Catalog 2010-2012 - Miami Dade College

THE COLLEGE
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• Quality community partnerships
that serve as the foundation for
the development of relevant workforce,
cultural and civic programs to foster
community service and create a pervasive
understanding throughout the
greater Miami-Dade County community
of the essential importance of education.
• A commitment to cultural initiatives
that complement academics
and promote the advancement and
appreciation of the arts, thereby contributing
to the richness of our multicultural
community.
• Sustainability practices that distinguish
Miami Dade College as a leading
innovator in educating our students as
contributors to a healthy planet, and as
an institution that accepts its responsibility
to preserve the natural environment.
• Resource development and
operational efficiencies that ensure
effective support for the College's longterm
efforts to provide an innovative
and exemplary learning environment.
Global reach and awareness that
enrich the curriculum and provide a truly
international perspective to students.
MDC History
The ’60s: Opening
Education’s Doors
Miami Dade College opened its doors
as Dade County Junior College in 1960
amid desegregation and the influx of
thousands of Cuban refugees. In year
one, 1,428 students entered “Chicken
Coop College,” nicknamed for the original
buildings that were transformed into
classrooms. The College was open to
any county resident who had graduated
from high school. The student body
included the seven black students who
made Dade County Junior the first integrated
junior college in Florida. These
students, along with the many Cuban
refugees seeking to better their lives,
paid a $5 application fee, but tuition was
free to all county residents.
By the mid-’60s, the College was
already thinking long range. With nearly
15,000 students attending, the original
North Campus buildings were bursting
at the seams. New construction was
under way, with an eye toward not
only a second campus in Kendall, but
a third in downtown Miami. By 1967,
the College was the largest institution
of higher education in the state of
Florida, enrolling 23,341 students. Dade
Junior had become the fastest-growing
junior college in the nation. It enrolled
more freshmen than the University of
Florida, Florida State University and the
University of South Florida combined.
The ’70s:
Setting the Standard
In the mid-’70s, the College’s guiding
philosophy of “access with excellence”
was clearly defined. A bold education
review reaffirmed the College’s opendoor
policy and toughened academic
standards. The project and its goals
became the standard for community colleges
across the country. K. Patricia Cross,
visiting professor at Harvard University’s
Graduate School of Education, called the
College “the most exciting institution of
higher education in the country.”
The excitement spread to every
corner of this changing community.
The downtown campus, later to be renamed
for one of the College’s founders,
Mitchell Wolfson, was born in 1970. The
Medical Center Campus was founded
in 1977, and bilingual studies became a
full-fledged division in 1979, with more
than 2,000 students enrolled in outreach
centers in the Little Havana area.
These centers would soon become the
InterAmerican Center, the largest bilingual
facility in all of higher education.
The ’80s:
Maturity and Recognition
By the 1983-84 academic year, the
effects of a changing community were
reflected at the community college.
Thirty percent (nearly 18,000 students)
were immigrants, and 46 percent reported
that English was not their native
language. Almost two-thirds of students
enrolled in the College were minorities,
and 56 percent were women. Part-time
students were common.
In 1984, the New World School of the
Arts (NWSA) was conceived. Designed to
train future performing and visual artists
from high school through the baccalaureate,
the school became an educational
partnership of Miami Dade College,
Miami-Dade County Public Schools and
Florida International University, with
FIU handing the baton to the University
of Florida in 1997. Today NWSA is recog-
W W W . M D C . E D U
nized as one of the premier arts conservatories
in the country, with the work of
its graduates gracing venues from New
York to Los Angeles.
1984 also was witness to a modest
College-sponsored bookfest on
Kyriakides Plaza at the Wolfson Campus.
“Books by the Bay” drew a surprising
crowd of 25,000 people over two days.
Today, Miami Book Fair International is
not only South Florida’s premier cultural
happening, it is the most respected literary
event in the country.
The College’s fifth campus, in
Homestead, opened in 1985 at the First
Baptist Church with 350 students. By
1991, a modern campus facility had
been built for South Dade’s ever-growing
student population.
With the closing of the decade,
the College’s place in education was
nationally recognized: The prestigious
University of Texas Community College
Leadership Program identified the
College as the number one community
college in America.
The ’90s: Ready for
the New Economy
College personnel challenged
the mindset of the past by initiating
comprehensive reforms in academic
programs and administrative operations.
The College’s Education Review
revamped the academic core and electives
by modernizing the curriculum to
meet the needs of a changing society.
Progressiveness was not limited to education,
as the re-engineering process also
brought improved strategies to human
resources, maintenance operations and
budget formulation. The College’s effort
to streamline its bureaucracy and contain
costs brought a new financial stability,
freeing resources for new staff and
program development.
The College’s Technology Master
Plan put the College on the fast-track
in academic and administrative computing
throughout the 1990s. The College
sought to keep pace with the changing
economy and workforce, developing
strong partnerships throughout
business and industry. More than 50
new degree and short-term certificate
training programs were developed, all
aimed at emerging industries and South
Florida’s job market. The College developed
multimedia classrooms and the