To better serve the growing southwest quadrant of the Austin Community College district, ACC opened the doors to its newest facility: a teaching center in rented buildings situated in the Barton Ridge Plaza Shopping Center. Specifically, ACC agreed to a lease arrangement negotiated by Jim Brader, ACC’s Vice President for Planning and Development. The expectation was based on the fact that more than 1,400 students signed up for classes on the first day of registration plus projections that indicated that the facility would accommodate as many as 5,100 students. The Board of Trustees approved the move in April, and by June construction had begun. Total cost of construction was $4571,000, of which amount ACC contributed $471,000 and Gill Savings financed the remainder.
Administratively, the Southwest Center fell into the domain of Nancy Glass, Dean of the Riverside Campus. Furthermore, evening classes which had been offered at AISD’s Crockett Campus were cancelled in favor of those same classes being moved to the ACC Southwest Center. Overall, the Southwest Center offered 27 classrooms and 325 parking spaces–a signficant upgrade.