San Diego City College - History

History

Community college education has its roots directly linked to San Diego City College when in 1914, the Board of Education of the San Diego City Schools authorized postsecondary classes for the youth of San Diego. Classes then opened that fall at San Diego High School with four faculty members and 35 students, establishing San Diego City College as the third community college in California.

In 1921, City College moved from the high school to share facilities with the State Normal School, the four-year teachers' college which 23 years earlier had became San Diego State University. For 25 years, the Junior College program remained at San Diego State University. During this period, in 1938, the San Diego Vocational Junior College was established to offer training in technical-vocational skills to post high school students. The following year, the San Diego Evening Junior College was set up to provide college classes in the evening for adults who were unable to attend classes during the day.

City Times, the student newspaper, was founded in 1945 as The Jay Sees and later renamed Fortknightly as a bi-weekly publication. The paper was to become City Times in 1978. The journalism program also published a yearbook through the 1950s called Legend.

By 1946, City College moved back to San Diego High School and reorganized into three branches: San Diego Vocational High School, San Diego College Arts and Sciences, and San Diego Evening Junior College. City College took its permanent campus and during the 1950s and 60s, land was acquired to allow expansion through various blocks of today's northeast Downtown San Diego. Additional property was added to the campus in the 1970s.

The campus has received extensive expansion and renovations in the last 20 years starting with the opening of a 3,000-square-foot (280 m2) Fitness Center in 1992. The Educational Technology Center opened in 2000 along with the Learning Resource Center (LRC) in 2002. This happened at the same time SDCC changed its placement test from APS to COMPASS. The Harry West Gymnasium opened in 2005, the Academic Success Center in 2009 and Career Technology Center was inaugurated in late 2010.

The latest projects are being funded by the bond measure, Propositions S and N, passed in 2002 and 2006, of $1,979 billion with monies dispersed throughout the District. Further construction and renovations are taking place and will continue through 2014 at City College, including construction of new Arts and Humanities, Math and Science and Engineering Technology buildings.

The school is keeping up with the sophisticated Downtown San Diego urban life style. As remodeling and construction continues grow, so does the student body which by the end of 2010 reach more than 30,000.