Meeting & Agendas

Brette-to change the meeting to quarterly. All agree that this is a good idea. Patty and Brette will meet to discuss the best time and day of the week to meet the needs of members.

Dia de la Familia is on April 26th. This is a first time event. There will be a band, tamale eating contest, and moon walks. On May 16th there will be a garage sale, donations are welcome (they can pick them up) and it will benefit the Men of Color Scholarship.

Joined us in January from AISD. There is a large need for Spanish speaking representatives at ACC. Recruitment and Marketing now have 2 Spanish speaking employees to help communicate with Spanish speaking population. 60% of AISD students are Latino. In fall 2012, ACC Hispanic enrollment was at 28% and in fall 2013 it went up slightly to 29%. Less than 20% of faculty and staff at ACC are Hispanic. Antonio’s position works with local Hispanic media outlets to communicate the same messages to the Spanish speaking community, with slight changes to help them best understand. For example, the Spanish word for college implies that it is a preparatory school, so they choose to use the Spanish word for University which translates more clearly. Antonio is working with Univision to provide “Educational Tips” videos that appear on the Spanish ACC site. Communication is getting out there with the help of social media. Facebook and Twitter are bringing in more Hispanic interest. There is a strong need for Hispanic nurses and healthcare workers, the Kinsser event on 4/16 will create interest for this community (but not limited to just Hispanic community) with scholarships for nurses. Eventually the hope is to broaden communication outreach to other multi-cultural communities such as the Asian community.

For students with 60 or more credits, registration started on the 7th. Numbers are down a little from last year. The summer campaign is “Get the Scoop” with ice cream. Target audience is currently enrolled students as well as students from other colleges who would like to save money, because ACC is 74% cheaper than other colleges in the area. Also targeting students graduating high school this spring, and current high school students who are interested in early college credit. May 5th, registration for new students begins.

We will have commercials and billboards. The commercials are 15 seconds long to be shown at beginning and end of program. We have three outdoor designs that will each be used twice. We are interested in possibly tweaking the outdoor design—changing the white background to something else. We would like different commercials for fall. More interaction on the “i am acc” webpage. Pride in ACC helps externally and internally. Interested in a TV show… Where are the “i am acc” people now? Goal to raise visibility in schools, both elementary and high school. We have adopted Oak Hills Elementary and have put posters, a R.B. cardboard cutout in there, and have given teachers plushies as incentives for students. Seven banners have been created for AISD high schools and elementary schools. We are working with Austin Police Department to provide plushies for children who have been involved in crime. A suggestion is made to add ACC’s website address to posters for children, to help guide them to the website for their own educational needs.

Highland campus opens in the fall. There will be 45 sections of math with 1000 seats. The goal is to have higher enrollment without cannibalizing from other campuses. After discussion of having an event with many booths and areas represented, the group decided to go in the direction of just having this event be an enrollment driver for developmental math and other programs offered at that location. It was discussed that in the long term, staff would like more community/career type events. An annual event, not many small events scattered throughout the year. Hope is to have an annual event proposal by fall.

Eastview Campus event on Friday, April 11th. 12 students from ACC will receive scholarships to Huston-TIllotson University. “Pathways” will be help on 4/25 at Huston-Tillotson. Texas Reach, on 5/29 is a conference for foster care alumni.