Former name
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Compton Community College (1927–1932) Compton Junior College (1932–1949) |
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Type | A Center of a Public Community College |
Established | 1927 |
Undergraduates | 6,780 |
Address | 1111 E. Artesia Blvd, Compton, California 90221, United States |
Nickname | Tartars |
Website | www.compton.edu |
El Camino College Compton Center (originally Compton Junior College) operates as a "center" of El Camino College. Previously Compton Community College, the college lost its accreditation in 2006 and has since operated as a satellite campus for El Camino College. Prior to the takeover, the college was operated by the Compton Community College District.
Under an agreement with El Camino College, Compton Center is open and offers accredited El Camino College courses to residents of Compton, Carson, Lynwood, Paramount and parts of North Long Beach. Compton Center is located in Compton, California; El Camino College is in Torrance, California.
Compton Community College was established in 1927 as a component of the Compton Union High School District. From 1932 to 1949, it operated as a four-year junior college, incorporating the last two years of high school as well as the first two years of college.
In 1933 the campus was devastated by a major earthquake which struck the region, leaving two buildings standing. Fortunately, no one on campus was killed.
In the 1940s several thousand Compton College students entered the armed forces and during World War II the campus housed a military unit and a defense plant.
In 1950 voters approved a bond issue separating the college from the high school district. The new college campus was then constructed at the college's present site, 1111 East Artesia Boulevard. Classes began on the new campus in the Fall of 1953.
In the 1960s the composition of the student body changed dramatically from predominantly Caucasian to overwhelmingly African-American.
In 1970 the Board of Trustees appointed the institution's first African-American President/Superintendent, Dr. Abel B. Sykes, Jr. Highlights during his 14-year administration included the construction of the first two new campus buildings since 1952: the Jane Astredo Allied Health Building and the Abel B. Sykes, Jr. Child Development Center (named after him in 1995).
The 1980s was a period of reduced funding and partial retrenchment for the institution, but by the early 1990s the college had once again stabilized. The second major demographic shift occurred in the 1990s making the campus population 50% African-American and 50% Hispanic.