Blinn College - History

History

The school was founded as Mission Institute in 1883 by the Southern German Conference of the Methodist denomination. It became coeducational in 1888 when it began admitting women. In 1889, the institute's name was changed to Blinn Memorial College in honor of the Reverend Christian Blinn of New York, who had donated a considerable sum of money to make the school possible. In 1927, the Board of Trustees, under leadership of President Philip Deschner, organized a junior college. In 1930, Blinn merged with Southwestern University of Georgetown, Texas. In 1934, a new charter was procured by the citizens of Brenham, and a private nonsectarian junior college was organized as Blinn College with nine regents as the board of control. In February 1937, all connections with Southwestern University and the Methodist denominations were severed.

An election held in Washington County on June 8, 1937, for the purposes of creating a public junior college district and for levying a small tax, was successful. Blinn thus became the first county-owned junior college district in Texas. The college continues to operate as one of the largest of 50 public community college districts in the Texas.

The Bryan campus was established in 1970, and by the mid-1990s a third campus was in College Station. In 1997, the Villa Maria Road campus opened consolidating the programs that were located in the Townshire Shopping Center in Bryan and the Woodstone Center in College Station. The third Brazos County site, located in the former Bryan post office, continues to house the dental hygiene, radiologic technology, and workforce education programs. The original three buildings on the Bryan campuses were expanded to six, and in 2002, the former Schulman Theater was purchased and converted to classroom space, known as the College Park Campus (CPC). The Schulenburg campus opened in 1997 and Sealy in 2005.

Blinn College offers academic transfer courses and these technical programs: Associate Degree and Vocational Nursing, Surgical Technology, EMS, Physical Therapy Assisting, Dental Hygiene, Radiologic Technology, Jai Alai, Fire Science, Criminal Justice, Early Childhood Development, Legal Assisting, Real Estate, Computer Information Technology, Information Management, and Business(General Business, Accounting, Business Administration and Management, Hospitality Management, Small Business Management). The college also offers noncredit, non-transferrable workforce education programs.