Howard Community College is a community college in Columbia, Maryland. It offers classes for credit in more than 100 programs, non-credit classes, and workforce development programs. In addition to the main campus in Columbia, courses are also held at two satellite campuses.
History
In 1966, Howard Community College was founded by the Board of Education in Howard County and formally authorized by the Howard County Commissioners Charles E. Miller, J. Hubert Black, and David W. Force. The board recommended that the College would operate under a separate budget than the school system. The first HCC board would be drawn from the current state appointed county school board. HCC was approved as the State of Maryland's 14th community college in late 1967. The school was built on a prehistoric Native American settlement which became the site of the Dieker farm, which was later inherited by Gustave Basler's wife Dora Dieker. Alfred Christian Bassler sold his share of his father's 400 acre Cedar Lane farm to Community Research and Development to be the site of the project; the sale included a trade of land in Clarksville off of Shepherd Lane. His family home, barn, granaries and silos were demolished in 1969. A groundbreaking ceremony in June 1969 began construction on in the heart of the planned community of Columbia that, at the time, was just beginning to take shape. In October 1970, the first classes took place in a new structure called the Learning Resources Center, now the James Clark Jr. Library Building, with 10 full-time faculty and just over 600 full-time students attending classes in HCC's nine credit programs. HCCs first president was Dr. Alfred J. Smith Jr, former dean of faculty at Corning Community College, hired in June 1969. In 1973, he signed a five-year contract to remain as president. In 1976, Smith faced scrutiny for accounting expense allowances from the County which funded 35% of operational costs. Dwight Burrill took the role of dean in 1981, serving for seventeen years. In 1980, the Columbia Film Society moves to the HCC performing arts center for weekend movies.
Campus
The HCC main campus is located in Columbia, MD and is made up of 14 buildings, including a Welcome Center and Children's Learning Center, located 35 minutes south of Baltimore and 50 minutes north of Washington, D.C. There are satellite campuses in Laurel at the Laurel College Center and East Columbia's Charles I. Ecker Business Training Center. In 2003, a new instructional building was completed, the Mary Ellen Duncan Hall for English, Languages & Business, which includes a landscaped area now known as The Quad. The Student Services Building, completed spring 2007, is the most recent building added to The Quad. The Student Services Building was renamed The Rouse Company Foundation Student Services Hall in March 2007. In 2013, the Health Sciences Building opened and the HCC Men's Track and Field team won the 2013 NJCAA Outdoor Track and Field. The Peter and Elizabeth Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center opened in the fall of 2006. The center is home to three performance venues, two art galleries, two dance studios and multiple instructional facilities for HCC's Arts and Humanities Programs. Performance venues include the Horowitz Center Studio Theatre with seating up to 250, the 119 seat Monteabaro Recital Hall and our newly renovated Smith Theatre which now features comfortable seats accommodating up to 424 guests. The center caters to numerous community events in addition to home of the Howard County Community Dance Festival, HCC Music Guest Artist in Residence Series, HCC Jazz Festival and Rep Stage. In November 2014, a groundbreaking was held for a 145,300 sq ft four-story Science Engineering and Technology building. The facility replaces 260 parking spots to provide labs focused on Howard County Economic Development Agency initiatives including 3D printing and cybersecurity. The SET Building opened for classes in the summer of 2017, providing dedicated laboratories, a rooftop telescope observation area, and more than 1,000 total classroom seats.
Academics
There are eight academic divisions at Howard Community College. They include:
Arts & Humanities: encourages students to exercise and grow their talents and creativity through the Arts and Humanities
Business & Computer Systems: presents innovative and up-to-date curricula for beginning baccalaureate programs or for business careers
Continuing Education & Workforce Development: noncredit courses for home, work, and life
English & World Languages: mastery of essential academic skills in reading, writing, critical thinking, cultural and global competencies, and world languages proficiency
Health Sciences: career programs in a range of specialities and transfer programs
Mathematics: curricula for pure mathematics disciplines and applied mathematics areas
Science, Engineering & Technology: transfer programs to prepare students as well as career programs
Social Sciences & Teacher Education: focus on the relationships between people and within their environments
Honors Programs
HCC has three distinguished Honors Programs available for students in addition to their own chapter of Phi Theta Kappa. The James W. Rouse Scholars Program is for graduating high school seniors, preparing students for transfer to distinguished colleges and universities. The Frederick K. Schoenbrodt Scholars Program is available for both full and part-time students of all ages. Newest to the group, the STEM Scholars Honors Program is for graduating high school seniors and current HCC students interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors.
