Dear Student Affairs Team,

Thank you for your continued engagement and thoughtful feedback. Your insights are shaping a more connected, collaborative division, centered on students and those who serve them. This is more than restructuring; it’s a reimagining of how we lead, work together, and fulfill our mission. We’re moving from legacy structures to bold, student-centered strategies that empower frontline teams and require shared courage, clarity, and accountability.

To keep you informed, we’d like to share recent progress and what’s ahead as we continue through this phase of the realignment.

During the new Student Affairs Council meeting on May 7–8, we revisited key questions, shared reflections, and began defining what success looks like going forward. As mentioned in our May 2 update, the Council—alongside SWIM—is committed to ongoing engagement and collaboration. Together, we’ve been focusing on the following priorities:

• Finalizing the organizational chart framework and identifying remaining stakeholder conversations.
• Conducting deep dives into critical functional areas informed by feedback from town halls, surveys, roundtables, and campus visits to ensure services are redesigned with students at the center.
• Clarifying leadership roles by aligning reporting lines and responsibilities to purpose—not legacy models.
• Launching the internal HR process for AVC and Executive Dean roles.
• Reviewing Design Team recommendations to assess alignment with our future structure and long-term student success goals.

Across the division, common themes continue to highlight the need for greater role clarity, thoughtful team alignment, and clearly defined points of contact for student and faculty support.

To ensure continued inclusivity and representation in the realignment process, SWIM will host a series of targeted, facilitated focus groups on Monday, May 19 and Tuesday, May 20. These sessions are designed to gather open and candid feedback from teams and will be conducted without Council leadership present to foster transparent conversation.

Participants have been thoughtfully selected by current Council leadership based on input gathered from surveys, campus visits, and ongoing engagement. The following groups will participate in this round of conversations:

• Recruitment & Welcome Services
• Career Services & Make It Center
• Advisors, Success Coaches, and Academic Coaches
• Administrative Support, Intake, & Registration Teams 
• International Student and Study Abroad Offices

Additional focus groups may be scheduled in the coming weeks as new needs emerge.

We will continue to share updates that help you stay informed and connected to the work we’re building together. Our students have asked us to show up with courage, with joy, and with yes and we are answering that call by reimagining what it means to serve them well.



Please continue to follow our internal site for the latest communications, resources, and opportunities to stay engaged in this collective work.

Thank you for being part of this journey and for the heart you bring to everything we do.

Sincerely, 

Shasta Buchanan, Ed.D

Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs

Austin Community College District 

Austin Community College | austincc.edu