Tri-C Celebrates 50 Years of Educating Students in County

Special Video Coverage of 50th Anniversary Celebration at Tower City

By Dion Winfrey
Metro Staff Reporter

Cuyahoga Community College opened its doors to its first students October, 1963. The college was put in place to educate and train minorities, women, and displaced workers in the Greater Cleveland area and throughout Cuyahoga County.

The facilities were located in the old Brownell School Building situated at Brownell Court and East 14th Street, and by the fall of 1964 there were 3,039 students attending classes. The inaugural president of the college was Chas Chapman. Since then, the college has created a three-campus structure and is represented under the leadership of Alex Johnson, Tri-C’s fourth president inaugurated this past summer.

The college consists of the Metropolitan Campus (Downtown Cleveland, 1969), the Western Campus (Parma, 1975), the Eastern Campus (Highland Hills, 1981), and the Westshore Campus (Westlake). Also, the college has created a Corporate College Center on both the west and east sides. Corporate College was created for individuals, as well as businesses, that are in search of ways to improve skills and increase knowledge to contend in today’s corporate world. Programs offered at the Corporate College include high-end technology courses and a wide variety of leadership and professional development programs. Corporate College’s state-of-the-art conference amenities are available for rental. View www.corporatecollege.com for more information.

Other new buildings added recently is the Westshore Campus in Westlake, and the Advanced Technology Training Center (ATTC), combined with the Unified Technologies Center (UTC), is the largest technology training complex in Ohio. The ATTC was designed and assembled to achieve LEED Gold Certification. The ATTC provides students with education, hands-on training and employment planning skills for well-paying jobs. Many of the programs offered take just 10-18 weeks to complete, providing employers with a continuous feeder system of job-ready candidates for the in-demand high-tech industry. Tri-C also offers numerous computer labs, reading centers, and libraries on its three campuses and has free tutoring at all its facilities.

Tri-C is a liberal arts school, which offers a variety of courses to freshmen and sophomores. The credits earned are transferable to a four-year college, moreover; Tri-C has a partnership with University of Akron, Cleveland State University, and Kent State University making the transfer processes a painless one.

Also, the college offers Web classes and television courses that can be taken for credit. As of 2009, enrollment was at 31,000, with three highly diverse campuses, hosting students with different ethnic backgrounds, from all around the world.

The athletic program is a good one where students can partake in men’s and women’s basketball, women’s softball, men’s baseball, men’s soccer, and women’s cross-country track. Athletics offer opportunities for students to develop their complete experience at the college by boosting lifelong wellness, sportsmanship and academics. It doesn’t matter which campus you’re taking classes at.

Some notable alumni who attended Tri-C are, Halle Berry (Actress), Ben Wallace (NBA player), Wayne Dawson, (Local news anchor), Ohio State Senator and Tri-C Professor Nina Turner, and Cleveland Mayor Frank G. Jackson along with a host of others.

Over the last fifty years, Tri-C has been an asset to the community providing thousands of jobs to its citizens, and it ensures the underprivileged has a chance at a higher learning experience.

The Voice Newspaper wishes Cuyahoga Community College a Happy 50th Birthday