Summer 2016 Newsletter from Trustee Neeta Sane
Jul 13, 2016
Dear Neighbors,
Continuing on the path of growth and progression for Houston Community College, HCC continues to create more access to education for current and future students. As your trustee for District VII, I am glad to share a few highlights.
- 2,306 students participated in Spring 2016 graduation.
- HCC has enacted no general tuition or fee increase for students since 2011.
- The HCC property tax rate is lower than the tax rate for 46 of the 50 community colleges in Texas.
- HCC has steadily grown its fund balance, available for emergencies, since 2011.
- A compensation study to ensure market level pay for employees was finalized in 2015 and a three-year plan of raises began in 2016.
- In addition to its regularly scheduled payments, HCC aggressively paid off $12 million of debt over the past 12 months.
With newly created 13 Centers of Excellence, students are learning a wide variety of useful skills that they will be able to immediately put to use in the local workforce.
The grand opening for the HCC Advanced Manufacturing Center of Excellence at the Stafford campus is being scheduled for October this year. This Center of Excellence focuses on training qualified workers in highgrowth, high-demand occupations in the production of plastics, rubber, metals, medical devices, valve, fitting, steel products, and petrochemicals.
Starting this fall, the HCC Honors College will expand to our Stafford and Spring Branch campuses. The HCC Honors College has a 90 percent graduation rate - a result of stellar faculty, individual attention, global study-travel opportunities, and camaraderie between students. By adding this program at two more locations, we can achieve the goal of offering a high quality, educational experience to more students across the Greater Houston area.
In collaboration with Fort Bend County and City of Missouri City, construction is underway for the new HCC Missouri City Center for Entrepreneurship, Technology, and Health. The campus, across from Missouri City Hall, will offer core curriculum and programs to prepare students for careers in healthcare and business and technology. Educating and training students for successful careers has always been and remains our highest priority.
We are Houston’s Community College.
In service,
Neeta Sane
HCC Board of Trustees
Download: Summer 2016 Trustee Newsletter - Neeta Sane