Hartfield hopes to bring hard work ethic to Board of Trustee place 6

Before Raymond Hartfield received his master's degree in science or his multiple bachelor's degrees, he graduated from Pearl River Community College.

Now he's running for place 6 on Austin Community College's Board of Trustees.

"I think it's nice to have someone who graduated from a community college to actually be working with what's best for a community college," said Hartfield.

Hartfield has three priorities for ACC: accessibility, affordability, and adequacy.

"Accessibility has to do not only with when the classes are scheduled, but how they are delivered to you," Hartfield said.

Virtual, hybrid, and class options are three of the possible delivery systems Hartfield described.

An education is adequate when a graduate can do what they went to school to do, Hartfield said.

Hartfield has been involved with ACC for the last 10 years and recently chaired the committee to annex Round Rock ISD into the ACC tax division. 

"As a result of that, there is a new campus being built up in Round Rock," said Hartfield. "I saw a strong support for Austin Community College in the Round Rock area."

For Hartfield there are two ways to balance a budget: reducing costs and increasing revenue.

While serving on the Round Rock school board for 14 years, Hartfield did not have the option of raising tuition to increase revenue. Because of that Hartfield said he felt like there was a propensity to go in and cut programs, but he didn't want to do that. Instead, he another way to increased revenue.

"We'd go out and get people, and corporations, to give us grants," Hartfield said. "We set up a foundation and raised money. We filed for federal grants. We got innovative with our programs.  We started drawing in millions of dollars in a fairly well to do school district. We had to increase revenues to balance the budget, and we did."
Hartfield said he feels ACC is missing some of these opportunities.

"Do I think we're leaving money on the ground at ACC? Sure, there's no question about it," Hartfield said.

Currently, Hartfield is working with ACC on a program to increase revenue.

"I went to ACC and told them we need to form a committee to go and sell the right to name some of the main rooms in the new college in Round Rock," Hartfield said.

He explained that people and corporations are willing to pay thousands of dollars to have parts of a campus named after them.

"For the first time in ACC's history we are actively doing this sort of thing," Hartfield said.
Hartfield got his start in politics as a student in high school.

"It never even crossed my mind about putting my name on a ballot for anything until a friend of mine in high school and I decided to run for student council," Hartfield said.
He ran for president, abd his friend ran for vice president. To Hartfield's amazement, they won.

"I don't know what happened," said Hartfield. "It wasn't like I'd ever run for anything before, and all of sudden I had an opportunity to serve in a capacity where I was responsible to other people. I found that to be very personally satisfying."

In college Hartfield was elected to two positions, but after that he devoted his time making a living and raising children. Then, in 1994, he decided it was time to get back into politics.  He said he thought long and hard about what to run for, and decided on the school board.
"I'm about education," said Hartfield.

Hartfield said he doesn't see the trustee position as a stepping stone to higher political offices.

"Frankly, if I had political aspirations that ran very high I wouldn't have stayed on a school board for 14 years," Hartfield said.

Citing his music degree, Hartfield likened the Board of Trustees to a part of a band.

"The board is akin to the percussion section in a band or an orchestra," said Hartfield. "You feel their presence through the rhythmic change but you can't necessarily hear them. You sense they're there, but you can't hear them by themselves. That's a good board."

Hartfield said he didn't think of himself as more than "just a guy."

"I don't have any pearls of wisdom that are going to set the world on its ear," said Hartfield. "I'm a hard worker; I'm highly focused."

Editor's Note
Candidates running for a seat on the ACC Board of Trustees can contact the Accent at editor3@austincc.edu or 223-3111 for an interview.