Upcoming Events

2022 IACCT Awards!

A reminder that award nominations are due March 8. Instead of sending in nominations in pdf form like we have in the past, all nomination forms can be found and filled out here. The full timeline can be found here. We hope every College submits nominations as we all know our teams are stellar and deserve credit!

ACCT 2022 Community College National Legislative Summit

February 6-9 in Washington D.C.

Preparing for NLS

NLS Registration

Guide & Legislative Priorities

The text reads: 2022 National Legislative Summit Iowa Attendee Guide. Monday February 7, 2022: 7 a.m. - 2:30 pm registration. 8:00 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. Opening General Session. 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Community College Priorities Session. 12:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. General Session Luncheon. 2:15 p.m. - 3:!5 p.m. Policy Focus Sessions. 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. National Capital Reception. Tuesday, February 8, 2022 7:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. Iowa Hospitality breakfast (all Iowa trustees invited). 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. General Session on Capitol Hill (tentative) 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Iowa Congressional Delegation meetings. Wednesday, February 9, 2022 8:30 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. General Session Breakfast. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Capitol Building and Congressional Office Buildings remain closed to the public. To visit with members, you need to make advance arrangements and be escorted by staff. Please look for information from IACCT staff on protocol for specific meetings.

2022 IACCT Federal Priorities. Invest in Strong Community Colleges and Support Students. We support efforts to build on the demonstrated success of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant program, tightly linking training programs to jobs as the economy recovers. Additionally, the following programs are essential to Community College students and continued funding of them is critical: Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants (FSEOG), Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS), TRIO, and GEAR UP. Finally, we support increasing funding for Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, Adult Education State Grants, state grants under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), and NSF’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE). Reauthorize the higher education act. We support modernizing higher education funding by updating this law for the first time since 2008 and creating aligned national programs to enhance Community College student access and success. This includes increasing the maximum award for Pell grants and extending Pell eligibility to short-term training programs. Support College and Career Transition Counselors. We have a pending $2 million Community Project Funding request for College and Career Transition Counselors. The request was championed by Rep. Miller-Meeks and is being considered as a part of the larger appropriations process. College and Career Transitional Counselors (CCTC) assist Iowa high school students in exploring College career options and preparing for careers with necessary training and education. CCTC counselors spend time at high schools each week, providing students with information about various career options; helping shape their career exploration and studies; and providing guidance and assistance so that students identify career and educational goals and take the necessary steps to make a successful transition from high school to College and careers. The CCTC model of shared positions between high schools and Community Colleges has demonstrated success on a limited scale at increasing the number of Iowa high school graduates pursuing and succeeding in education and training beyond high school. It is time to bring the CCTC model to greater scale through appropriate investments.

Download Guide

Hospitality Event

We hope you can join us for our breakfast hospitality event! The breakfast will be at the Marriott Marquis Hotel (conference location) where you will have the chance to speak with fellow Iowa trustees. See you there!

Tuesday, February 8

7:30 a.m. - 8:45 a.m.

Marriott Marquis Hotel

Monument, Level 4

Download Hospitality Invite

Phi Theta Kappa: Celebrating the All-Iowa Academic Team - March 2

At the Embassy Suites (101 E. Locust St, Des Moines)

5:30 p.m. - Registration & Social

6:00 p.m. - Seating Begins

6:30 p.m. - Dinner & Keynote

7:00 p.m. - Awards and Ceremony

An invitation flyer that reads: you're invited! Join us for a celebration of the 2021 All-Iowa Academic Team. March 2, 2022. Registration and Social 5:30 p.m. Seating begins 6 p.m. Dinner and Keynote 6: 30 p.m. Awards Ceremony 7:00 p.m. Embassy Suites, 101 E. Locust St. Des Moines. Hosted by Iowa Lakes Community College.

Student Legislative Seminar and Community College Day on the Hill - March 3

This year we are doing things a bit differently. Both SLS and CC Day on the Hill will be at the Capitol from 7:30 to noon on March 3, where groups are encouraged to set up meetings with legislators and each College can set up their booth in the Rotunda. Breakfast will be available for both groups (room yet to be determined). CC Day on the Hill will end at noon, but both groups are welcome to eat lunch at Curate where the SLS sessions will be held. The Seminar will begin at 12:30 p.m. and conclude at 3:30 p.m. The agenda for SLS can be found here. The agenda for CC Day on the hill can be found here.

ACCT Governance Leadership Institute: Strengthening the Leadership Team of the Board

March 23-25, 2022 in Philadelphia, PA

The ACCT Governance Leadership Institute (GLI) is an annual governance-development and educational program for trustees and CEOs of Community Colleges. The GLI provides an in-depth overview of fundamental and advanced topics and trends unique to Community College leaders. The GLI is an opportunity for new and experienced governing board members, as well as the college CEO, to collaborate and strengthen relationships as a team, and to come away with a common understanding of the roles and responsibilities of governing boards, as well as best practices for effective trustee-CEO relationships.

For more information, head here.

Aligning Credit and Non-Credit for Equity Workshop - March 28

Nationally, most Community Colleges offer non-credit workforce programs and credit-based programs that operate separately. While there are reasons for the separation of programs and some distinctions are in fact beneficial, other differences are simply default or arbitrary. And so, the two systems often exist separately, causing potential content duplication, lack of communication, and missed opportunities to collaborate and build pathways. Students enrolled in these programs are particularly impacted. Students in non-credit programs do not often have a direct pathway to continue their education on the credit side toward a degree. They are unlikely to receive credit for the learning that occurred in their non-credit program and unlikely to have access to financial aid or other means of funding for their education. The student experience in non-credit workforce programs is inequitable to that of students in credit programs in terms of their access to services, visibility, and representation across the institution. (From “A More Unified Community College,” ESG, 2020)

Iowa Community Colleges teams are invited to a special Zoom workshop on Friday, March 28^th designed to help all Iowa Community Colleges identify a set of action steps or priorities to get started on aligning noncredit and credit programs on their campuses. The workshop, led by Education Strategy Group will include:

Making the case for how aligning noncredit and credit programs is an equity issue;
Aligning with current equity initiatives at the colleges and the association, among others; and
Specific breakouts for those colleges that have begun aligning noncredit and credit and for those that aspire to, but have not yet started.

Register for this special session exclusively for Iowa Community College leaders today. Registration is free. Suggested attendees include presidents, vice presidents, academic deans or department heads, noncredit programs or department heads, registrar, advising, financial aid, institutional research, noncredit faculty, and credit faculty.

Zoom Registration Link

Education Strategy Group (ESG) is a mission-driven, national consulting firm specializing in K-12, higher education and workforce solutions. In 2020, ESG released, A More Unified Community College, a guide that details resources and best practices for community colleges to better align their noncredit and credit programs. ESG has a track record of presenting on this framework at national conferences and upon request to state systems and colleges. Past clients include the Association of Community College Trustees, Achieving the Dream, the National Council on Workforce Education, the Hawaii Community College System and the Texas Community College Association.

Iowa Community College 2022 Summer Conference

Our summer conference will be here before you know it! Mark your calendars for July 20-22 in Sioux City. More information to come!

The text reads: IACCT 2022 Conference Save the Date. Proudly hosted by Western Iowa Tech Community College July 20-22, 2022. Conference will be held in-person. More information to come. In the lower right-hand corner are the WITCC logo and the IACCT logo.