Trident Tech wins Southern Region Equity Award

The Association of Community College Trustees has named Trident Technical College the recipient of the 2017 Southern Region Equity Award. The equity award recognizes the commitment made by a community college and its leaders to setting policies that promote and enhance opportunities for institutional diversity, inclusion and equity for women, persons of color, LGBTQs or members of any other underrepresented or underserved population. This is the third equity award the college has received in recent years. In addition to the ACCT award, the college won statewide equity awards in 2016 and 2017 from the S.C. Association of Technical College Commissioners.

With the support of the college’s nine-member area commission, Trident Tech President Mary Thornley has made equity in enrollment, program completion, campus environment, and employment and promotion a priority during her 26-year tenure. Evidence of this success can be found in the diversity of the college’s student population and in the diversity of its faculty and staff. Minorities made up 41 percent of the college’s total enrollment in fall 2016. The college ranks No. 1 among all state institutions of higher education in Equal Employment Opportunity goal attainment, and it has exceeded the S.C. Commission on Higher Education performance funding benchmark for minority faculty for 13 years in a row.

“The economic vitality of our region is due in large part to the efforts made by Dr. Thornley and her staff to remove barriers to higher education and to support student success, especially for minority students who so often must overcome obstacles to achieve their academic and personal goals,” said TTC Area Commission Chair Rudd Smith.

College officials will receive the award in Las Vegas Sept. 27 during an awards gala held in conjunction with the ACCT’s 48th Annual Leadership Congress. The college will also learn at that time if it is the recipient of the association’s national-level recognition for equity, the Charles Kennedy Equity Award.

“Community colleges are one-of-a-kind institutions committed to open-access, high-quality higher education for all Americans,” said ACCT Chair and Hudson County Community College Vice Chair Bakari G. Lee. “This year’s regional ACCT awardees represent the most outstanding people and programs from throughout the country, and we are pleased to be able to bring attention to them.”