History
The college's history begins in August 1966, when voters in 12 school districts in most of Kane and portions of Kendall, DeKalb, LaSalle and Will counties voted to establish Community College District 516. The college's name was chosen as the result of a March 1967 district-wide contest. Some 600 entries were submitted, and the winning name, submitted by Susan Miller of Aurora and Patricia Ann Dillon of Batavia, was Waubonsee, which means "early dawn" or "early day" and according to the college was a 19th-century chief of the Pottawatomie in the Fox River Valley.
The first president was appointed in early 1967. Staff were hired and a curriculum was set. The college's first classes began on September 11, 1967, and while plans for a permanent campus were made, classes were temporarily held at "a variety of community facilities." The school's initial enrollment was 1,603 - 403 full-time and 1,200 part-time.
In December 1967, voters in the community college district approved a bond referendum to fund construction of a permanent campus. The Sugar Grove campus - the first and still today the main campus of the college, is 243 acres in size and is located north of Sugar Grove on Route 47. According to the college, today facilities at the campus include, in addition to classroom space, "conference rooms, specialized laboratories, Student Center, café and coffee bar, library, bookstore, child care center, observatory, kiln shelter, 375-seat auditorium, multipurpose event space, gymnasium, 120-workstation computer center, fitness center and two-mile (3 km) nature trail."
In 1986, Waubonsee opened a second campus in downtown Aurora. At the corner of Galena Boulevard and Stolp Avenue, the three-story facility includes thirty-three classrooms, teleconferencing facilities, computer laboratories, conference center, student lounge, childcare center, bookstore and access to library facilities. The Aurora campus also houses the college's Business Services and Continuing and Professional Education departments, as well as the Small Business Development Center.
Waubonsee established another major extension center in January 1997 on the Rush-Copley Medical Center campus, adjacent to Route 34 in far east Aurora. The two-story Copley Campus features eight classrooms, computer lab and student lounge, and provides student services such as registration, counseling, advising, assessment, and access to library resources. College credit courses, community education programs and training for business and industry are held there.
In recent years, due to the expansion of the area in the western edge of the district, as well as to cope with the influx of people enrolling, the college decided to move its Aurora Campus from its location on Stolp Island to a larger location on the west bank of the Fox River. The campus opened in 2011, has improved parking, more classroom space, and a riverfront view of the island and the other shore. Also, another satellite campus opened in Plano, IL, in 2011. The satellite campus was created in association with Lakewood Homes and the City of Plano, to serve the communities of Plano, Sandwich, Yorkville, Little Rock, Millbrook, Millington, and Newark.
Read more about this topic: Waubonsee Community College
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