Hundreds help dedicate college’s largest building project

One skydiver and 400 guests helped the Austin Community College District dedicate the future home of more than 11,000 college students at a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday morning in Round Rock.

“There’s been talk of a big economic stimulus package. This is the greatest economic stimulus package that you can imagine for our area,” speaker Raymond Hartfield, of Round Rock, told the standing-room-only audience composed of area residents, VIPs, and college officials.

The ceremony opened with music from the Coyote Senior Choir of Forest Creek Elementary School, followed by words from developers John and Charles Avery, ACC’s Board Chair Nan McRaven and President/CEO Dr. Stephen B. Kinslow, and Round Rock Mayor Alan McGraw.

Hartfield shared the stage with Glen Colby, his co-chair for the ACCtion 4 Education group that organized to bring an ACC campus to Round Rock. Their efforts resulted in 64 percent of Round Rock ISD voters approving a measure last year to join the ACC taxing district in exchange for lower tuition rates and expanded services.

The Round Rock Campus is scheduled to open in 2010 near University Boulevard at County Road 112. It will be the college’s largest campus, eventually accommodating 11,500 students. It is the college’s largest building project in its 35-year history and comes as the college is experiencing record-breaking spring enrollment – up 14 percent over last year, to 36,601 students.

“Many people don’t realize ACC is the second largest higher education institution in Central Texas,” Kinslow said. “ACC is the primary trainer and re-trainer of the local workforce, and we are the primary provider of transfer students to the area’s four-year universities.”

The Round Rock Campus serves a critical step toward ACC’s long-term goal of expanding access to higher education in the college’s eight-county service area.

The college also is exploring potential campus sites in other high-growth communities identified in the They are San Marcos, Bastrop County, Manor area, Leander, and the Lake Travis/Dripping Springs/ Wimberley area.