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July 14, 2016
Vol. 3, Issue 22
Board of Trustees

Chairman of the Board
Dr. Yvonne Katz
District 7

Vice Chair
Marcelo Casillas
District 4

Secretary
Dr. Gene Sprague
District 6

Asst. Secretary
Denver McClendon
District 2

Joe Alderete, Jr.
District 1

Anna U. Bustamante
District 3

Roberto Zarate
District 5

Clint Kingsbery
District 8

James Rindfuss
District 9

Emmanuel Nyong
Student Trustee

Chancellor

Dr. Bruce Leslie
Alamo Colleges
Alamo Colleges Celebrates National and State Recognitions
Alamo Colleges recently received official recognition
for its District Support Operations TAPE award.

For the seventh year in a row, the Alamo Colleges' Finance and Fiscal Services Department has been awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association for the comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR) prepared for the fiscal year ending August 31, 2015. According to the Government Finance Officers Association, "The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management."

The Alamo Colleges CAFR was prepared under the direction of Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Diane E. Snyder and Associate Vice Chancellor Pamela K. Ansboury. The award acknowledging this recognition will be presented at the Alamo Colleges' board meeting in August.

In addition, the Alamo Colleges has another occasion for celebration, having just received official recognition acknowledging the District Support Operations' Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE) from the Quality Texas Foundation, the statewide organization that represents the national Baldrige program in Texas. Both Alamo Colleges: Northwest Vista College (NVC) and Palo Alto College (PAC) previously received the TAPE award. The Alamo Colleges: San Antonio College (SAC), Northeast Lakeview College (NLC) and St. Philip's College (SPC) will submit their applications for the TAPE in October, and the entire Alamo Colleges' system will apply for the national Baldrige Award in May 2017.


Alamo Colleges Selected for National OpenStax Open Educational Resource Partnership Program
The Alamo Colleges has been selected to be a member
of Rice University-based OpenStax's Open Educational Resource Institutional Partnership program.

The Alamo Colleges is one of only 11 universities and colleges and the only community college in Texas selected by Rice University-based publisher OpenStax to be a member of its national Open Educational Resource (OER) Institutional Partnership Program starting in the 2016-17 academic school year.The program could potentially save students at partner schools a combined $4.2 million through further adoption of open educational resources, such as OpenStax textbooks.

OpenStax's partnership program is designed to provide free consultation for schools wanting to increase the use of OER on campus and to build a community of institutions dedicated to lowering the cost of course materials using OER. Selected institutions were required to demonstrate their commitment to using OER to drive student success and graduation rates.

Through its free, high-quality textbooks, OpenStax has saved students $68 million since its inception in 2012, with $42 million of those savings in the 2015-16 academic year alone. The Alamo Colleges' estimated potential savings per year after successful completion of the program will be $1.3 million.

Each school will receive individualized consulting on its OER efforts and strategy. Program benefits include a customized strategic plan to increase OER use on campus, up to 10 hours of dedicated tech support for using, editing or adding to OpenStax books or content from OpenStax CNX, at least one campus visit from an OpenStax representative and additional support tailored for the institution. Institutions will also benefit from community support through the other schools in the partnership.

NVC faculty member Dr. June V. Pedraza
has been named the chair of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies.

Alamo Colleges - Northwest Vista College Faculty Member Heads National Organization

Alamo Colleges - Northwest Vista College faculty member Dr. June V. Pedraza has been named the new chair of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS), in which academic programs, departments and research centers focus on issues pertaining to Mexican Americans, Chicana/os, and Latina/os.

The 30-year-old organization just held its annual convention in April in Colorado. In NACCS'd recent newsletter, Pedraza said this about the 2016 conference:

"We did great work in terms of discussing, evaluating, and synthesizing issues that affect Chicano/a studies in today's socio-political climate. In addition, collectively, we came together to combat many forms of systemic structural violence that we encounter on a daily basis."



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The Alamo Colleges mission is: empowering our diverse communities for success. Our vision is: the Alamo Colleges will be the best in the nation in student success and performance excellence. The Alamo Colleges is one district with five community colleges serving more than 90,000 students annually from Bexar County and seven other counties in our service area. We provide an affordable, quality college education that leads to associate degrees, certificates and transfers to four-year universities. Hundreds of thousands of Bexar County residents who have come through the Alamo Colleges education programs are major contributors to the economy and culture of Sa n Antonio.