Final 6_2026 Virtual Employee Town Hall Question Report.xlsx

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1	Virtual Employee Town Hall (06/05/2026) - Question Report
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3	Report Details:	Total Questions:	62
4		Webinar ID:	860 2934 9921
5		Start Time:	8:30:36
6		Meeting Duration:	95
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8	#	Question	Asker Name	Answer	Answer Name
9	1	Can you please tell me what the lawsuit was about? Sorry. I missed that. thx	Marci Shrull	In-state tuition for undocumented students.	Chris Cervini
10	1	Can you please tell me what the lawsuit was about? Sorry. I missed that. thx	Marci Shrull	For many decades, Texas law allowed undocumented students tht have resided in the state for a certain number of years and also graduated from a Texas high school to be eligible for in-state tuition (as opposed to out of state or international tuition). The Federdal governement sued Texas claiming that state law violated a federal regulation. Instead of fighting that law suit, the Texas Attorney General agreed with the Feds and chose not to challenge the suit. This effecttively caused all Institutions of Higher Ed in Texas to reclassify these studetn from in-state to out-of state and therefore signifianclty increased their tuition rates. The law suit Russell is referring to is challenging the position taken by both the Federal government and the Texas Attorney General and the process (or lack there of) that they used to essentially change State Law which has never gone through the State Legislature.	Neil Vickers
11	2	The upward evaluations are great but some of us have multiple “supervisors” and are only able to evaulate one. Is this something going to change in the future?	Jon-Mikel Pearson	Hi Jon-Mikel. This is the first year of Upward Evaluations, so there will be continuous improvement as we move forward each year. We recognize that some folks may have more than one supervisor. We also know that people would like to evaluate up the chain. More refinement will come.	Gaye Lynn Scott
12	3	Kelly - I noticed that we've started using the term manager instead of supervisor in a few different places - is this an official change?	Susan Burkhauser (she/her)	Hi, Dr. B - I think it's safe to say yes...not formally, but the DPOC team decided on that for the suite of products within scope there, and it's been adopted in more ARs and other products as they're being created. I can't speak to what verbiage was before or why, but it appears this is prompting us to make a bit of a pivot.	Kelly Torrico
13	4	Is there a link to the lawsuit or how can we see the final decision?	s1631317	When appeals are argued in appellate courts, we are subject to the unknown timeline of the court. We just wait until the 5th circuit issues its opinion. It could be weeks or months.	Gaye Lynn Scott
14	4	Is there a link to the lawsuit or how can we see the final decision?	s1631317	You can learn more here https://www.nilc.org/litigation/united-states-of-america-v-texas/	Chris Cervini
15	5	any updates on the implementation phase of the Paying for College design team?	yesenia (fao)	Here’s the implementation page for the ToC work: https://infohub.austincc.edu/theory-of-change/implementation/. You can track progress on any Design Team implementation here.	Gaye Lynn Scott
16	5	any updates on the implementation phase of the Paying for College design team?	yesenia (fao)	Yesenia, The PfC team has not begun implementation yet. Feel free to email or chat me directly if you'd like to talk more.	Samantha Croft (she/hers)
17	6	I technically “work” for CE also, and looking at trying to build some new programs with them, so not sure if they are considered a supervisor or will be. Thank you. :)	Jon-Mikel Pearson	Right now you have a supervisor to whom you report - your chair. Are you working with CE or for CE? If you were to be something like an hourly instructor in CE in addition to your FT faculty role in credit, then you would have two supervisors. But this first launch of Upward Evaluations went with the primary supervisor.	Gaye Lynn Scott
18	7	Thank you	s1631317
19	8	You know me - its complicated. lol	Jon-Mikel Pearson	Jon-Mikel the lovely, complicated soul! Thanks for your patience. we will get it figured out ;)	Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart
20	9	Other staff and I have recently noticed it’s no longer possible to request vacation days off on Workday past a certain date; instead, it only allows requesting of FMLA, unpaid leave, or sabbatical starting on August 17. This makes planning ahead very difficult not only for the individual trying to take time off, but for their team. Are there any plans to address this issue?	ACC E&R Patrick Schmidt	I believe when we roll into the new academic year, we’ll be able to request leave in Workday. It seems to be set to the academic year. Can you informally plan with your supervisor or with your team?	Gaye Lynn Scott
21	9	Other staff and I have recently noticed it’s no longer possible to request vacation days off on Workday past a certain date; instead, it only allows requesting of FMLA, unpaid leave, or sabbatical starting on August 17. This makes planning ahead very difficult not only for the individual trying to take time off, but for their team. Are there any plans to address this issue?	ACC E&R Patrick Schmidt	My understanding is that Payroll within Business Services activates this calendar within Workday. This should become available shortly and, in the meantime, Dr. Scott's recommendation is sound. Questions related to the Absence calendar in Workday can be submitted via TDX to the Business Services team.	Kelly Torrico
