Florida Community College at Jacksonville

Infobox University
name = Florida Community College at Jacksonville


established=1966
motto=
type=Public
endowment=$32.9 Million
city= Jacksonville
state= Florida
country= USA
students= 64,230 cite web|url=http://www.fccj.edu/friends/index.html|title=Semester Enrollment Report |accessdate=2008-05-14 |date=2008-05-14 |format= |work=About FCCJ|publisher=FCCJ ]
faculty=
campus=Urban
mascot=

The Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ) is located in Jacksonville, Florida, USA. It has five campuses in the Jacksonville area, and five additional centers which host classes and programs for students. FCCJ claims to be the fourth largest community college in the United States. As of 2008 FCCJ has an endowment that stands at $32.9 million [http://www.nacubo.org/Images/All%20Institutions%20Listed%20by%20FY%202007%20Market%20Value%20of%20Endowment%20Assets_2007%20NES.pdf]

FCCJ's Downtown Campus is the northern terminal of the JTA Skyway.

Campuses

North Campus, located off Dunn Avenue on the Northside, was built in 1970, and has the facilities for many of FCCJ's health, cosmetology, and culinary programs. The Criminal Justice Center, on the west end of the campus, was built collaboratively with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, and regularly hosts training events that draw law enforcement personnel from around the state. The main complex of North Campus is notable for its three-story, semi-closed courtyard design, and unique two-story cylindrical tower (actually an elevator shaft) at one end. Some say that this gives the campus the appearance of a castle.

Kent Campus, originally known as Cumberland Campus, opened in 1966 using over 100 World War II-era housing units as classrooms. Cumberland was later renamed after Fred H. Kent, a prominent Jacksonville attorney, and the first Chairman of the FCCJ District Board of Trustees. In 1979, the buildings that were still structurally sound went into service as residential housing in the community. Kent Campus was rebuilt in an all-brick, closed courtyard design, gaining it a reputation over the years as an aesthetically pleasing area in an urban environment.

South Campus has been extensively developed over the years from its core building, a three-story, flat-topped, concrete cube, into a sprawling complex with a nearly circular drive around the perimeter. It is home to the Nathan H. Wilson Center for the Arts, which consists of a large auditorium complex along with several outlying buildings for faculty offices, classrooms, labs, and practice rooms. This has made South Campus into FCCJ's center for theater and artistic programs. The STARS teams for men's and women's basketball, and women's volleyball and tennis are based out of the 2,000-seat sports center. President Bush's January 2005 visit to Jacksonville included a speaking stop in this facility. South Campus is also the site of the Palm and Cycad Arboretum. Recently, a parcel of land to the east of South Campus has become home to FCCJ's new Fire Academy.

Downtown Campus represents FCCJ's academic presence in the heart of Jacksonville's urban core. Many of the programs offered at Downtown Campus are vocational in nature, such as building construction and automotive repair. Other programs focus on GED, high school completion, adult literacy, and English as a Second Language (ESL).

Centers

Deerwood Center is a small but powerful outpost known for its sleek architecture, dedicated faculty, high levels of student satisfaction and estimable library. (Librarians were voted "best dressed".) Deerwood is currently housed in a former mall, and is the center of FCCJ's Information Technology department, which maintains the entire college's network and serves distance learners.

The Martin Center, a single, multi-story brick complex, is home to the central administrative functions of the college. No classes are held at the Martin Center, as it mostly consists of conference rooms. It is the site of Cancer Survivors Park, which includes walkways designed to look like replicas of Jacksonville's famous bridges.

Aviation Center of Excellence, located at Cecil Field, a former Naval Air Station on the Westside of Jacksonville, hosts a number of aviation training programs taught by FCCJ professors.

Cecil Center, located near the ACE, provides college credit classes to students located on the Westside of Jacksonville.

Advanced Technology Center is a specialized facility used for teaching technical topics such as network technology, automotive repair, natural science labs, etc. The ATC is located along State Street west of Downtown Campus and behind the Martin Center.

Nassau Center, located in Yulee, FL is an outlying FCCJ campus that provides college credit and other classes for Nassau County residents. It is also the home of the Outdoor Education Program, which hosts team-building exercises for local businesses and holds summer workshops for troubled teens.

Urban Resource Center is the center of distance learning for the College, and is also home to the Military Education Institute (MEI). It is located along State Street west of the ATC. The MEI also operates educational programs at the Naval Station Great Lakes and Naval Air Station Pensacola.

Notable alumni

Further reading

* [http://www.fccj.edu/friends/newsreleases/archives06/navy_contracts.html Naval Station Great Lakes, Naval Air Station Pensacola award Florida Community College at Jacksonville $67M combined training contracts]
* [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?b=NF00000253&v=00001 "A College tells its story : : an oral history of Florida Community College at Jacksonville" by Robert B. Gentry,] full searchable text available as open access in the [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/ University of Florida Digital Collections]

External links

* [http://www.fccj.edu/ Florida Community College at Jacksonville Official Website]
* [http://www.distancelearning.org FCCJ's Official Distance Learning Website]

References