Front Range Community College (FRCC) is a two-year institution of higher learning with campuses in Westminster, Colorado, Longmont, Colorado, Fort Collins, Colorado, and Brighton, Colorado. It is the largest community college in Colorado and the No. 1 transfer institution for the University of Colorado-Boulder, Colorado State University, and Metropolitan State University of Denver. FRCC traces its heritage to the founding of the State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education in 1967, which in 1968 established the North Campus of the Community College of Denver as its first new creation. In 1984 the North Campus was renamed as Front Range Community College and spun off as an independent institution in 1985. In 1988, the Larimer County Voc-Tech Center was incorporated as the Larimer Campus of FRCC. The college was accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in 1975 and received continued accreditation in 2008.
From 1968 to 1977, the college was located in facilities at East 62nd Avenue and Downing Street in Denver. In 1977, the college inaugurated a new building on 112th Avenue in Westminster, Colorado. When it opened, the Westminster Campus building was heated with over 4000 flat-plate solar thermal panels making it the largest solar-heated educational building in the world. The solar system operated until the solar panels were removed during a major building remodel in 1996. Today FRCC maintains campuses at Fort Collins, Longmont, and Brighton in addition to Westminster and a highly developed online learning program.
During its first decades, the college offered career, vocational and technical training, with certificates and two-year associate degrees in accounting, architectural technology, automotive repair, business, dental assisting, electronics, healthcare, machine drafting, machining, nursing, and welding. In 1997, FRCC transferred and began offering it's machining program at the Rocky Mountain Manufacturing Academy, which was part of the now defunct Higher Education and Advanced Technology (HEAT) Center at the decommissioned Lowry Air Force Base in Aurora, Colorado. In recent decades, the college, particularly the Westminster campus, has moved increasingly toward offering general academic and transfer courses and away from career and technical education offerings.
FRCC manages the Stargazer Observatory in Stargazer Village as part of its astronomy program at the Larimer Campus, which also has an on-campus observatory as part of the new Sunlight Peak science building. The Westminster and Boulder County campuses have on-campus observatories as well.
In 2012, the college awarded 1,466 associate degrees and a further 1,722 certificates. The student body is 58% female and 42% male, with most students studying part-time and pursuing programs in liberal arts and sciences or career/technical fields.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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