New Jersey County Colleges
The New Jersey County Colleges is a system of 19 public community colleges, encompassing more than 60 campuses in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of 2009, there are 19 county colleges statewide; this reflects the fact that each college serves one of New Jersey's 21 counties, except for Atlantic Cape Community College and Raritan Valley Community College, each of which serves two counties.
In 2003, former governor James McGreevey created the New Jersey Community Colleges Compact, with Executive Order No. 81, as a statewide partnership to enable cooperation between the colleges and various state departments. The compact is administered by the New Jersey Council of County Colleges, which makes recommendations on the deployment and use of county college resources. The Council also provides educational and training materials to the college administrations to further their goals. The Council was founded in 1989 under statute 18A:64A-26 of the New Jersey legislature to promote the advancement of the county community colleges of New Jersey. In 2003, the state further established the Community College Consortium for Workforce and Economic Development as a single point of contact for employers looking for skilled workers in New Jersey.
The county colleges of New Jersey represent 56% of all undergraduate students in the state and offer studies in 1,700 degree and certificate programs. Reflecting long-term trends nationwide, the male-to-female ratio of students in the system is 41% male to 59% female, and 48% of students are over the age of 24. Overall, the system enrolls more than 350,000 students each year on campuses that range in size from 1,300 students at Salem Community College to over 15,000 students at Bergen Community College.
Not all of the county colleges were founded by the State of New Jersey; the oldest county college in New Jersey, Union County College, was founded in 1933 by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration as Union County Junior College; it operated as a private college from 1936 to 1982, and merged with the publicly operated Union County Technical Institute in 1982 to become the current public institution.
Read more about New Jersey County Colleges: List, Selected Statistics, Notes, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words jersey, county and/or colleges:
“New Jersey gives us glue.”
—Howard Dietz (1896–1983)
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)
“If the factory people outside the colleges live under the discipline of narrow means, the people inside live under almost every other kind of discipline except that of narrow means—from the fruity austerities of learning, through the iron rations of English gentlemanhood, down to the modest disadvantages of occupying cold stone buildings without central heating and having to cross two or three quadrangles to take a bath.”
—Margaret Halsey (b. 1910)