Richard Bland College

Richard Bland College of The College of William and Mary (commonly, "Richard Bland College") is a public junior college with about 1,400 students located near Petersburg, Virginia. Named after Virginian statesman Richard Bland, RBC was established in 1960 by the Virginia General Assembly as a branch of the College of William and Mary and was once under the umbrella of "the Colleges of William and Mary". Though self-functioning, RBC is governed by William and Mary's Board of Visitors. Richard Bland College is now the only public junior college in the Commonwealth of Virginia (the University of Virginia's College at Wise became a four-year college in the early 1970s). At Richard Bland, students have access to a library with over 67,000 books, over 64,000 e-books, and over 4,700 DVDs (most, from an anonymous donor), and the Virtual Library of Virginia, which provides access to many full-text journal databases for students both on-campus and of-campus.

Richard Bland was established to provide the first two years of college education, after which a successful student would transfer to William & Mary or to another of the four-year colleges in the state. To this end, RBC has formal credit transfer agreements with twenty Virginia colleges, including The College of William & Mary, Old Dominion University, Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, George Mason University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia State University, and Washington and Lee and the University of Virginia

In the autumn of 2008, Richard Bland College became the only junior college in the state of Virginia to offer campus housing. The residence halls, Freedom Hall and Patriot Hall, offer Richard Bland College students apartment-style living accommodations. The combined capacity of both Patriot and Freedom Halls is 243 students. To maintain the academic atmosphere that the College desires to foster in its living areas, there is a 2.5 GPA requirement for all incoming students who wish to live on campus.

In the fall of 2011, RBC’s mascot, The RBC Statesman Eagle, made its first appearance at the New Student Orientation cookout.

The rural campus is located on the borderline of Prince George and Dinwiddie Counties, south of Petersburg, and the campus features a large grove of pecan trees and a water garden. Inspired by Monet’s famous water gardens at Giverny, France, former RBC President Clarence Maze Jr. with the assistance of RBC Landscape Supervisor and horticulturist Bill Wamsley, created the College’s beautiful Water Garden. The garden is open to visitors throughout the year. It was started in 1988 and fully developed in 1994. It consists of a one-acre garden, a quarter of which is under water, along with two waterfalls, two Japanese-style bridges, and a pier.