July 8, 2026
Raising the profile of our colleges nationally is one of my top priorities. I am grateful to Inside Higer Ed for interviewing me at length and producing this robust article on our sector in today’s issue. I hope each of you sees your purpose and aspirations captured in this piece.
The U.S. Department of Labor has announced grants for the Rapid Reskill Employment Recovery National Dislocated Worker activity. Applications are open until August 3, 2026.
Most campuses are aware of the pending proposal by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to overhaul the federal government’s procedures for awarding grant funds. The regulations introduce a new and inappropriate degree of political influence on grant making, with potentially serious impacts for members. AACC is formally pushing back on the proposed regulations. Campuses can also submit comments by July 13.
Next week’s government relations webinar on accreditation will delve into how the Department of Education’s draft regulations may impact colleges. Please register for the July 15 webinar and consider participating in AACC’s Advocates in Action meeting in Washington, DC, September 15-16.
Reimagining leadership preparation is one of the elements of the Strategic Compass 2035. Our new leadership design structure is now captured in Reimagining Leadership for a New Era, which introduces the framework for our leadership development programs and details the findings from the Leadership Design Lab.
My remarks to the National Alliance for Community and Technical Colleges at the end of June emphasized the growth of regional ecosystems. I mentioned recent examples from Alabama, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Virginia, and New York, although I know there are many more. The future of community colleges is about networks of opportunity around transfer, industry partnerships, shared grants, Workforce Pell planning, and collaborative apprenticeship design. Although collaboration requires extra time and effort, the shared collective impact is irrefutable.
In case you missed the June/July issue of the CC Journal, I want to draw your attention to some lessons in resilience from Marion Technical College in Ohio. Thanks in part to a strategic partnership with another college, Marion Tech was awarded $2.2 million in federal funding to create a new smart manufacturing major. With this funding—plus support from Rural Guided Pathways coaching—it began a powerful transformation process. Retention rates went from 28% to 63% in 5 years. As enrollment numbers jumped from 2,100 to more than 3,700, their state subsidy rose by $2.7 million.
While Marion Tech leaders surely deserve kudos for these achievements, I was also impressed by their acknowledgement that they borrowed strategies they saw working at other colleges. Learning from fellow community colleges is an approach that I see driving successful transformation across our institutions.