Parkland’s Board of Trustees are the legislative arm of policy making within the school but also represent Parkland in some external affairs. Last week, members of the Board of Trustees will be travelling to Washington D.C. for an annual summit hosted by the Association of Community College Trustees’ (ACCT).
The ACCT is a non-profit organization involved in developing policy for community colleges. This organization is comprised of 1200 college boards across the country. That includes some community, junior, and technical colleges and represents over 11 million students. The vision statement of this organization is to “enable boards of trustees to lead in advocacy for the community college system.” Through this organization boards of trustees around the country played a role in securing national pandemic relief for students. The ACCT’s 2020-2021 State of Association Report describes several legislative victories including multiple bills that allocated funding for pandemic relief to students.
February 6th-9th in Washington DC, ACCT hosted a national legislative summit bringing together delegations from schools around the country to discuss education policy. Stephanie Stuart, Parkland Vice President of Communications and External Affairs, explained , “The Legislative Summit is an opportunity to learn how the shifting landscape of higher education policy is impacting community colleges nationally.” By bringing together many working pieces of higher education, national issues can be identified and discussed, while solutions can be developed using the collective insight of those involved in managing problems in their localities.
Along with bringing together schools this event gives trustees an opportunity to hear from those at the highest level of education policy. The ACCT national summit is an event that can attract many top figures in national politics. In previous years, this event has hosted prominent speakers like First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. This year, the organization upheld that standard with featured speakers such as Labor Secretary Martin J. Walsh, Journalist Major Garrett, and Education Secretary Dr. Miguel Cardona. Dr. Cardona is responsible for overseeing much of what relates to the national community college experience. This means he brings an important perspective to the issues facing the organization and attending delegations.
Headline speakers help educate the delegations and promote the organization, but more importantly there are opportunities for advocacy that being around powerful figures can bring. While in Washington, the Parkland delegation met with Illinois legislators to have some direct engagement with them.
Stuart said that Parkland’s attendees will meet with a state delegation of Illinois legislators and other Illinois community college attendees. Among the Illinois legislators are members of Congress, and both Illinois Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth. She explained ,“As part of those engagements, the college will focus on communicating legislative priorities and asking questions of legislators that can provide insights about the likelihood of pending legislation or their position on relevant issues.”
With delegations gathered from across the country, national issues to discuss and high-profile guests in attendance, trustees got a view into the larger workings of community college education. Stuart added, “Conferences such as the ACCT Legislative Summit help to put the importance of our work here at Parkland into perspective by viewing it through a ‘big picture’ lens.” She explained that a sense of camaraderie exists between trustees and administrators and that by coming together for events like these it ensures that leaders around the country are fully prepared to serve their communities. For more information on the National Legislative Summit or ACCT specifically check out their website at www.acct.org.
