SCC Kicks Off 25th Anniversary Year

Published: 04/19/2011

Voters approved the formation of the St. Charles Community College district in 1986, the April 1 election, and the first SCC classes were held in June of 1987. SCC will celebrate its 25th anniversary from April 2011 to June 2012.

“Locally-governed, the college provides accessible, quality higher education to students in St. Charles County and throughout the region,” said John McGuire, Ph.D., SCC president. “Students are alert to the opportunities provided by the college; and, for the past decade, the college has grown at a rate more than twice that of the county. SCC plays a vital role in maintaining a strong, capable workforce, and developing partnerships that support economic development.”

For more than two decades, St. Charles County has been one of Missouri’s fastest-growing areas. With that growth came the need for high-quality, affordable, close-to-home and locally governed public higher education. Selected as the first president was Donald D. Shook, Ed.D., who had previously served as president of two other Missouri community colleges. Upon Shook’s retirement in November of 1996, John McGuire, Ph.D., became the new college president. With McGuire’s own retirement set for September 2011, a presidential search currently is under way.

The first St. Charles Community College classes were held in the summer of 1987 with about 400 students. By the fall 1987 semester, 1,547 students were enrolled in credit classes, and other non-credit, continuing education programs were taking shape. The college operated out of several temporary locations for five years while continuing to plan for a permanent campus. Enrollment grew rapidly as the college developed educational programs and services in answer to community needs.

The SCC Board of Trustees, in February 1989, chose a 135-acre tract that was estimated to be located directly in the county’s center of population growth for the year 2000. The site on Mid Rivers Mall Drive had easy access to major interstate highways, and its location positioned the college to be close to home for thousands of area residents.

Ground breaking for the first phase of building construction took place on June 6, 1990. The new four-building campus was officially dedicated in a public ceremony on Jan. 26, 1992.

Since that time, SCC’s campus has been through three additional construction phases, with the most recent buildings opening in August 2006.

For more information on SCC’s campus growth and expansion, visit the college’s Web page on history.

Today, SCC serves more than 11,500 credit students and has another 56,000 non-credit enrollments annually – a large segment of the county’s population. Approximately one out of every four St. Charles County high school graduates attend SCC. For more SCC facts, visit the college’s at-a-glance fact page.

The 25th anniversary kick-off week events included an all-campus party, an anniversary photo, egg hunt, a “SCCavenger” hunt with 25 campus destinations, kite flying demonstrations, a spirit day/tailgate party and one of the top box office movies of 1986, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” For more information on SCC’s 25th anniversary, visit http://www.stchas.edu/25th.

Established in 1986, St. Charles Community College is celebrating 25 years as a public, comprehensive two-year community college with associate degrees and certificate programs in the arts, business, sciences and career-technical fields. SCC provides workforce training and community-based personal and professional development as well as cultural, recreational and entertainment opportunities. For more information, visit www.stchas.edu.

Contact Peggy Schreiner, SCC public relations coordinator, for additional campus photos or historic SCC photos.