22	10	With all due respect, we have done upward evaluations in the past... been a while, but it used to exist.	ACC ~ Randy Wedlund	Yes it did. We did it for years, and that’s why we’ve worked so hard to get to the place to conduct Upward Evaluations again.	Gaye Lynn Scott
23	10	With all due respect, we have done upward evaluations in the past... been a while, but it used to exist.	ACC ~ Randy Wedlund	Correct, and it's been such a long time with so much change in between that we still consider this a baseline - particularly since the College has introduced the values and associated behavioral expectations. Articulating this as a baseline year allows a reintroduction with consideration for the fact that supervisors have not had the opportunity to recieve prior training or evaluation on their leadership towards values-based behaviors!	Kelly Torrico
24	11	there's no updates on there so i was curious	yesenia (fao)
25	12	Was the inability to request time off in the next academic year always the case? I believe I was previously able to request off time in a spring semester while we were in the previous summer semester. I understand that most supervisors are accomdating, but that can't account for if a supervisor goes through a career change , undergoes a significant life-altering event, etc. Not being able to put absences into writing, especially ones early into the next semester, and lack of certainly is not ideal for planning flights, booking hotels, or managing staff calendars if the absent staff's shifts or duties need to be covered.	ACC E&R Patrick Schmidt	I’m afraid I don’t know. It may be the way Workday is set up - not sure. Perhaps another Cabinet collegue might know more about this than I do.	Gaye Lynn Scott
26	12	Was the inability to request time off in the next academic year always the case? I believe I was previously able to request off time in a spring semester while we were in the previous summer semester. I understand that most supervisors are accomdating, but that can't account for if a supervisor goes through a career change , undergoes a significant life-altering event, etc. Not being able to put absences into writing, especially ones early into the next semester, and lack of certainly is not ideal for planning flights, booking hotels, or managing staff calendars if the absent staff's shifts or duties need to be covered.	ACC E&R Patrick Schmidt	Here's a response from VC Hodge: In response to Patrick Schmidt: Yes, Payroll Services (H2R) manages the leave calendar, as we would be opening those pay periods, and people could submit timesheets. We want to ensure that people record their time in the correct pay period and get paid in a timely manner.	Kelly Torrico
27	13	Are we looking at more transfer partnerships in addition to Bats to Cats and St. Ed’s? I am specifcally thinking about Texas A&M - Central Texas.	Houli (Jennifer Houlihan)	Hello - yes we are! It will be important to have options for our students. We just met with TAMU-Central Texas this week so we are excited about the possibilities!!!	Dr. Shasta Buchanan, Austin Community College District
28	14	Is there a plan for feedback/collegewide shared governance on the VBB matrices?	Alex Watkins (she/her)	yes! thats the next steps.	Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart
29	15	In response to Patrick Schmidt: Yes, Payroll Services (H2R) manages the leave calendar, as we would be opening those pay periods, and people could submit timesheets. We want to ensure that people record their time in the correct pay period and get paid in a timely manner.	Angela Hodge	Thank you! I shared this with him.	Kelly Torrico
30	16	We are currently in a hiring freeze for much of Student Affairs currently. Is that due to the budget crunch? Will we be able to hire for these vacancies beginning in September?	ACC- Mario Tenorio	Yes - we are working through ensuring we are staying within our allocated allotment for our SA Budget and ensuring we can right-size budgets across all of student affairs given the changes we made with functional areas. Some areas were not always resourced so we are doing our best in light of these things to be more thoughtful with right-sizing the budget	Dr. Shasta Buchanan, Austin Community College District
31	17	Is there an update on when Student Affairs/Basic Needs compensation study completed? I know that it was pushed back a couple of times but last I heard was June….	April Seabourn	Hi, April! Thank you for raising this. HR has completed preliminary mapping (aligning current positions/titles to the appropriate job category in the updated structure), and we've been awaiting the go-ahead to partner with these divisions to approve any updates to job category, and then align compensation for positions that align to a pay range with a midpoint higher than the incumbent's current salary. We are planning to now move forward with Basic Needs, and are ready to move forward with StuAff as soon as we get clearance from Finance and the Chancellor's Office.	Kelly Torrico
