Bronx Community College

History and description

The college was established in 1957 through the efforts of civic-minded groups who felt that there was a growing need for more higher education facilities in the Bronx. Classes began at Hunter College, and later at the former site of the Bronx High School of Science.

In 1973, the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York acquired the University Heights campus from New York University (NYU), which had sold the campus under threat of imminent bankruptcy. Beginning in the fall of that year, the BCC moved its operations to the 55 acres (22 ha) site overlooking the Harlem River.

The college is home to the Center for Sustainable Energy, which was founded in 2003 as an educational resource for students pursuing careers in alternative energy.

Bronx Community College offers a wide array of workforce community development and personal enrichment courses and programs through Continuing & Professional Studies. CPS also delivers customized training for local employers. CPS works closely with unions, city, state and federal agencies and accepts vouchers and other forms of financial aid for individual students.

Since 1987, the college is also the local administrator of the SUNY Bronx Educational Opportunity Center. The SUNY Bronx EOC provides tuition free academic and vocational programs to New Yorkers who qualify and it is funded by the University Center for Academic and Workforce Development (UCAWD) part of the State University of New York.

In 2012, the North Hall and Library opened. The building is designed to resemble many of the historic buildings on campus, and on one end is located next to an entrance of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.

Campus

The BCC campus originally housed New York University's undergraduate college and engineering school – which was absorbed by Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1973 but is once again part of NYU – and was created at a time when a number of prominent local universities had made the move to upper Manhattan and the Bronx in order to build bigger campuses, including Columbia University, and the City College of New York.

The campus consists of a mix of Classical revival buildings designed by architect Stanford White in 1892-1901 – including the Hall of Languages, the Cornelius Baker Hall of Philosophy and the Gould Memorial Library – and Brutalist concrete buildings by Marcel Breuer, including Begrisch Hall (1956–61) and the Colston Residence Hall and Cafeteria (1964). Other buildings – such as South Hall, formerly the Gustav H. Schwab House (1857); Butler Hall, formerly William Henry W. T. Mall House (c.1859); and MacCracken Hall, originally the Loring Andrews House (c.1880) – are repurposed mansions which predate the campus. The original landscaping for the campus was by Vaux & Co..

The BCC campus is notably home to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, founded in 1900 by Henry Mitchell MacCracken, Chancellor of NYU from 1891 to 1910. It was the first such hall of fame in the United States. The Hall, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was also designed by Stanford White, and was established to honor prominent Americans who have had a significant impact on the country's history. It includes bronze busts of Alexander Graham Bell, Eli Whitney, and George Westinghouse along with many others. The Hall has not had any new inductees since 1973.

Athletics

Bronx Community College teams participate as a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). The Broncos are a member of the community college section of the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, track & field and volleyball.

Notable alumni

Among the distinguished early alumni of BCC is Richard Carmona, who served as the Surgeon General of the United States from 2002 to 2006.

In popular culture