There’s a hidden gem in Bellevue. If you don’t drive on 148th Avenue Southeast near I-90, you might not know that the city is home to the third largest institution of higher learning in the state.
The institution has come a long way. In 1966, it opened with 464 students and 37 instructors in a temporary home at Newport High School. Since then, it has become known as an educational leader in the state and known nationally for its innovations.
And this year it dropped the “Community” from its name in recognition that it now offers the first of what should become many four-year degrees.
Bellevue Community College is now Bellevue College.
The college’s beginnings were humble, to say the least. In the late 1950s, residents in this area – really a collection of mostly small, mostly rural communities, began pushing for accessible, affordable higher education. They become part of a nationwide grass-roots movement for two-year community colleges.
By the end of that decade, a college planning committee had been formed made up of school district officials. So thorough were their efforts, that by 1962, they convinced voters to pass $575,000 levy to establish a college.
A year later, the Bellevue School District purchased 70 acres in the Eastgate area for the college. However, there still were many hurdles. It wasn’t until 1965 that another committee – The Greater Eastside Community College Advisory Council – lobbied the Legislature and got $30,000 to plan a community college for the Eastside. By late September, the college began accepting applications for Winter Quarter, 1966.
The need was obvious. In the first two days that registration was open, 295 students signed up. There were 50 who camped out overnight in order to be the first to enroll. In all, a total of 464 credit students would sign up for that first winter quarter.
Those first days essentially were night school. Classes were held at Newport High in the evening. But the curriculum was heavy on academics, such as trigonometry, physics and botany, social science and English. The vocational classes included practical nursing, basic aircraft blueprint reading and food service management.
Ten students would graduate in the school’s first class in 1967.
That same year the Legislature passed the Community College Act of 1967, creating a state community college system and separating Bellevue Community College from the Bellevue School District. Within two years, students would be taking classes on a new campus, with 2,200 full-time students.
By 1970, BCC received accreditation by the Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools.
Another first for the school, “Chester,” a dial-in information retrieval system is installed in the Library Media Center and begins to pipe audio and video signals to external callers as well as students in booths in the media center. It was the first system of its type to be installed in the state of Washington, and the first in the entire United States to offer off-campus dial-in access. Students used the audio tutorials to study anatomy, physiology and biology.
Growth kept coming. An $8.5 million addition that helped BCC double in size, and provide a 300-seat theatre (the largest public theatre at the time in Bellevue). A planetarium that could seat 66. A 2,500-seat gymnasium and sports complex. A daycare center. A greenhouse.
More construction, and more students, continue to fill the site.
In 1989 B. Jean Floten, then Executive Vice President at Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood becomes president of BCC. Even more of a wave of innovation and accomplishment begins. BCC becomes known nationally for its innovations in programs and teaching methods.
Floten has been at the forefront in committing the college to meet the demand for high-tech workers. Computers are everywhere in college classrooms. New tools for communication include e-mail and Web pages.
Online classes over the Internet add a new dimension to distance education.
In 1995, a watershed is reached with the National Science Foundation awards BCC $3 million to establish the Northwest Center for Emerging Technologies and names BCC a Center of Excellence in Information Technology. This seminal grant (soon followed by another from the NSF totaling $2 million) ultimately brings national recognition for the college.
Soon after would come Fast-Track educational programs that compress one year or more of education into four to seven months of intense study. Other colleges nationwide copy the program design. The American Association of Community Colleges awards BCC mentor college status in information technology.
Most recently, the Northwest Center for Emerging Technologies opens, a $15 million, state-of-the-art facility housing computer labs and high-tech classrooms. It houses computer labs and high-tech classrooms, as well as the National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (NWCET).
Then, out of the blue, Rolling Stone magazine names BCC one of the top community colleges in the nation. Vice President Al Gore follows by citing BCC as one of 20 colleges known for world-class 21st Century job preparation.
Annual enrollment is 39,300 students during the 2000-01 academic year, making BCC the third-largest higher-education institution in Washington.
The next leap forward is 2005 when BCC and Eastern Washington University agree to establish an EWU University Center on the BCC campus, offering upper-division courses leading to EWU bachelor’s degrees.
The past 40-plus years have been times of constant innovation by college leaders. The move from “Community” to Bellevue College is a recognition of all that they have achieved.
