ...

s and career/technical certificate programs in more than 100 areas of study as well as four bachelor degree programs. Most courses taken within the district are meant to apply for associate degrees, which help students qualify for jobs or 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 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 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

and parts of four more. As defined by the

Texas Legislature The Texas State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. 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 p ...

, the official service area of ACC currently includes: * Hays, Caldwell, and

Blanco Blanco (''white'' or ''blank'' in Spanish) or Los Blancos may refer to: People *Blanco (surname) Fictional characters *Blanco, a hobbit in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth *Blanco Webb, character in the BBC sitcom ''Porridge'' *Graboid#El Blanco, ...

counties; * Travis County, excepting the territory within the Marble Falls Independent School District; * Williamson County, excepting the territory within the

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, 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 was a slave or Serfdom, serf in Scandinavia, Scandinavian lands during the Viking Age. The status of slave (, ) contrasts with that of the Franklin (class), freeman (, ) and the nobleman (, ). Etymology Thrall is from the Old Norse ...

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 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 American and Canadian English 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 Round Rock is a city in Williamson County, Texas, Williamson and Travis County, Texas, United States, part of the Greater Austin metropolitan area. Its population is 119,468 according to the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The city stra ...

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. ...

in north Austin (2013); the Hays Campus in Kyle (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 is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

whose members are elected by residents of the taxation district. Each member is elected at-large by the entire district and serves for a six-year term with no term limits. In addition to developing policies for the organization as a whole, the board is responsible for appointing the college chancellor, 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 chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Academics

ACC offers

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 educating activities in order to gain new knowledge, skills, attitudes, or values. Merriam, Sharan B. & Brockett, Ralph G. ''The Pr ...

/ GED programs, and

programs. The school also facilitates transfer of core curriculum credits to

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

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, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

, 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 a regional educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. As of 2022, the organization oversees ap ...

. ACC also has an honors program which is intended to "develop the ability and potential of highly motivated students." In fall 2018, the college began offering registered nurses with the option to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from its RN-to-BSN Program. As of fall 2023, the college has added three more bachelor's degrees in software development, manufacturing engineering technology and cybersecurity.

Notable alumni

* Brene Brown, author and therapist *

Alex Jones Alexander Emerick Jones (born February 11, 1974) is an American Far-right politics, far-right radio host, radio show host and prominent conspiracy theorist. He hosts ''The Alex Jones Show'' from Austin, Texas. ''The Alex Jones Show'' is the lo ...

, radio host and conspiracy theoristHoward Stern Radio Show, February 26, 2013. *

Richard Linklater Richard Linklater (; born July 30, 1960) is an American filmmaker. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. In 2015, Linklater was included on the annual ''Time'' 100 li ...

, film director *

Justin Tucker Justin Paul Tucker (born November 21, 1989) is an American professional football kicker. He played college football for the Texas Longhorns and signed with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent in 2012, spending 13 seasons with the ...

, professional football player

Austin Community College television channel

ACCTV is an educational cable access channel. Residents in the Austin Community College area get the Austin Community College channel on the following cable providers: *

Optimum Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criteria, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfiel ...

channel 6 * Grande Communications channel 19 *

Spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

channel 19 * AT&T U-Verse channel 99

References

External links

Official website
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Community College A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...