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Community college in Baltimore, Maryland, US

Baltimore City Community College (BCCC) is a public community college in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the only community college in the city and the only state sponsored community college in the state. It is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). It was founded in 1947 and has about 5,000 students enrolled in one of its campuses.

Baltimore City Community College dates its origins to the "Baltimore Junior College" (BJC), founded as part of the Baltimore City Public Schools system in 1947 to provide post high school education for returning World War II (1939/1941 1945) veteran soldiers and officers known as the Veterans Institute and was the inspiration of Harry Bard, its later dominant president and alumnus of the BCC. It was also one of the earliest examples of the growing "junior college" (also with some known as "city colleges" especially in California) an educational advancement movement which had roots in several early public high schools /secondary schools and small colleges and institutes in the post Civil War (1861–1865) era and regained popularity at the beginning of the 20th century and has resulted in the growth of present day "community colleges" in numerous cities/towns and counties all across America. This new type of college comprising the first two years of freshmen and sophomores with awarding an associate's instead of a bachelor's degree/diploma, was designed to serve and meet the academic and especially vocational and trade/job training of the intermediate needs between the high schools and large colleges and universities. The BJC for its first decade of the late 1940s and 1950s was located on the third floor of the Baltimore City College, third oldest public high school in America located at 33rd Street and The Alameda in the northeast city in its landmark 1926–1928 "Castle on the Hill" massive stone structure of Collegiate Gothic style architecture surmounted by a distinctive 150 feet high tower. The symbolic gray stone tower besides providing a sight seeing observation level of the surrounding residential neighborhoods and five mile distant downtown skyline and harbor to the south, also coincidentally housed the first studio and transmitting antenna for the school's public radio radio station WBJC FM broadcasting programs across the metro area. BCC (also known as "City"), was a specialized academic magnet secondary school for the arts, humanities and social sciences, and had acquired its distinctive name as a result of its late 19th century curriculum of 5 and 6 years encompassing an early program combining both high school and early college education. By 1959, the Baltimore Junior College had outgrown its sharing of the BCC "castle" and campus on 33rd Street and had relocated to a park like campus of its own in the northwest city along Liberty Heights Avenue nearby the newly constructed huge popular Mondawmin Mall which both had replaced the former George Brown estate and mansion, one of the last open spaces in northwestern Baltimore. Around the same time, BJC was separated from the Baltimore City Public Schools and became a distinct entity of the City of Baltimore municipal government structure and with an independent president of the Junior College who was not also the principal of the Baltimore City College (high school) such as previously Chester H. Katzenkamp. In 1967, the name of the school was changed as the title of "Baltimore Junior College" was dropped and was renamed as the "Community College of Baltimore" (CCB) in order to not be confused with the older City College, now exclusively a secondary school and acquire the new name increasingly being used across the nation by similar growing numbers of institutions known for several decades as junior colleges or city colleges but now as Community College. By the middle of the 1970s, Harry Bard's ideal of a second additional campus on a tight city block in a high rise tower in the envisioning of a revitalized downtown surrounding the former "Basin" of the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River and Baltimore Harbor and Port facilities which were gradually moving further downstream along shores with greater spaces and anchorage depths. This industrial movement left the basin with its piers, docks, warehouses, cranes etc. of port facilities more unused and declining which were adjacent to center city skyscrapers, office buildings and commercial businesses along the streets. The newly renamed Inner Harbor in the late 1950s was eventually added with Bard's dream of an educational institution closer to the residential areas of East and Southeast Baltimore and was realized later with the construction of two buildings along East Lombard Street by Market Place, to the north across East Pratt Street from Piers 5 and 6. These were later named the Bard and Lockwood Buildings. On July 1, 1990, the Maryland General Assembly created a new public college, New Community College of Baltimore. It was renamed Baltimore City Community College in 1992. In the 2000s, BCCC began to experience significant difficulties. Problems began to surface in 2004 when faculty held a public protest over issues related to remedial courses and governance. In 2010, faculty gave BCCC president Williams a vote of no confidence and the state legislature held back funding. These troubles worsened in 2011. BCCC's regional accreditor, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, placed BCCC on probation because of "concerns about the school's ability to evaluate student learning." To address these problems, Maryland governor Martin O'Malley replaced the majority of BCCC's board of trustees with new members. The interim president was Dr Carolyn Hull Anderson, followed by president and CEO, Gordon F. May. In the summer of 2014 BCCC was warned by the Middle States Commission that the college's accreditation was in jeopardy. MSCHE reaffirmed its accreditation on June 25, 2015. In 2015 NASA selected BCCC and four other higher education institutions to share in $6 million as part of its Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP), an initiative that aims to provide educator training and expand science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) course offerings.

BCCC has five major locations.

The main campus of BCCC is on Liberty Heights Avenue, located west of The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. In addition to classes and student services, the Liberty Main Campus provides services including childcare, a library, and a fitness center.

The Downtown Harbor campus is located on Market Place in the Inner Harbor. This campus holds the Business and Continuing Education division.

The Reisterstown Road Plaza Campus houses additional classroom space.

The Life Sciences Institute started in 1987, is one of the nation's oldest and foremost community college biotechnology training programs. In 2009, it was moved to one of the nation's top research campuses at University of Maryland's BioPark.

There is also a National Weatherization Training Center is located in East Baltimore on East Preston Street. The center is one of only 26 U. S. Department of Energy National Weatherization Training Centers and the only one in Maryland.

Since 1951, the college has operated WBJC radio station. It is an FM, non commercial, station at 91.5 MHz that broadcasts classical music and arts information programming nearly 24 hours daily all week. The station studios and office is located in northwest Baltimore, Maryland and the antenna is near the junction of I 695 and Reisterstown Road. The station's 50,000 watt signal reaches more than 180,000 listeners weekly across Maryland, Washington, DC and portions of the surrounding states.

BCCC is a member of the Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference which belongs to Region XX (20) of the National Junior College Athletic Association. BCCC athletes compete in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country.

Exclusive to BCCC students, the Granville T. Woods (GTW) Scholars Program awards select students with a full scholarship to pay for tuition, fees, and books. A state of the art notebook computer is loaned to scholars to keep during their participation in the program. Upon completion, the computer is awarded to the graduates. During the summer, scholars are given the opportunity to study abroad and participate in internships. The program is designed to attract and prepare high achieving students primarily from Baltimore City Public Schools. Scholars who are selected for the program are expected to transfer to a four year college or university to pursue, at a minimum, a bachelor's degree in any discipline. Once they graduate from BCCC, scholars may receive a full or partial scholarship to attend Morgan State University. The purpose of the GTW program is to challenge students at a higher level and to create an environment of interdependence which should lead to greater successful outcomes. Applicants must be residents of Baltimore City and have at least a 3.0 cumulative grade point average based on a 4.0 scale. Applicants should also have at least a combined total SAT score of 1000 (Math and Writing only) or at least a composite score of 21 on the ACT.