From the VP of Instruction: New appointments, Rio Grande update

Academic realignment update

Last month I discussed plans to align our instructional areas into a pathways model based on student-centric areas of study. (From the VP of Instruction: Academic Realignment). I also noted that we had posted associate vice president positions for academic transfer and workforce education. In addition to those positions, we had posted the associate vice president of instructional services (formerly instructional resource technology) and dean of distance learning. You may have heard that three of these key positions have been finalized.

Dr. Gaye Lynn Scott has accepted the position of associate vice president of academic transfer. Dr. Scott has served as dean of social and behavioral sciences since 2006 and was a government faculty member and department chair prior to that.

Dr. Susan Thomason has accepted the position of associate vice president of instructional services. Dr. Thomason has served as director of instructional design services since 2000 and more recently as executive director of strategic initiatives.

I will be working with Gaye Lynn and Susy in the coming weeks as they transition to their new positions. They both will be located at Highland Business Center.

Dr. Erasmus Addae has accepted the position of dean of distance learning. Dr. Addae most recently held the position of dean of distance learning at South Texas College and held related positions at Central Texas College prior to that.

Interviews for the position of associate vice president of workforce education are ongoing, and I expect an offer to be extended prior to the winter break, with a January start date.

Finally, we will be posting vacant dean positions the week of December 12, with an approximate close date of February 1. These positions will be posted internally, and we will interview candidates in the spring.

Please join me in extending a heartfelt congratulations to Gaye Lynn, Susy, and Erasmus as they begin their new roles.

Rio Grande renovation

As you know, and as noted in our bond project updates (ACC Bond Projects: Rio Grande Campus), the 2014 bond program funds critically needed restoration and renovation of our 100-year-old Rio Grande Campus. The architects have finalized the overall outlines for the renovated main building, (Building 1000), and ACC Project Manager Paul Mason has scheduled meetings this month and in early January with departments and offices that will either have classes or be housed in the building when it reopens in 2019. The renovation will preserve the building’s historic features, while providing state-of-the-art classrooms, innovative labs, and accelerated learning environments for our students.

Schedule

Spring 2017 will be the final semester courses are offered in Building 1000 before it is closed for renovations. Rio Grande Campus courses have been rescheduled at other campuses beginning summer 2017. We are currently finalizing the fall 2017 schedule, again rescheduling Rio Grande course sections to other campuses, although approximately 100 sections will continue to be offered in the already-renovated Building 3000. Our department chairs, deans, campus managers, and instructional services office are carefully reworking campus schedules to ensure that we are not reducing the number of courses we offer and that locations and times are appropriate.

Office assignments and move timeline

We are currently assigning staff housed at Rio Grande to other campuses. Initial reassignments were distributed December 7 and are under final review. Most faculty and staff will move to the Highland Campus, but some requested moves to other campuses that had available space. We very much appreciate the collaborative efforts of department chairs, deans, Student Services staff, and campus managers and their staffs in making this process as painless as possible.

As noted, we will close the Rio Grande Campus main building at the end of the spring semester. We will begin moving faculty and staff immediately after that. Faculty and staff may request an earlier move date, and where practical, we will try to accommodate them. Please note, however, that because there will be ongoing construction at ACC Highland during the spring semester, we do not anticipate moving faculty or staff to that campus early.

Mike

Mike Midgley
Vice President, Instruction

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