History
Illinois has played a prominent role in the development of the community and junior college movement in the United States. Joliet Junior College, established in 1901, was the first public junior college in the nation. It was the brain child of William Rainey Harper, president of the University of Chicago, and J. Stanley Brown, the superintendent of Joliet Township High School. The college's initial enrollment was six students.
Brown and Harper's innovation was designed to serve students who desired to remain within the community and still pursue a college education. Within a few years, the concept had grown to include students outside the existing high school district. By December 1902, the board of trustees officially sanctioned the program and made post-high school courses available tuition-free. In 1916, the post-high school program was formally named "Joliet Junior College." The next year, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools accredited the college, and the State Examining Board approved selected courses for teacher certification. Enrollment at the time numbered 82 students.
In 1931, Illinois adopted its first junior college legislation, which permitted the Board of Education of Chicago to establish, manage, and provide for the maintenance of one junior college offering two years of college work beyond the high school level as part of the public school system of the city.
The first Junior College Act became law on July 1, 1937, and provided for the development of the junior college system as a part of the public school system. That act neither provided for charging tuition nor specified that the education was to be provided without charge to the students. In 1943 the Illinois General Assembly enacted legislation to allow referendums to establish tax rates for both education and building funds to support junior college operations. In 1951 legislation was adopted which set forth standards and procedures for establishing junior colleges. This legislation also repealed the prior law which had allowed the board of education in districts with population in excess of 25,000 to establish a junior college by resolution. In 1959 separate junior college districts were authorized by allowing any compact and contiguous territory to be organized as a junior college district with an elected board of education with authority to maintain and operate the college and levy taxes for its operation.
State funding for junior college operations was first appropriated in 1955. Seven new public junior colleges were established in Illinois between 1955 and 1962, bringing the total to 18. Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline joined to form Black Hawk College in 1961, the first junior college created separate from a common school district.
In 1961, the General Assembly created the Illinois Board of Higher Education to conduct comprehensive studies on higher education needs; develop information systems; approve new units of instruction, research, or public service in all public colleges and universities; review budgets of public colleges and universities, and make recommendations to the governor and General Assembly; approve capital improvements; conduct surveys and evaluation of higher education; and prepare "a master plan for the development, expansion, integration, coordination, and efficient utilization of the facilities, curricula, and standards of higher education in the areas of teaching, research, and public service." Although junior colleges were under the jurisdiction of the superintendent of public instruction at this time, the enabling legislation for the Illinois Board of Higher Education charged the board, in developing " a master plan of higher education" to "give consideration to the problems and attitudes of junior colleges...as they relate to the overall policies and problems of higher education."
Based upon the higher education master plan, the Junior College Act of 1965 was enacted, providing the foundation for the present system of public community colleges in Illinois. The act removed the junior colleges from the common school system and placed them under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Board of Higher Education. It provided for establishment of a system of locally initiated and administered comprehensive Class I junior college districts; required that all junior colleges operating in school districts where separate tax levies had been established for the college become separate junior colleges, classified as Class II districts and established procedures for converting Class II districts to Class I districts. School districts operating a junior college without a separate tax could continue to maintain the program as grades 13 and 14. The act allowed creation of junior college districts with locally elected boards. The local districts were coordinated and regulated by a new Illinois Junior College Board, which in turn reported to the Illinois Board of Higher Education, as did the governing boards of the other public colleges and universities. The act provided for local-state sharing of capital funding, acquisition of sites, operational funding, and annexations and disconnections of territory. State and local financial support for junior colleges became an obligation of all Illinois residents, whether they resided within the boundaries of a junior college district or not.
On July 15, 1965, the Junior College Act became effective; and on August 1 the school boards of districts operating junior colleges with separate educational and building rates became the boards of the newly constituted Class II districts. Also in August 1965 governor Otto Kerner, Jr. appointed nine members of the first Illinois Junior College Board.
In 1973, the term "junior college" was changed to "community college" by statute, but one college (Joliet Junior College) in the system has retained the term "junior" in its name.
Read more about this topic: Illinois Community College System
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