College of the Sequoias


College of the Sequoias is a public two-year community college in Visalia, California. The college is named for the Giant Sequoia trees native to the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range.

History

College of the Sequoias was originally established in 1926 as Visalia Junior College as a department in the city high school. Its mission at that time was to provide inexpensive, lower-division college education to local high school graduates who intended to transfer to a traditional four-year college. Visalia Junior College was later expanded and a campus was built in 1938. The campus was built on what is still the college grounds. In 1949, it expanded further and formed the College of the Sequoias Community College District.

Campus and centers

College of the Sequoias' main campus is in Visalia, but it also has full-service centers in Hanford and Tulare.
Each location offers the full-range of general education offerings and students services, but each also features a flagship program. The Visalia main campus is the home of Nursing and Allied Health, the Hanford Center is the home of the Public Safety Academy, and the Tulare College Center is the home of Agriculture.
COS offers classes at many other locations. These include: Corcoran, Dinuba, Exeter, Farmersville, Hanford, Ivanhoe, Lemoore, Lindsay, Orosi, Porterville, Strathmore, Three Rivers, Tulare, and Woodlake.

Academics

The current enrollment of COS is 11,141 students, and the college offers a variety of transfer, vocational, and community-based classes, including the fire/police academies for Tulare and Kings counties.
COS is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. WASC placed the college on "show cause" status in early 2013 and required it to demonstrate to WASC that it should remain accredited. In early 2014, the accreditation status of COS was changed to "warning" as many of the original deficiencies were corrected but others remained; a follow-up report is due in October.

Student life

Sport

The college athletics teams are nicknamed the Giants.

Notable alumni