32	18	on Trasnfer, do our internal college systems currently identify prospective and current students with transfer eligibility on a timeline basis rather than their intent? do we have a predictive analytics process that helps us undertand what actions or support they need, how to move them on next-best actions to support, convert and move them forward. I love seeing transfer options expand, but am curious about how our internal systems currently work.	Kristina Lopez	We have a lot of work to do on our systems, and some of that work will be done as we move to Banner as our Student Information System. We want to track students’ progress, keep them on the path, have them identify their preferred transfer institutions so that they can follow transfer guides (e.g., taking the right science or math class), and so much more. And as you point out, the more we can document and track, the more data we have to rely on - not just historical but predictive data.	Gaye Lynn Scott
33	19	In December, we received this email regarding the Guidehouse Studey that said "Student Affairs and Basic Needs are excluded at this time due to ongoing realignments." Is there a timeline for this to be finialized?	ACC - Arci Anguiano	Good morning Arci ... below is Kelly's response to a similar question.	Cara Crowley ~ ACC
34	19	In December, we received this email regarding the Guidehouse Studey that said "Student Affairs and Basic Needs are excluded at this time due to ongoing realignments." Is there a timeline for this to be finialized?	ACC - Arci Anguiano	Here is Kelly's response to a similar question. Thank you for raising this. HR has completed preliminary mapping (aligning current positions/titles to the appropriate job category in the updated structure), and we've been awaiting the go-ahead to partner with these divisions to approve any updates to job category, and then align compensation for positions that align to a pay range with a midpoint higher than the incumbent's current salary. We are planning to now move forward with Basic Needs, and are ready to move forward with StuAff as soon as we get clearance from Finance and the Chancellor's Office.	Cara Crowley ~ ACC
35	20	Are raises proposed for part-time/hourly employees as well?	Kathleen Jurgens	Yes, They are include din this proposal	Neil Vickers
36	21	Thank you!	Kathleen Jurgens
37	22	Will part time employees be considered in the raise like last year if one is given?	McKayla McCarty (she/her)	Yes - Neil just answered question asked by another staff member.	Gaye Lynn Scott
38	23	Thank you Kelly	April Seabourn
39	24	Is this raise for faculty as well?	Jordan Villarreal	If the Board approves the 2% raise for Fiscal Year 2027, then that raise would be applied to the FT faculty pay scales.	Gaye Lynn Scott
40	25	Is the 1.5% lump sum payment based on annual salary or monthly amount?	Megan Krou	Annual. So if your annual comp is $80k, then you would receive a $1,200 payment	Neil Vickers
41	26	Regarding transfers, is UT Austin part of the picture - already established, not included for some reason? Also, are San Antonio institutions being considered?	Carla Mendiola	We have all sorts of transfer pathways for our students. Texas State is by far our largest transfer institution. UT certainly is on the list, as is A&M, Tech, and others. And yes, we have articulation agreements and transfer pathways with four-year institutions in San Antonio and across Texas. We actually have transfer pathways with institutions across the country.	Gaye Lynn Scott
42	27	Can someone pass this on in the Q&A? For Patrick Schmidt: Yes, Payroll Services (H2R) manages the leave calendar, as we would be opening those pay periods, and people could submit timesheets. We want to ensure that people record their time in the correct pay period and get paid in a timely manner.	Angela Hodge	Hi, Angela, I did already! :)	Kelly Torrico
43	28	To be clear, the 3.5% would move forward beyond the next fiscal year? or would it drop to 2% for FY28?	ACC E&R Monica Olivo (she/her)	Only the 2% would increase your "base" pay, and therefore move on beyond FY27. With that said, the Board could always choose to increase that increase that amount as part fo the FY28 budget process if the revenue picute improves.	Neil Vickers
44	29	Wrong response	Angela Hodge
45	30	Patrick responded in chat to the correct message. My bad, and thanks, Kelly! SMH.	Angela Hodge
46	31	Morning! For the one time payment, will it be based off our current salary or will the other raise be applied to get that number?	Matthew Campbell	Current salary.	Gaye Lynn Scott
47	32	Is the lump sum based on the pre 2% raise or with the 2% raise?	Amanda Bishop	Based on current salary in Fiscal Year 2026.	Gaye Lynn Scott
48	33	Has ACC ever considered raises based on current salaries? Respectfully, I am asking if ACC has ever considered not giving a raise across the board to all employees, but rather for folks under or at a certain threshhold.	Daniela (she/her) Nonprofit Austin at ACC	We have done "no less than" raises in past. I few years ago the Board approved a 6% raise with no one gettign less than $5,000. So if you made $50k, then you actually got a 10% raise that year	Neil Vickers
