Browsing by Author "Smith, Dustin P."

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    A century of change: two-year education in the state of Alabama, 1866-1963
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Smith, Dustin P.; Katsinas, Stephen G.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Much has been written about two-year education in Alabama during the governorships of George C. Wallace, but little about two-year education prior to his first inauguration in 1963. Yet nearly a third of the forty-three junior, technical, and community college institutions that eventually formed the Alabama Community College System had been established prior to 1963. This study reviews the major types of two-year colleges (historically black private junior college, public trade schools, and public junior colleges) established in Alabama from 1866 to 1963 by drawing upon case studies of institutional founding based upon primary document analysis. Alabama's first two-year institution was Selma University established in 1878 by the Alabama Colored Baptist Convention. Selma University operated as a private junior college for the newly freed slaves hungry for education. The first public two-year institution was the Alabama School of Trades, founded in Gadsden in 1925, which offered vocational education courses. A second trade school was established using federal vocational aid money in Decatur to produce trained workers to support the World War II war efforts. The first set of public trade schools created in Alabama followed the end of World War II with the passage of the Regional Trade and Vocational School Act of 1947, authored by freshman State Representative George C. Wallace, and endorsed by Governor James "Big Jim" Folsom. A third type of two-year college was established in 1961 when the Alabama Legislature passed a bill authorizing a public junior college in northwest Alabama. The 1901 Constitution was a powerful factor in hindering two-year college development in Alabama. With unstable funding and an inability to raise local funds imposed by the Constitution, school districts could not afford to operate public junior colleges. This led to two-year college development being controlled by politicians in Montgomery. The funding restrictions of the 1901 Constitution also meant that an institution legally authorized would be doomed without state funding, because the lack of local funding. It is therefore no accident that a broad two-year public educational system could not develop in Alabama prior to 1963 without a champion in the Governor's office.
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    The establishment of enterprise state community college: the first twenty-five years (1965-1990)
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Ammons, Kevin Tyler; Urban, Wayne J.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Community Colleges often fail to document their own local histories. Local leaders involved in the establishment of their local community colleges stories have not been told about their institutions. This is especially the case for the Alabama Community College System. Alabama lacks documented histories of its two- year institutions. As of today, the Alabama Community College System history consists of three written local histories: Carlton Kelly’s The History and Development of John C. Calhoun State Community College, Alta Milican’s history of Snead State Junior College and Reginald William Hall’s The History of Alexander City State Junior College: Its Beginning, Foundation and Progress, which is today Central Alabama Community College. In 1988, twenty- five years after the system was established, the system grew to include 41 two- year institutions. Members of local community colleges have the potential to write the histories of their institutions, either established or merged from the Alabama Trade School and Junior College Authority. Since 1979-2005, Alabama has merged the system from 41 institutions to 25 community colleges. Alabama has witnessed over 50 years of establishing a two- year system of junior colleges, technical colleges and community colleges. Many of these institutions will celebrate their 50TH Anniversary in 2015. They will celebrate without a history, including Enterprise State Community College (ESCC). This study will fill the void.