22-year ACC trustee stepping down; three others also will exit the board
The 4 departures come with system on eve of opening 12th campus.
Austin Community College’s longest-serving trustee Monday announced his resignation from the board.
Allen Kaplan has served on the board for 22 years and was re-elected to his fourth six-year term in 2012. Though his term is scheduled to end in 2018, his resignation is effective Aug. 1.
“I feel good about being able to expand opportunities for thousands and thousands of people,” said Kaplan, 71. “The thing I’m most satisfied about is that more than 100,000 ... got an education.” Kaplan’s resignation comes as three other trustees have announced they will not seek re-election to the nine-member board this fall.
The college said Monday that Trustee Guadalupe Sosa and board Chairman Vic Villarreal, who have served six years each, and Trustee Jeffrey Richard, who has served 12 years, will complete their terms but will not seek another six-year term. The election for those seats is slated for Nov. 8, and Kaplan said that with the other transitions, “it just seemed like a good time for me to step away.”
Richard said participating in decisions including employee health care and student tuition rates and adding more school districts to the college’s tax base are “the single greatest honor I have been afforded. I feel like I’m leaving the college in a better position and poised for extraordinary things.”
Kaplan most recently has served as the board’s vice chairman. He has helped govern the board during various ACC leadership transitions and during times when the college’s accreditation was in jeopardy.
Kaplan, a consultant on public-private partnerships and public
affairs, said his departure is with “boundless optimism” for the college’s future.
ACC was established in 1971 and received its taxing authority in 1986. During Kaplan’s tenure, voters approved the college’s first tax increase and first bond package.
When Kaplan was first elected to the board in 1994, the college had four campuses that served about 21,000 students. Now, ACC has 11 campuses, with another being built in Leander, and serves 45,000 students.
About 6,000 high school students also are taking dualcredit courses through the college.
“We’ve really become a cutting-edge college,” Kaplan said.
While running for re-election in 2012, Kaplan said he wanted to continue the college’s progress in improved graduation and completion rates, expanded workforce training and the redevelopment of the former Highland Mall property.
Villarreal said that Kaplan is “extremely visionary” and that he was one of the main architects of ACC’s 2014 $386 million bond package, which divided new growth and improvements to existing facilities into two propositions. Both passed. “He has that vision to understand not only the educational impact, but the economic development impact,” Villarreal said, adding that Kaplan was one of the main reasons he decided to run for the college board in 2010.
“His love for the college made an impression on me back then.”
In 1994, ACC had four campuses and 21,000 students. It now has 11 campuses and 45,000 students.