49	34	Is it possible to exclude certain part-time employees, such as work-study employees? The raise last year negatively impacted many of our students. Many students' semester awards had to reduced and it reduces how many students we can offer work-study too.	McKayla McCarty (she/her)	We not planning to increase the $23/hr minimum hourly rate. Do wwe have Workstudy students that are employed in that role for more than the current year. I would think this would be rare	Neil Vickers
50	35	In regrds to telework, employees have reported barriers to getting accomodations for altered work schedules. Will this be address in the AR or somehwere else with the new plans?	ACC - Dr. Talisia McHugh (she/her)	This process would fall under ADA rules and procedures. There not currnelty any plans to change those rules, which already have provisions realted to these types of accomodations	Neil Vickers
51	35	In regrds to telework, employees have reported barriers to getting accomodations for altered work schedules. Will this be address in the AR or somehwere else with the new plans?	ACC - Dr. Talisia McHugh (she/her)	To Neil's point, the College complies with the law and associated regulations under the Americans with Disabilities (ADA) Act. Within that process, each situation is handled on a case-by-case basis and involves an 'interactive process' which engages a qualifying physician, the employee, and the employer - pursuant to the law.	Kelly Torrico
52	36	For Angela Hodge - Is there a way to ensure that people record their time in the correct pay period and get paid in a timely manner, while also not blocking those that want and need to plan ahead? October is around the corner, and I can't see how much time I will have nor request time off. This started last year, because the year before, I was able to schedule time off in October in January. The change made was a poor one for those of us that can submit our time without issues.	y2329281
53	37	How would the 1.5% be calculated for adjunct faculty or others who work have a varied salary each year?	Lynn Ybarra	WE are also think about a flat dollar amount instead of percentage because of scenarios like this. But if it statys a percentage, then we would simply look at the Adjuncts total pay for this year and use that as the basis for the 1.5%. The good news is that we will already know what the adjunct total pay is for the year since it will already be August when we do this	Neil Vickers
54	38	The question form in smartsheet has the same question listed 3 times! not sure if that was a mistake but letting y'all know!	Cam Claassen	Its to allow you to ask multiple questions if you have them	Aaron Henry
55	39	I would appreciate confirmation that the lump sum distribution would include faculty and when that could be expected. Thank you.	Carla Mendiola	The Board has not yet approved this proposal. Assuming that they do, it is a lump sum for all employees (that means it includes faculty). For FT faculty it would be 1.5% of their salary based on their placement on the FT faculty pay scale. It would likely be paid in August.	Gaye Lynn Scott
56	40	I understand this isn't final, but I would ike to express that calling it a 3.5% raise is a bit confusing. As "raise" implies the change is permanent, when it would be a 1.5% bonus.	ACC E&R Monica Olivo (she/her)	Correct. How it is worded in the budget is "a 1.5% one-time, lump-sum payment in August 2026 (technically FY26) and then a 2% annual raise"	Neil Vickers
57	40	I understand this isn't final, but I would ike to express that calling it a 3.5% raise is a bit confusing. As "raise" implies the change is permanent, when it would be a 1.5% bonus.	ACC E&R Monica Olivo (she/her)	I specifically called it a 3.5% compensation packaged with a 2% perment raise for that reason and we ill have to communicate that a lot, I know. But we wanted to honor employees creatively while acknowledging the budget situation education writ large is facing.	Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart
58	41	Can we have IT show and tell on a Friday, when student-facing employees are more likely to participate?	ACC - Karla Haney	This is definitely something we will think about for future show ’n’ tell opportunities. Thank you for suggesting.	Katie Lessley she/her
59	42	Who do we contact if we discover outdated or incorrect information including contacts, plan info?	Laura DiMeo	There’s a link to report at the bottom of each webpage. Click that link and submit a ticket for changes.	Katie Lessley she/her
60	43	Edward, what's the process for an individual department to have their website content updated? 🤔 Is there a group or point of contact?	Felecia Y. Williams	There will be work sessions with key stakeholders to hone in on key areas and their needs, like Admissions & Aid and Academic Affairs departments.	Katie Lessley she/her
61	44	As ACC moves forward with the web redesign, how will the college ensure that accessibility is built into the project from the beginning—not just checked at the end—and that students using assistive technology can easily find, navigate, and use the information they need?	Sean Loraas	live answered	Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart
