Harrisburg Area Community College, a four-campus college with nearly 15,000 students in southcentral Pennsylvania, hosted The National Alliance of Community and Technical Colleges (NACTC) for its 25th anniversary conference. Alliance members, consisting of practitioners and decision-makers in higher education across the country, came together to network and promote excellence in postsecondary, career and transfer studies. The Alliance is affiliated with the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Florida.

HACC organized this year's silver anniversary conference with conference sessions at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center in Hershey and the C. Ted Lick Wildwood Conference Center on HACC's Wildwood Campus in Harrisburg. Session topics focused on partnerships, innovative projects, budgets and fundraising. HACC transported the group to HACC's Community Center for Technology and the Arts for a tour of the college's industrial/manufacturing and crafts marketing programs. Afterward the group traveled to Penn Center, a building formerly owned by the now-closed Polyclinic Hospital. After renovations the building is now home to HACC allied health programs, some temporary until the new Select Medical Health Education Pavilion is completed, adult basic education, the Healthcare Academy with High Schools, and workforce and economic development programs including the Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies.

Dr. Larry W. Tyree, executive director for the Alliance identifies the purpose for NACTC: "Alliance members foster a fresh, diverse but unified community dedicated to outcomes that will enhance community and technical college leadership, programs, and student-centered success." Tyree is also president emeritus of Santa Fe Community College and professor in the department of Educational Leadership, Policy and Foundations.