AUSTIN, Texas — Austin Community College (ACC) will soon provide more financial assistance for its current students.
On Monday, ACC's Board of Trustees met and approved a new Affordability Scholarship, which covers the last 15 credit hours for students who were enrolled in courses during spring 2024.
The scholarship will be available to those working towards associate's degrees, which includes more than 20,000 students.
After reaching 45 credit hours, students who receive the scholarship will be given a year to put their funding toward their tuition.
"Our student leaders had the courage to come to us and share what their lives are really like," ACC Chancellor Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart said. "They're experiencing things like food and housing insecurity more than ever."
By implementing the program, Lowery-Hart hopes to put the "students and their needs first."
The Affordability Scholarship was introduced just months after ACC announced the approval of its Free Tuition pilot program, which offers free courses to high school, homeschool, GED and charter school students who graduated this spring.
Also called the College Affordability Plan, this initiative has already garnered success at ACC, with a significant spike in enrollment rates from fall 2023 to fall 2024 by 23%.
In response, the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve the Affordability Scholarship as way to "honor the students enrolled at ACC during the approval for the Free Tuition Pilot Program," Lowery-Hart said.
The program should cost just more than $12 million, using funds from the college's current reserves.
Eventually, ACC hopes to provide free tuition for all students, with the Affordability Scholarship as an initial step.