About Us

Who We Are

The Oregon Community College Association (OCCA) represents the seventeen publicly chartered community colleges and their locally elected board members as well as the interests of the faculty, staff, administration and nearly 350,000 students in those colleges.

Founded in 1962, OCCA is an association whose purpose is to support the colleges before policy-makers and partners whose actions affect the well-being of community colleges across the state. OCCA does this through a variety of services.  

• OCCA is governed by a 34-member Board of Directors which includes each president and one board member from each of the seventeen colleges. The board member representatives are chosen by their own local boards and they, with the presidents, elect the association’s Executive Committee to provide OCCA leadership each year.
• OCCA staff provides the services and information that support the association’s mission.  Staff members are knowledgeable about issues ranging from appropriations and the community college funding formula to governance and educational policy. OCCA works closely with the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission, the Office of Community Colleges and Workforce Development, the Oregon Student Assistance Commission, and the State Board of Higher Education.
• OCCA is a member of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT), the American Association of Women in Community Colleges (AAWCC), the Oregon School Boards Association (OSBA), and the Oregon Society of Association Management (OSAM).

Mission

The OCCA mission is to advocate, communicate and collaborate in order to strengthen  community colleges for the benefit of Oregonians. 

Goals

1. Engage local boards, college leadership, and statewide policy makers in student success and completion efforts.
2. An association structure that supports and advocates more effectively for colleges and students in the state-wide environment.
3. An association structure that supports and advocates more effectively for colleges in the changing state-wide environment.
4. An adequate level of funding that supports students and the comprehensive mission of community colleges.
5. Continue to build effective partnerships and lobby with public universities, K-12, and the business community.