62	45	I don't know if I missed a possible mention on this regarding the cost of living adjustment and bonus, but I wonder if it has been explored giving employees the option of how their cost of living adjustment is divided between an adjustment and a bonus. Everyone at the college manages and operates their finances differently, some many may want a larger percentage as an adjustment and others may be more interested in a bonus in full. Others may want a 50/50 split. I just think it might be good to explore offering our employees an option to choose the distribution percentages between adjustment and bonus and that may also help the budget according to how people choose to have their adjustment/bonus distributed.	Victor Sibaja-Molina	It’s an interesting idea, Victor. But we also have to think about availability of funds. This year we have the funds to pay the one-time payment. Next year we won’t have those funds available. There’s also the implementation question - how would we track and implement thousands of individual choices? But thanks for the observation.	Gaye Lynn Scott
63	46	Templates are helpful, so that users have a sense of where o find information, at the same time, some differentiation should be considered. For example, not every program in the School of Community Education is the same.	Candace Hunter	I think that we want to allow for some variability but within some limits, as you describe.	Gaye Lynn Scott
64	47	Have the FY 2027 insurance rates been posted anywhere? With open enrollment approaching, I am interested to see if/how much the rates have increased.	ACC - Michael Burch (He, Him)	ERS just approved these a week or two ago. I know they are poste don their website and HR is working on a communication to the College on those rates. There were changes	Neil Vickers
65	48	In regards to telework, is there a reason it is "generally" limited to two telework days when there are positions that meet the exceptions. Will those positions be able to be approved for more?	Jeanne Vaughn	That is why we used to word "generally". We know there may need to be some exceptions	Neil Vickers
66	49	How can we identify webpages that are no longer accurate or of departments/programs that we do not have at this time when we do a search in the ACC website?	ACC Elida Guardia Bonet (she, her, hers)	We have just completed a comprehensive analysis of all the content on our site and will work departments to identify areas that are no longer accurate.	Gail Bayeta (she/her)
67	50	I heard Knicks in 6	Dr. Dorado M. Kinney
68	51	Spurs or Knicks ??	Mia Torres
69	52	I would also love to have IT show and tell on a Friday, when student-facing employees are more likely to participate.	Q Gildon	This is something we will consider for future show-n-tells. Thank you. :)	Katie Lessley she/her
70	53	Any updates to the compensation evaluation with SA?	yesenia (fao)	As soon as we get clearance from Finance and the Chancellor's Office, we will proceed!	Kelly Torrico
71	54	When TOC first started, you said no one would override the committees, including you. I have heard rumors that yourself and other leaders are overriding TOC recommendations. Can you give some insight into the relationship with cabinet and TOC recommendations?	ACC - Dr. Talisia McHugh (she/her)	live answered	Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart
72	54	When TOC first started, you said no one would override the committees, including you. I have heard rumors that yourself and other leaders are overriding TOC recommendations. Can you give some insight into the relationship with cabinet and TOC recommendations?	ACC - Dr. Talisia McHugh (she/her)	Examples of these changes will be discussed at the Practices of Caring Roadshow on Meet Basic Needs at HYS on June 11th!	Samantha Croft (she/hers)
73	55	Yes, 3.5% compensation package is not clear, in my opinion. Thank you for hearing my feedback.	ACC E&R Monica Olivo (she/her)
74	56	Absolutely. We have several. The bulk of our 25/26 cohort received the raise because their start dates were in August 2025. We expect many of them to return for 26/27. I'm happy to dicuss this further offline if it's helpful.	McKayla McCarty (she/her)	If they are only startig in August for thier Fall award, then they shoul dnot have gotten the raise. I will discuss this with HR	Neil Vickers
75	57	How does current salary work for adjunct faculty? Many of us taught additonally classes in the fall with the increased enrollment.	Don Morris	The college would calculate your total pay for the academic year to determine the amount for 1.5%	Gaye Lynn Scott
76	58	If we have multiple positions w/in the colege will the lump sum payment be based on the primary job or will there be a payment for both positions	ACC FA - Marissa Burill
77	59	How do managers determine if a position is student facing? What if you have only seen 5 in a year?	Jocelyn Montgomery
78	60	I heard that faculty will have more WFH time/flexibility than staff. Is that a thing?	Teri Rogers	Hi, Teri. I can tell you the work that went into this was exhaustively oriented toward practices and policies that were not just compliant with the law, but fair and as equal as possible for all ACC employees with a vibrant campus presence for our students in mind.	Kelly Torrico
79	60	I heard that faculty will have more WFH time/flexibility than staff. Is that a thing?	Teri Rogers	Not sure what you are hearing, so it it is hard to respond. Faculty in-person is proportional to their in-person versus DL class assignement. FT Faculty are required to teach a certain percent of their laod in-person	Neil Vickers
80	61	tell us about the walkthrough of the new campus	s1631317
81	62	How do you know if you have a student facing roll?	Jocelyn Montgomery
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