OCC's lawn surrounding the Art BuildingOrange Coast College Sailing Base
Orange Coast College (OCC) is apubliccommunity college inCosta Mesa inOrange County, California. It was founded in 1947, with its first classes opening in the fall of 1948. It providesAssociate of Art andAssociate of Science degrees, certificates of achievement, and lower-division classes transferable to other colleges and universities. The college enrolls approximately 24,000 undergraduate students. In terms of population size, Orange Coast College is the third-largest college in Orange County.
Orange Coast College was formed after local voters passed a measure in the January 1947 election to establish a new junior college on a 243-acre (0.98 km2) site, secured from theWar Assets Administration in Washington, D.C., and part of the 1,300-acre (5.3 km2) deactivatedSanta Ana Army Air Base.[3]
The board of trustees hired the college's founding president and district superintendent, Basil Hyrum Peterson, on July 28, 1947. Construction of campus classrooms and facilities began when Peterson hired Fran Albers as the college's carpenter in February 1948. Albers' crew of 35 workers (mostly Coast football players paid 60 cents an hour) turned an Army movie theater into an auditorium and concert hall, a service club into a 500-seat gymnasium, an Army chapel into a facility for theater productions and student/staff weddings, a military storage building into a library, an Army PX into a student center, a battalion headquarters building into an administration building, and several cadet barracks into student dormitories and married student and faculty housing.[4]
The first campus building phase occurred in the early 1950s when renowned architectRichard Neutra was brought in to re-design the campus. Leaving many of the original buildings intact, Neutra added severalmodernist structures including the minimalist Campus Theater and two large lecture halls. These were laid out on a 45-degree angle to the city street grid, similar toThe Parkinsons' layout ofUSC. The second and largest building phase occurred in the 1970s when local architect William Blurock was hired to replace many of the original Army buildings with structures more suitable for educational purposes.
In December 2002, Rabbit Island,[5][6] a 38-acre (150,000 m2) island located in the North Gulf Islands of theGeorgia Strait 50 miles (80 km) west of the city ofVancouver inBritish Columbia, Canada, was donated to the Orange Coast College Foundation. Since then the OCC Foundation, using funds designated for the Orange Coast College School of Sailing & Seamanship, has refurbished the facilities on the island, made significant capital improvements, and helped fund the use of the island as a field station to teach summer classes in island ecology, biological diversity, vertebrate biology, intertidal ecology, kayaking, and photography. It is now referred to as "Wheeler Station" at Rabbit Island in honor of the donor, Henry Wheeler. OCC marine science and biology instructors have used the island to conduct research on species diversity, standing stock, species distribution, and oceanography. Plans were underway to find separate funding for the island outside of OCC. Possible funding sources included the National Science Foundation, rental of the island facilities to Canadians, funding from the Associated Students of OCC (ASOCC), and through other foundation grants and private donations. In March 2007, the Orange Coast College Foundation Board of Directors voted to sell the island after determining that keeping and maintaining it was unfeasible. As of July 2007, the island was in talks to be sold to a private party for $2.41 million.[7] However, the sale did not materialize and the island was sold in March 2008 to a privately held Canadian corporation for $2.19 million.[8]
In 2015, a plan was in effect to remove the early Neutra buildings in the center of the campus and open up a large central park around which both the outlying 1970s buildings and several newer buildings will be clustered.[9]
In November 2016, an OCC student recorded a lecture by a professor of human sexuality, violating the school's Student Code of Conduct. In the lecture, the professor criticizedPresident Donald Trump andVice President Mike Pence, calling their election "an act of terrorism" against members of theLGBTQ community. The student shared the recording with a student club on campus, which then posted it on their public Facebook page. The video promptly went viral, sparking backlash and death threats against the professor.[10]
After an investigation, the student was suspended for one semester and required to write an essay and apologize to the professor. After public outcry, the punishment was overturned in a special meeting of the Coast Community College District Board of Trustees, in the interest of bringing "closure to a chain of events that has led to the distress for many, most especially, an OCC teacher and student".
In 2017, the professor was awarded the Faculty of the Year award by her peers, which she declined to accept and did not want to participate in related activities.[11]
The college is one of three in the Coast Community College District (CCCD) which also includesGolden West College in Huntington Beach, andCoastline Community College. CCCD is a regional organization providing administrative services and funding for post-secondary education. The district is chartered by the state of California to provide community college services.
The mission of OCC is to provide inexpensive education in the trades, licensed trades and skilled professions, as well as remedial and transferable lower-division courses for students who plan to transfer to either aCalifornia State University orUniversity of California campus.
OCC is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. It also has specialized accreditation by American Dental Association (Commission on Dental Accreditation), the American Dietetic Association (Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education), and the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology.[12]
Orange Coast College sponsors 25 sports programs.[13] The 12 men's sports programs are baseball, basketball, crew, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball and water polo. The 13 women's programs are cheerleading/dance, basketball, beach volleyball, crew, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball and water polo.
Orange Coast College's original design in the 1950s included aplanetarium designed byRichard Neutra.[16] Built in 1955,[17] it featured a 24-foot dome and a Viewlex Apollostar projector, which was later donated to theBig Bear Planetarium ProjectorMuseum.[18] The theatre could accommodate 35 visitors.[19] Because of the growth of the college and itsastronomy program, the facility was unable to accommodate students.[20] In 2012, a bond measure was passed to fundraise for a modern planetarium more than twice the size of the Neutra planetarium with seating for 129.[18][19][21]Preservationists, led by Neutra's sonDion Neutra, fought to make the building and several others protected pieces of historical value.[20][22] In 2015, the district approved a $450 million expansion that included the new planetarium.[23] Construction commenced in 2016.[24] In 2017, former professor Mary McChesney donated $1 million for aFoucault pendulum in the lobby.[19] The lobby also hasNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's displayScience On a Sphere.[25] The planetarium is used by the school's astronomy students and provides educational field trips to the area's grade schools.[25]
In 2021, they hosted a planetarium festival called "Dome Fest West", which used the domed theatre for immersive music experiences andlaser shows.[32] During theSolar eclipse of April 8, 2024, the college hosted a community education and viewing event that more than 3,000 people in the attended.[33][34]The Orange County Register said it was one of the best planetariums they've ever seen.[35]
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