News Photo by Temi Fadayomi The Alpena Community College Board of Trustees discuss possible additional funding opportunities for student housing at their board meeting on Thursday.

ALPENA — Alpena Community College makes significant progress in its goal to address student housing as they were awarded a $1.75 million directed spending appropriation from Congress.

According to ACC President Don MacMaster, who announced the ACC’s acquirement of this funding to the ACC Board of Trustees during the board meeting on Thursday, the appropriation will be in the Fiscal Year 2024 federal budget and will be used for the purposes of adding 32 more beds of on-campus housing at ACC.

Despite this recent funding detailed cost estimate, according to MacMaster, adding another 32 beds to the number of beds already owned by the college would be $4.7 million, meaning that the college will have to obtain the remaining funding elsewhere.

One avenue for additional funding recommended by MacMaster during the board meeting was through fundraising efforts that could be made by the ACC Foundation.

The ACC Foundation, established in 1982, supports the college and its students financially through scholarships, program improvements, technological advancements, staff development, and capital expansion. As a non-profit, tax-exempt organization governed by a board of community leaders, the ACC Foundation has helped hundreds of individuals realize the gift of education.

“I have reached out to the foundation’s board,” MacMaster said to the Board of Trustees. “I laid out the potential for asking them to help with some fundraising.”

Members of the Board of Trustees, who were in attendance on Thursday, agreed with this recommended focus on student housing, citing how the lack of available housing could have a negative impact on student enrollment.

“We are losing enrollments because students cannot come here confident that they or their family feel that they’re in a safe environment,” ACC Board of Trustees Chairman

John Briggs said. “Frankly, the housing situation in Alpena is tight.”

To show their support of an increased focus on funding for student housing, the board discussed signing a resolution on the subject and having it sent to foundation leadership.

“We can do a board resolution really articulating all of us seeing the need,” Briggs said. “It’s not just somebody’s idea — it’s all our ideas that we need to accommodate students.”