Villarreal running for board place 5

In 2001 Vic Villarreal saw an advertisement in the Hill Country News that changed his life.

The advertisement was for positions on the planning and zoning commission in the city of Leander. Villarreal read the description for the job and thought he could do it. Two days after applying he was interviewed.

As he walked into a conference room at city hall and saw four council members, the planning director, and the chairman of the planning and zoning board he was a bit overwhelmed.

"I thought, oh my, what have I gotten myself into?" said Villarreal.

He got the job, and in 2004, after his term was over, a council member called and asked him to run for a spot on the city council.

"My jaw dropped, and I was like, ‘Wow,'" said Villarreal.

He ran, won, and in 2007 became the mayor pro tem of Leander.

"I didn't go to college to be a policy maker," said Villarreal, "it just kind of happened from reading a little advertisement in the paper, and a few years later I was a council member." 

Now Villarreal is running for place five on the ACC Board of Trustees.

"I believe that I'll win because of my balance of experience – a high degree of experience with ACC, having taught for five years, and a high degree of experience with high growth entities like a city," said Villarreal.

Villarreal is no stranger to high offices, but he sees the board position as something more.

"I consider it a higher office than being Leander's mayor pro tem," said Villarreal.

The main braces of Villarreal's platform include keeping tuition rates low, expanding the college, and increasing graduation rates.

Villarreal feels that an inexpensive school draws the community into it.

"It is an enabler. It enables the community to go to ACC," said Villarreal. "I truly believe the best form of financial aid out there is low tuition to begin with."

For Villarreal keeping tuition rates low includes keeping all college fees low. He explained that there is a danger in pretending a college is cheap while miscellaneous fees have increased.

"Why double the out of pocket experience and all the while say our tuition is low?" said Villarreal. "I don't like that. I don't want that to be a burden on students, and it shouldn't be."

Villarreal sees expansion as needed and necessary. He explained that a college should have 50 square feet for each student, and right now ACC has about 20.

"That means you have cramped classrooms," said Villarreal. "That means you don't have areas for students to meet and study."

Villarreal supports the current board policy which focuses fifty percent of its expansion efforts to current campuses, and the other fifty to new ones. He explained the importance of ACC being a catalyst for new jobs through college expansion. 

A new campus brings about 300 to 400 jobs directly to ACC, and then another 600 peripheral jobs, said Villarreal. Cities like San Marcos, Bastrop, and Leander want ACC to come to them.

"They're going to fight tooth and nail to get a new campus, and they are," said Villarreal.

Villarreal doesn't want ACC to miss its opportunities with suburban areas and inner Austin growth.

By setting up partnerships with business centers, Villarreal hopes to show non-transient students what they can do with a two year degree.

"If we instill a sense of value of completion I think we will have more completers," said Villarreal.

When Raul Alvarez steps down, there will be no one left on the board with any formal municipal experience, Villarreal said.

"You've got to have someone who has been a city councilman in the past," said Villarreal. "When we sit down at the table with mayors and city council members from Austin and suburban areas, it would be a very good idea to have someone there who has been there and done that, who has been in their shoes."

Villarreal has worn those shoes.

"I understand their issues," said Villarreal. "I very much understand their issues."

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.