April is "Community College Month"

Broward Community College joins with the United States’ 1,194 junior, community and technical two-year colleges in celebrating Community College Month throughout the month of April.

Throughout the nation, America’s two-year colleges and technical schools and the communities they serve take the time to pause during the month to reflect upon the history of the community colleges and look to the future for these distinctly American institutions of higher learning.

Broward Community College, like most of America’s community colleges, makes a quality, accessible, affordable education possible for its students. Nationwide, community colleges educate about 12 million students annually. Supplementing their critical work in providing enhanced access to higher education, community colleges also provide economic development assistance, workforce training, adult and continuing education and cultural and recreational opportunities for the communities they serve.

History
Most post-secondary education in the United States is rooted in European educational tradition going back to the Middle Ages, but not community colleges. They are a relatively contemporary phenomenon, beginning as an extension of public high schools. Although several private junior colleges preceded it, the nation’s first public community college was Joliet (Illinois) Junior College, opened by University of Chicago President William Rainey Harper in 1901.

Nationwide, by 1920, there were 52 community colleges. In Florida, the first wave of junior colleges was private institutions, led by St. Petersburg Junior College, which opened in 1927. Following SPJC were Jacksonville Junior College, Orlando Junior College, Casements Junior College and Edison Junior College.

By the beginning of World War II, the number of junior and community colleges nationwide had grown to 450. The first public two-year college in Florida was Palm Beach Junior College, established in 1933. Six years after PBJC’s establishment, Florida’s legislature allowed counties or groups of counties with populations numbering more than 50,000 to establish public junior colleges, but from 1933 to 1947, none elected to do so.

Massive expansion in the community college movement nationally was due in large part to recommendations made by the Truman Administration’s Presidential Commission on Higher Education in 1947, urging states to create a system of public community colleges to provide quality postsecondary educational services to about half of the nation’s adult population.

Also in 1947, the Florida Citizens Committee Report on Education recommended that a network of junior colleges operated by county boards of education be created to serve the postwar influx of Americans settling in Florida and needing postsecondary education. By the end of 1948, Florida’s junior college system included four public junior colleges: Palm Beach Junior College, St. Petersburg Junior College, Chipola Junior College and Pensacola Junior College. A fifth, Washington Junior College, was founded in Pensacola in connection with Booker T. Washington High School.

In 1951 the Junior College Steering Committee of the State Advisory Council on Education presented a study conducted at the University of Texas for Florida’s State Board of Education, which recommended establishing more junior colleges, but did not make a recommendation on where the colleges should be or how many should be established. Gov. LeRoy Collins strongly supported the concept. Under Gov. Collins’ direction, the Florida Legislature began creating infrastructure for a system of community colleges. In 1955 the Legislature created the Community College Council, under the direction of Dr. James Wattenbarger, to create long-range plans for Florida’s anticipated community college system. In 1957, the council released its report, recommending creation of 28 public community colleges constructed within a 30-minute drive for 99 percent of the state’s population. The Legislature accepted the report as the master plan for the state.

When the plan was released, Broward County was not among the highest-priority of communities chosen for the first wave of construction; Broward was rated 2A. By 1959, Broward County had been upgraded to Priority One status and work on the Community College of Broward County was quickly underway. BCC opened its doors to 701 students in 1960. The last of the colleges – Pasco-Hernando Community College – opened in 1972.

The present and future
America’s community colleges occupy a critical role in our nation’s higher education landscape and that role will continue to grow.

In Florida, for example, all of the state’s “Great 28” public community colleges added educator preparation institutes in the early 2000s to help fill the state’s critical need for teachers. Additionally, in 2001, St. Petersburg Junior College became the first community college selected to host site-determined baccalaureate degrees in nursing, education and applied science. Since then, other Florida community colleges have been approved to offer site-determined baccalaureate degrees – including BCC, which was approved in 2008 – but all the participating schools continue to be considered community colleges for funding purposes, except for the funds allocated to the baccalaureate programs.

Quality, affordability and access are the three principles on which Broward Community College was created and has served the communities of Broward County for nearly 60 years. In that time, BCC graduates have gone on to become doctors, nurses and professional allied healthcare workers. They have become police officers, attorneys and judges, teachers and educational administrators, leaders in the business community and in government service, and much, much more. BCC graduates have gone on to significantly influence the cultural, social, political, educational, economic and athletic landscape of Broward County and BCC invites members of the community to come visit our campuses and centers and learn more about what Broward Community College can provide for you and your family. Come learn why at BCC “We keep you thinking.”


Broward Community College’s Community College Month activities

April 1: Launch of 2008 Community College Month resolution, signed by our Board of Trustees and President, along with release and dissemination of BCC’s Community College press release, heralding the start of the month. The resolution and release will be published on the college’s webpage; the release will be disseminated to local media.

Click here to view proclamation.

April 7: Launch of “Wow Factors” page on college website, and student testimonials on college webpage

April 15: First CCM “Bobcast” – a podcast by BCC Judson A. Samuels South Campus Professor Bob Buford, on “BCC’s Early Years.”

April 22: Second “Bobcast”

April 29: Third “Bobcast”

April 30: Launch of BCC’s Alumni Webpage, with these features:
     a. “BCC Luminaries,” (Winners of Distinguished Alumni Award winners and other prominent alumni of note.)
     b. “Where are they now?”
     c. “BCC’s Early Years,” with photos from BCC’s college archives.