FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 16, 2012 

WASHINGTON-The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) is honored to announce that it has been selected as the 2012 Phi Theta Kappa Alliance for Educational Excellence Award winner.

"The Alliance for Educational Excellence Award is a wonderful tribute to the work that ACCT has been doing with its member boards across the nation," said ACCT Chair Roberto Uranga, a trustee at California's Long Beach City College, who accepted the award on ACCT's behalf during Phi Theta Kappa's Annual Convention in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday, April 13.  

"ACCT engaged community college trustees in discussing and developing strategies regarding their role and their institution's role in effectively measuring student success," said Phi Theta Kappa Executive Director Dr. Rod Risley.  "For these outstanding efforts given to improve student success and college completion, Phi Theta Kappa expresses profound appreciation to ACCT for its commitment to aid all community college students in reaching their dreams for a better life by completing what they start."

"Ensuring that more students complete the degree and certificate programs they start has taken on new urgency," said ACCT President and CEO J. Noah Brown.  "The United States has fallen to 16th in the world relative to the proportion of 25-35 year-olds who hold college degrees.  If we are to sustain our high standards of living and historical role as a force for good, we must regain our place as first in the world when it comes to college completion."

"We at ACCT are extremely serious about this work," Uranga said, "and we will continue to focus our energies and resources on equipping trustees with tools they need to move the needle on student success and completion."

Past recipients of the Alliance for Educational Excellence Award have included USA Today, Coca-Cola Refreshments and Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, the Hites Family Community College Scholarship Foundation, and ACCT's sister organization, the American Association of Community Colleges.  For more information about Phi Theta Kappa and the Alliance for Educational Excellence Award, go to www.ptk.org.  

ABOUT ACCT

Founded in 1972, the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) is the nonprofit educational organization of governing boards, representing more than 6,500 elected and appointed trustees of community, technical, and junior colleges in the United States and beyond. ACCT's purpose is to strengthen the capacity of community, technical, and junior colleges and to foster the realization of their missions through effective board leadership at local, state, and national levels. For more information, visit www.acct.org. Follow ACCT on Twitter at twitter.com/CCTrustees.