The Austin Community College board of trustees unanimously approved a new scholarship Monday meant to propel current ACC students to successfully complete their degree by paying for their last 15 credit hours of tuition.
The Affordability Scholarship, which will be funded by a one-time $12.75 million payment from ACC's reserves, could benefit about 20,000 eligible students, the college estimated based on its spring 2024 enrollment.
“I don't know a college in the country who's been willing to put such important financial resources and betting on their students the way this group of trustees has done,” ACC Chancellor Russell Lowery-Hart told the American-Statesman after the vote. “So I'm really proud of them and really proud of the college.”
The board's scholarship approval comes after the historic April 1 passage of the free tuition pilot program at ACC, which offers free tuition to eligible 2024 high school graduates and students who completed their GED after July 2023.
Board Chair Barbara Mink abstained from voting for the free tuition pilot in favor of better supporting current students. When the board approved the pilot tuition program, it agreed to investigate how to best support current students toward completing their degrees.
The new scholarship accelerates Lowery-Hart's goal of eventually expanding free tuition to all.
How does ACC's tuition scholarship work?
In the spirit of “fairness,” students who were enrolled in spring 2024 — the semester when the free tuition proposal passed — are eligible for the scholarship if they complete 45 hours within two years, Lowery-Hart proposed to the board.
Eligibility for the Affordability Scholarship is based off the eligibility for the free tuition program — covering the $87 per credit hour fee and general fees for in-district students. It does not cover out-of-district fees or tuition for students not within ACC’s service area.
Once a student reaches 45 hours toward their degree, they will automatically receive the new tuition credit, but students can decide how to distribute it, Lowery-Hart said. Students must use their 15-hour credit within a year.
Like the free tuition program, as a first-dollar scholarship students will be able to use existing scholarships, such as Pell Grants, toward other living costs.
Lowery-Hart said the Affordability Team at ACC will next work on how to structure, market and launch the program, but it will aim to launch by the fall semester.
“This affordability scholarship wouldn't have happened if student leaders had not come to the board meeting and voiced their support for the free tuition pilot, but also say ‘Don't ignore us,’” Lowery-Hart said. “I'm really proud to work for a group of trustees that heard our students so profoundly and have spent such intentional thought on trying to find a way to do exactly what the students asked us to.”
Carey O’Brien Cranor, an ACC student and the senator in student government representing the Rio Grande campus, initially proposed that current students have their last semester of their degree free when the board was debating free tuition. He then talked with the chancellor and watched the proposal evolve.
“This is a huge win for adult learners, non-traditional learners,” Cranor said. “Because they're the ones who often need help and are often forgotten.”
Where does the ACC scholarship money come from?
The reserves would be reduced from 5.85 months of operating cost to 5.53 months, but Lowery-Hart projects that by the end of this fiscal year the college would have about $12 to $14 million to put back in, equalizing the expense, they told the board.
ACC policy requires four months of reserves, but the board has discussed raising it to six months. Lowery-Hart told board members that he’s confident the college could still achieve that goal.
The scholarship comes after Lowery-Hart’s proposal of a sustainable six-hour momentum scholarship and a greater investment in emergency aid, with board members asking for a more significant investment for current students. The fiscal year 2025 budget — which the board also passed Monday — includes at least $500,000 for student emergency aid, with flexibility for the college to add more if the funding runs out.
“This aid could be the difference between sleeping in a car and sleeping in a bed,” Myles Lopez-Cepero, an ACC student and soon-to-be student government senator, told the Statesman in an interview. “This really protects and safeguards students from getting caught up in that vulnerable circuit.”
Lopez-Cepero said the scholarship the board passed Monday could be an example for other colleges, and help make the institutions more money, as House Bill 8, a transformational new funding model for community colleges that lawmakers passed last legislative session, rewards colleges for credentials of values earned.
“I can easily see that meeting turning into the page on a history textbook one of these days,” Lopez-Cepero said.
The ACC board passed its fiscal year 2025 budget, but it did not include the 8.5% pay raise the Faculty Senate had asked for. Instead, the board approved an across-the-board 4.5% raise, what the administration asserted was the highest of any competitor, with a plan to revisit how to best support employees' wrap-around needs.
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