Dear Colleagues,
Today, I hosted our March virtual employee town hall meeting. I shared updates on our latest audit and the changes we’re making to help ACC function better and work smarter.
We’ve spent the past 18 months listening — really listening to you and learning more about your challenges and your visions for how we can better serve our students and each other. We’ve been working with a consultant, Swim Digital, to assess and improve our structures and processes.
What we’ve seen and heard is clear and consistent: we need to adapt. Our guiding approach was simple:
- Does it best help students?
- Does it make us more effective?
- Does it create greater alignment and role clarity?
- Does it solve problems or push us toward a solution?
Here’s What to Expect
We’re going to position ACC for the future. For the first time in our collective history, we have significant revolutions happening in technology, economics, society, and politics. We’re going to make several changes at the Cabinet level and within the functions of Student Affairs to help us plan for the future.
Restructuring at the Cabinet Level
We have one of the most knowledgeable and experienced people here to do that. I’ve talked with our Provost to reimagine her role. I’m asking her to become our futurist. I think we’re both really excited about the change that’s coming.
- Dr. Monique Umphrey will transition into a new role as Executive Vice Chancellor of the Future. She’s going to be leading the work it takes to analyze trends and emerging technologies and break down societal shifts to find ways that can keep ACC forward-focused and innovative. With her leadership and experience, ACC will be the first community college in the nation with a futurist.
With this change, we’re taking the opportunity to refine, realign, and ultimately flatten our organization and remove layers of bureaucracy.
- I’m moving our vice chancellors of Human Resources, Student Affairs, and Instruction directly under the Chancellor.
- Our Student Information System (SIS) team also will be centralized and will have a direct line to the Chancellor. This team will help oversee collegewide project management and will focus on big-scale and culture-changing projects.
- This week, we welcomed our new Vice Chancellor for Advancement, Miriam Smith. She will report to the Chancellor and will lead our Foundation and advancement efforts.
- Starting the week after spring break, we’ll welcome our new Chief of Staff to the Chancellor, Aaron Henry. He’ll help me to align the work of the Cabinet.
- With this new focus, we’re going to move our Ombuds office directly under the Chief of Staff. We’re lucky that it happens to be an area of expertise for Aaron.
- Our incubators will report to the Vice Chancellor of Strategic Initiatives.
- These changes will take effect Monday, May 19.
Solving for Basic Needs
Helping our students meet their basic needs is one of our most critical issues. It’s not just a Student Affairs challenge to solve. It cuts across every part of the College. It requires communications and marketing, our business office, government relations, community outreach, strategic initiatives, and thoughtful grants. We have to work together if we’re going to serve more students. Here’s what that looks like:
- We’re going to realign teams under the Special Advisor to the Chancellor for Basic Needs Systems, Cara Crowley.
- Cara already reports directly to the Chancellor. Now, she’ll serve on the Cabinet.
- We’re going to move our associate vice chancellors of mental health & well-being and advocacy services from Student Affairs to Basic Needs. Both Dr. Ruth Reinhart and Steve Christopher will report to the Special Advisor to the Chancellor.
- Because this work is crucial to our Theory of Change Design Teams and their efforts, these changes will take effect immediately following spring break.
Clearer Functions for Student Affairs
To provide clearer alignment and a more student-centered approach at scale, we’re going to organize Student Affairs into two distinct reporting structures:
Student-Facing Areas: There are three unique functions for our student-facing areas within the division. Here’s what we’ve mapped out:
- Enrollment Management will oversee admissions, financial aid, enrollment, welcome centers, and testing centers. Dr. Dorado Kinney will lead this work.
- Academic Advising & Planning will oversee orientation, advising, and ACCelerators. We don’t have someone appointed to oversee this work right now, but we’re going to post a position in the coming weeks.
- Student Rights & Supports is our third bucket in this area. This includes Student Life, student rights & responsibilities, career center (including our Make It Center), and transfer center functions. Dr. Willie Martinez will lead this work.
Central-Facing Areas: There are two unique functions for our central-facing areas of Student Affairs.
- Development and student communications are an important part of this work. They include functions for student communications, talent development and coaching for our staff, and enrollment analytics. Ana Rummer will lead this work.
- Operations in the division will oversee the internal operations of the teams as well as the budget and resource management functions for Student Affairs. Tina Lynch will lead this work.
Next Steps
These changes are all of ours. I’m going to ask you to lean in.
I know there are still a lot of questions about how this is going to look in the end and where different roles and responsibilities will fall. We haven’t figured it all out yet. Over the next two months, we’re going to keep the conversations going with our Student Affairs colleagues to ensure we get the function right before assigning roles. This is not about moving people into boxes. It’s about making sure the right people, who understand the work, are in the right place.
I am not going to divide up responsibilities just because it sounds easier. We need to be intentional. I will return in May with a clear outline of job functions and roles for this area of the College.
I know change can be uncomfortable and sometimes scary, but it’s necessary. Let’s assume positive intent. Let’s root ourselves in positive intent. Let’s have each other’s backs. Let’s assume everyone here is trying their best. Let’s be part of the solution, together.
We should be a resilient organization and have the courage to do what’s right for our students. The way forward is through transparency and radical simplicity. If you missed the town hall, you can watch a recording on our website. I hope you will stay engaged and be part of shaping this change.
Much love,
russell