ACC is a college that believes in a robust on-campus presence for all employees. We are committed to the power, and energy, and benefits that come from an active presence on campus. These benefits include serendipitous and planned connections, expanded knowledge and understanding of the campus community, and other such enabling conditions that allow for truly shared decision-making.
In Academic Affairs, we will support this college commitment to in-person work as described in this Administrative Rule, these guidelines for staff, and these guidelines for full-time faculty.
Below you will find the guiding principles for Academic Affairs’ approach to telework, the general “rules of the road”, the expected process for making telework requests, and some frequently asked questions.
Guiding Principles
Student-Centered Accessibility & Support
Every approved telework arrangement within Academic Affairs must preserve or enhance the student experience. Areas that deliver direct services to students must strive to maintain uninterrupted, high-quality, in-person access across campuses during standard operating hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) before remote arrangements are considered. Going forward, our operating hours may change at some campuses as we build out completion pathways for evening and weekend students. Our commitment to student-centered accessibility won’t change, but our work schedule might.
Excellence in Teaching & Learning
On-campus presence is vital for fostering dynamic teaching, learning, and faculty-student connection. Telework agreements are not available to instructional faculty, librarian faculty, or academic counseling faculty.
Collegiality and Collaborative Innovation
Academic Affairs thrives on cross-functional collaboration, active mentorship, sharing what we know, and active participation in shared governance. Units responsible for institution-wide initiatives such as strategic scheduling must intentionally structure on-campus schedules to maintain strong cross-departmental trust and collaborative engagement in the work.
Operational Responsiveness & Seamless Service
Telework is a privilege contingent on meeting operational needs, productivity standards, and, most importantly, seamless service to students and faculty. Student-facing and faculty-facing roles will be present on campus. Academic operations will remain fully agile and responsive without delays or service gaps caused by remote work schedules.
Our first priority is strong and engaged supervision and mentoring. We believe that on-campus presence best supports every manager in effectively building relationships with their direct reports, providing guidance and mentoring, and developing a cohesive and collaborative team.
Institutional Compliance & Mission Alignment
Telework arrangements must adhere to state law (TEC 51.992) and serve the overarching mission and best interests of the College. Approval of telework schedules will be based on students first, job roles, operational feasibility, and measurable outcomes rather than employee preference, ensuring uniform standards across all divisions of Academic Affairs. All approved telework arrangements will be documented through the Telework Agreement, which must be signed by the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs.
General “Rules of the Road” in Academic Affairs
- Offices that serve students, faculty, staff, and community must be open from 8:00AM to 5:00PM as much as possible. These business hours will vary based on the nature of the work but offices can and should be open Monday through Friday. These “open for business” hours may change as we continue to build out robust course schedules to serve evening and weekend students. The Academic Affairs Leadership Team consisting of the Associate Vice Chancellors and the Vice Chancellor, will offer additional guidance related to this rule as needed.
- Offices as described above must not be behind locked doors. We will work with our facilities and campus operations colleagues to ensure that offices that are student, faculty and staff facing are open during business hours.
- Managers will not be permitted to work remotely.
- Department chairs will maintain a substantial on-campus presence as both full-time faculty and instructional program supervisors of faculty and staff. Department chairs will strive to have a campus presence that reflects their release time so that they are available to students, staff, and faculty.
- Employees who provide direct administrative support to managers (administrative assistants) will not be allowed to work remotely.
- Staff who serve on a “front desk” or provide reception work will not be considered for telework if there is no other staff member to cover the office.
- Decisions about telework will reflect the needs of the office, the goals and benefits of collaboration, and the manager’s commitment to actively building a cohesive team and treating all team members equitably.
- All approved telework agreements must be signed by the VCAA.
- The occasional need to work from home on a given day (e.g., “I have painters coming”) or to work at another campus does not require a telework agreement, merely approval by the manager.
- Approved telework agreements will not extend beyond two days a week.
Implementation Examples
- Online proctors: hired to be fully remote and will continue as remote staff.
- Call center staff: will continue remotely until office space is available, then will return to campus full time.
- Analysts, data workers, purchasing coordinators and other workers whose role requires focused and independent work time with complex technology-based platforms may request telework up to two days a week. Decisions will reflect the needs of the unit.
- Instructional designers will be present on campus full time.
- Instructional associates (IAs) who are not assigned an office will be asked to find on-campus workspace in adjunct faculty suites and will be 100% in person.
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
No. While full-time faculty members are expected to establish a strong presence on campus, teaching an online class does not require a telework agreement.
We will prioritize finding an office or a cubicle for you. In the meantime, please work with your manager to determine whether there are some temporary solutions that can help you come back to campus.
No, we are asking all managers to be fully present on campus. And we are asking all administrative assistants who support managers to be fully present on campus as well. This is the most robust and engaging way to support the partnership of managers and assistants and will help us best serve our students, faculty, staff, and community.
Managers are people leaders, and leading people, building rapport, supervising work, and establishing effective and collaborative work relationships is best done in person.
Administrative assistants support managers. Managers will be 100% on campus and their administrative support staff can best serve them by being on campus as well. In addition, many managers have offices that serve students, faculty, and/or staff, and those offices are required to be open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Work with your direct supervisor on developing the office’s posted hours that provide as much coverage as is available with limited support staff.
Those with approved accommodations can telework if that is part of the HR-approved accommodation.
ACC is an “on campus first” college. We are prioritizing the life and vitality of our campuses and our work by being present and available. More students, faculty, and/or staff may stop by on Fridays if they know that the office is open on Fridays. And if students or faculty don’t stop by, Friday can be an opportunity to work on collaborative projects.
Telework requests require approval up the supervisory chain to the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs. It will be the rare exception when a request is approved that falls outside of the listed exceptions in the administrative rule and these guidelines unless you fall into one of the exempt categories documented in the administrative rule and guidelines.
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