Harford Community College

Harford Community College
Type Community College
Established September 1957 (as "Harford Junior College")
Endowment $4.1 million[1]
President Dennis Golladay[2]
Academic staff
 106
Students 20,000 (Credit and Continuing Education)
Location Bel Air, Maryland, 21015, USA
39°33′38″N 76°17′2″W / 39.56056°N 76.28389°W / 39.56056; -76.28389Coordinates: 39°33′38″N 76°17′2″W / 39.56056°N 76.28389°W / 39.56056; -76.28389
Campus suburban
Colors          
Athletics Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference (MD JUCO), and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA)
Mascot "Fighting Owls"
Website www.harford.edu

Harford Community College is a community college for Harford County, Maryland in Churchville, in eastern Harford County, in the northeast area of the State of Maryland. The school was established as "Harford Junior College" in September 1957, with 116 students originally enrolled in the buildings and on the campus of the Bel Air High School in the county seat. The Churchville campus of 1964 occupies 332 acres (1.34 km2), and now has 21 buildings totaling over 287,000 square feet (26,700 m2).[3]

History

HCC was founded in September 1957 as the "Harford Junior College" on the campus and in the basement of the building for Bel Air High School with 116 original students. By four years later in September 1961, enrollment had risen to 354. In 1964, it moved to its current location east of Bel Air on Thomas Run Road in Churchville, where it continued to grow and eventually was renamed "Harford Community College" in 1971, using the title of "community" which had become more popular in the former nationwide "junior college movement". Dating back into the 1920s with some public and a few private colleges at the lower level conceived and founded, with some earlier antecedents and similar schools appearing in Baltimore at the turn of the 20th Century (with The Baltimore City College - high school (1839) and lower college (1866), and later the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute (1883), that some old-time citizens of Harford County traveled into the City to avail themselves of the educational opportunities in the state's major city. Montgomery College in Montgomery County of the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., was the first established in the state in 1946 of the modern concept of "junior college", followed by the Baltimore Junior College (again located first at the Baltimore City College) in 1947, (B.J.C. later renamed "Community College of Baltimore" during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s). Occasionally some Harford County residents currently avail themselves of the opportunities at the neighboring three campuses of the Community College of Baltimore County system at Catonsville, Essex or Dundalk. In the mid-1990s, the HCC began expanding, adding a new library, along with Fallston Hall, Edgewood Hall, new parking lots, and an expanded baseball sports facility. Continued future expansion is also expected with the ties and influence of Harfordians being very close.

Academics

HCC has seven academic divisions[4] that offer 61 associates degrees and 21 certificate degrees.[5] The academic divisions are:

Harford College is a member of the Maryland Association of Community Colleges.[6]

Student activities and clubs[7]

  • Actors Guild
  • ASID
  • Anime Media Society
  • BCAT
  • Future Educators of America
  • Gamers Guild
  • Harford Dance Theater Company[8]
  • History Club
  • Improv Club
  • Journalism Club
  • Lambda Epsilon Chi National Honors Society fraternity
  • Multicultural Student Association
  • Outdoor Adventure Club
  • Paralegal Students Association
  • Phi Theta Kappa fraternity
  • Phoenix Festival Theater Company[9]
  • Psyched Up!
  • Rainbow Alliance (LGBT)
  • Science Club
  • Student Empowerment Club
  • Student Ambassadors
  • Student Art Gallery Association
  • Student Athlete Advising Club
  • Student Government Association
  • Student Nurse Association

Athletics

Harford Fighting Owls logo

HCC is represented by the mascot of the "Fighting Owls". This nickname was chosen during the institution’s early years, when it was largely an evening college and the nocturnal nature of the Owl represented that fact.

Harford has traditionally had a successful athletics program, with over 70 students being named All-Americans on the junior college level of interscholastic sports.[10]

Sports

The "Fighting Owls" compete in the Maryland Junior College Athletic Conference (MD JUCO) of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). Harford offers fourteen varsity sports, seven men's and seven women's teams.

Men's Women's
Baseball Basketball
Basketball Cross Country
Cross Country Lacrosse
Golf Soccer
Lacrosse Softball
Soccer Tennis
Tennis Volleyball

Football

From 1964 to 1985, Harford ran a successful scholastic football program. The program went to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) football championship in 1984, where it lost to the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. The following year, Harford was forced to close the program due to lack of funding. The discontinuation of the football program was met with heavy opposition by students, who signed many petitions to bring the program back. However, proper funding never came in later, and the sports program still has had to remain closed for 29 years.

