Dear Colleagues,
Today, I hosted our July virtual employee town hall meeting. I know this is a “No Email Friday” — but I want to make an exception here because the discussion we had today is a really important one. If you missed it, I want you to know what we talked about.
I shared an update from our internal audit and the changes we’re making to reorganize ourselves and help us work smarter.
The Audit Work To Date
As you know, we’re partnering with a firm called McConnell Jones to conduct an internal review. Using an external group like this is the best way to make sure that there are no biases in our findings. They found a lot of people doing really good work, and we also discovered some clear challenges. There are areas where we have omissions, duplications, and misalignments. I think these things cause most of the fissures I have been concerned about. This audit shows we have to adapt.
To figure out the best way forward, we had a lot of meetings. We spoke with leaders and employees of every department. We compared what we’re doing to best practices at other schools. We analyzed our data, our job descriptions, our process, and our organization chart. Now, we’re ready to make some changes that I think will do a lot to better align our work.
Here’s What You Can Expect
Our guiding principles were simple:
- Organize for effectiveness, efficiency, and safety — not personalities.
- Ensure no one loses a job or salary, and reduce administrative overhead. We’re going to flatten administration where it makes sense.
- Establish role clarity and clear accountability.
- Ensure no ghost promotions or demotions. We’re going to post jobs when there’s a vacancy and select the best person for the job through our hiring process.
I know that any reorg can feel scary, frightening, and uncertain. So, I want you to have a clear look at what we’re doing in each area.
Community & Public Affairs
As you’ve heard, Dr. Molly Beth Malcolm is retiring as our EVC of Operations & Public Affairs at the end of August. Sharrion Jenkins, our AVC of Campus Ops, Quality Control & Project Management, also is retiring at the end of the month. With these changes, we’re taking the opportunity to realign areas in this office to other departments at the college. The positions will not be filled.
- Our Community & Public Affairs Office will become Community & Government Affairs and report directly to the Chancellor.
- This team will be responsible for formalizing Government Relations and will oversee our internal and external events functions.
- Our Campus Operations team will merge under a new area called Facilities Management which will fall under our Finance & Administration area.
Finance & Administration
Parts of the current Operations & Public Affairs Office will move under the Finance & Administration arm of the college.
- Our Police and Safety & Emergency Management teams will report to the EVC of Finance & Administration.
- Our Facilities & Construction and Campus Operations teams will merge under a new area called Facilities Management.
- The college will hire a new Deputy Chief of Finance Officer, and we will fill the vacant Vice Chancellor of Facilities Management position.
- Our Police Department will assume the responsibilities of parking regulation and enforcement.
- Our Regulatory Affairs team will oversee Safety & Emergency Management.
Through these changes, we tried really hard to honor our colleagues, who I think have been patient throughout this process. I met with each leader individually and then a larger meeting with their teams to let them know first.
What’s Happening Next
These changes will officially take effect on September 1. We have six weeks to get real clarity on who, what, when, where, and how. We are going to take our time to make sure every department has what it needs to be successful. Our EVC of Finance and Administration, Neil Vickers, will be working closely with each team.
The audit of Safety, Security, and Operations was the first, and more will follow. Business Services is going through the process now. I don’t expect every audit will result in a reorganization like what I’m sharing today, but it will always remain a transparent process.
I promise to keep you updated along the way. We’re going to have a full matrix of roles and responsibilities, and it will be posted on our website. I encourage you to check it out and stay in touch with the changes we’re making.
Much love,
russell
Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart
Chancellor
Austin Community College District