ACC Board approves stipend to cover final 15 hours of tuition

The Austin Community College Board of Trustees unanimously approved a new scholarship Monday designed to help current ACC students successfully complete their degrees by paying for the final 15 credit hours of tuition.

The Affordability Scholarship, which will be funded with a one-time payment of $12.75 million from ACC reserves, could cover about 20,000 eligible students, the college estimates based on spring 2024 enrollment.

“I don’t know of any college in the country that would be willing to invest such important financial resources and bet on their students in the way that this group of trustees did,” 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 decision to approve the scholarship comes on the heels of the historic April 1 passage of ACC’s free tuition pilot program, which offers free tuition to eligible 2024 high school graduates and students who earn a high school diploma (GED) after July 2023.

Board Chair Barbara Mink abstained from voting on the free tuition pilot program in favor of better supporting current students. When the board approved the free tuition pilot program, it agreed to study how to best support current students in completing their degrees.

The new scholarship advances Lowery-Hart’s goal of ultimately expanding free college to all.

More: Austin Community College approves free tuition program for qualifying 2024 high school graduates

How does the ACC scholarship work?

In the spirit of “equity,” students enrolled in spring 2024 — the semester the free tuition offer was approved — can apply for the scholarship if they complete 45 hours over the course of two years, Lowery-Hart proposed to the board.

Eligibility for the Affordability Scholarship is based on eligibility for the free tuition program—which includes $87 per credit hour and general fees for in-district students. It does not include fees or out-of-district tuition for students outside of ACC’s service area.

Once a student reaches 45 hours in their major, they will automatically receive a new tuition credit, but students can decide how to allocate it, Lowery-Hart said. Students must use their 15-hour credit within a year.

More: Austin Community College Faculty Senate asks for 8.5% raise; college proposes 4.5% raise

Similar to the free tuition program, students will be able to use existing grants, such as Pella Grants, to cover other living expenses.

Lowery-Hart said the financial accessibility team at ACC will now handle the structure, marketing and launch of the program, but it is planned to launch in the fall semester.

“This affordability scholarship would not have happened if student leaders had not come to the board meeting and expressed their support for the free tuition pilot program but also said, ‘Don’t ignore us,’” Lowery-Hart said. “I’m really proud to work for a group of trustees who listened so deeply to our students and spent so much time figuring out a way to do exactly what they asked us to do.”

Carey O’Brien Cranor, an ACC student and student government senator representing the Rio Grande campus, initially proposed that current students have their final semester of college free when the board was debating free tuition. He then spoke with the chancellor and watched the proposal develop.

“This is a huge win for adult learners, nontraditional learners,” Cranor said. “Because they are the ones who often need help and are often forgotten.”

More: Here’s Texas HB 8 funding. Here’s what it means for Austin Community College and others.

Where does the money for ACC scholarships come from?

Reserves will be reduced from $5.85 million in operating costs to $5.53 million, but Lowery-Hart projects the university will have about $12 million to $14 million in reimbursements by the end of the current fiscal year to offset the costs, the board was told.

ACC policy calls for four months of reserves, but the board has considered raising that to six months. Lowery-Hart told board members he is confident the college can still meet that goal.

The scholarship follows Lowery-Hart’s proposal for a six-hour, sustained-impact scholarship and a larger investment in emergency aid, with board members calling for a larger investment for current students. The fiscal year 2025 budget — which the board also passed Monday — includes at least $500,000 in emergency aid for students, with flexibility for colleges to add more if the funds run dry.

“This assistance could be the difference between sleeping in your car and sleeping in your bed,” Myles Lopez-Cepero, an ACC student and future student government senator, told the Statesman. “It really protects and secures students from getting caught up in that vulnerable circuit.”

Lopez-Cepero said the scholarship, which the board passed Monday, could set an example for other colleges and help institutions make more money because House Bill 8, the revolutionary new college funding model that lawmakers passed during the last legislative session, rewards colleges for achievements in the form of earned values.

“I can easily imagine that one day this meeting will become a page in a history book,” Lopez-Cepero said.

The ACC board passed a budget for fiscal year 2025, but it did not include an 8.5% pay raise requested by the Faculty Senate. Instead, the board approved an across-the-board 4.5% raise, which the administration said was the highest among competitors, with a plan to reconsider how to best support the complex needs of employees.