Field Hockey

Harford ran an extremely successful field hockey program for women from 1975 to 2000. The program won the national championship in 1995, Harford's only national championship. NJCAA field hockey was discontinued in 1997. Harford started playing National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II and Division III schools, even some Division I Junior Varsity teams to try to keep the field hockey program alive. In 2000, after 3 years of strain, the program was forced to shut down.

Facilities

The "Fighting Owls" compete at the Harford Sports Complex. The facilities at the Complex are:

Facility Capacity Sports
Aberdeen Proving Grounds Federal Credit Union Arena (APGFCU Arena) 2,500 Basketball
Volleyball
"Harford Stadium" 1,000 Soccer
Lacrosse
Harford Baseball Field 500 Baseball
Harford Softball Field 150 Softball
Tennis Courts N/A Tennis

Administration offices for the Athletic Department are located in the Susquehanna Center, which also houses the AGPFCU Arena. The Susquehanna Center also contains locations for fitness classes, such as martial arts and yoga, as well as a swimming pool.

Flight Night

"Flight Night" is the name of the athletic rivalry between the HCC "Fighting Owls" and the Hagerstown Community College "Hawks" of western Maryland's Washington County. It is an all-sports based rivalry.

For a school to be the winner of the competition, it must accumulate at least 5.5 points. The point is awarded to the team that wins the season series in the head-to-head competition. If the team plays head-to-head once in a given season, then the school that wins will receive the point. If it is a tie, each team receives a one-half point. All regular season head-to-head games count toward the season series tally with the school that wins more games receiving the point. If the teams split the regular season matchups, then each team receives a one-half point.

In the event of an overall tie, the school that won the previous year will retain the trophy.[11]

Fight song

We’re Fighting Owls from Harford Community, and Victory, we will win.
Our College fights with pride to conquer our foes, and Battle, we begin.
And it is true, that the White and Blue that we wear will strike up respect among our foes,
For we’re the Fighting Owls from Harford Community College, that’s where the Victory goes.

Media

The school's newspaper is "The Owl" magazine, which is published twice during the fall and spring semesters.[12]

HCC hosts WHFC, an FM radio station that serves the metro Baltimore area to the southwest, as well as southern Pennsylvania to the north. It is set in the variety format, with shows ranging from jazz, to alternative music, to talk show.

Notable buildings

The HCC Library is located on the east side of campus.

In the center of the campus is the Chesapeake Center which hosts the "Chesapeake Gallery", a collection of artwork from emerging and established artists as well as students and faculty, as well the "Chesapeake Theater", a theater venue utilized by the "Phoenix Festival Theater Company".

To the north is the Joppa Hall, which houses the "Joppa Recital Hall", used for musical recitals, and the "Blackbox Theatre", an additional theater venue utilized by the "HCC Actors Guild" and the "Harford Dance Theater Company".

The Harford Sports Complex is located on the south side of the campus.

Notable alumni

Miscellaneous

More students transfer to Towson University, a state public university to the west in Towson, Maryland of neighboring Baltimore County than any other college. T.U. is the second largest university in the state after the University of Maryland at College Park.

The mascot for HCC is "Screech", the "Fighting Owl".

References

  1. ↑ As of June 30, 2009. "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2009 Endowment Market Value and Percentage Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2008 to FY 2009" (PDF). 2009 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments. National Association of College and University Business Officers. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
  2. ↑ "The Aegis - Baltimore Sun". Exploreharford.com. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
  3. ↑ Archived October 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ "Harford Community College". Harford.edu. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
  5. ↑ "Harford Community College - HCC - The College Board". Bigfuture.collegeboard.org. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
  6. ↑ "Our Community Colleges - MACC". Mdacc.org. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
  7. ↑ "Harford Community College". Ww2.harford.edu. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
  8. ↑ "Harford Community College". Harford.edu. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
  9. ↑ "Harford Community College". Harford.edu. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
  10. ↑ "Harford Community College Athletics - Harford All-Americans". Harfordathletics.com. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
  11. ↑ "Flight Night: Harford Announces Rivalry With Hagerstown - NJCAA | News | National". NJCAA. 2011-09-26. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
  12. ↑ "Harford Community College". Harford.edu. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
  13. ↑ "Stephen Keith Matthews". databaseFootball.com. Retrieved November 10, 2012.
  14. ↑ "Randy Mcmillan Past Stats, Statistics, History, and Awards". databaseFootball.com. 1958-12-17. Retrieved 2015-07-27.
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