Austin Community College District’s Board of Trustees met Tuesday in a special called meeting. The board unanimously authorized the college’s legal counsel to seek clarification in the courts of the board’s authority to adopt certain COVID mitigation practices, including a masking requirement. The board’s vote authorizes ACC’s legal counsel and its administration to intervene in the ongoing legal proceedings in Travis County to obtain a ruling about whether the governor’s order affects the board’s authority to impose its own restrictions.
“As elected officials who are empowered by the state to oversee this district and make decisions that are determined to be in the best interest of the district, we need to understand the lines of authority, ” says Dr. Nan McRaven, ACC Board chair. “This is an important, bold move by this Board to ensure the health and safety of our community and gain clarity on the law. ”
On Friday, August 13, 2021, ACC’s board unanimously approved new, temporary measures for the fall 2021 semester. Those measures include:
- Scaling back the number of students and employees on campus when the fall semester
begins. - Moving many courses to online formats for the first three weeks of the semester — from
August 23 through September 12. - Requiring all who come to campus to complete the college’s self-screening health app
(this beganAugust 16, 2021). - Beginning August 20, 2021, requiring anyone who is 2 years of age or older to wear a
face mask inside all ACC buildings.
