Latin: De Aja | |
Type | Community college |
---|---|
Established | 1967 |
President | Brian Murphy |
Academic staff
|
300 full-time, 635 part-time |
Students | 21,526 |
Location | Cupertino, California, United States |
Campus | 112 acres (45 ha) |
Nickname | Dons |
Affiliations | Foothill College |
Website | http://www.deanza.edu/ |
De Anza College is a 112-acre (45 ha) community college located in Cupertino, California. It was founded in 1967 on the site of the Beaulieu Winery and is named after the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza. Along with the arrival and growth of Apple Computer, the presence of De Anza College contributed significantly to the growth of Cupertino from a small town to an industrial city and an integral part of Silicon Valley. It consistently ranks #1 or #2 in the state for the total number of students who annually transfer to University of California and California State University campuses. The college is also the home of the California History Center, housed in a mansion called "Le Petit Trianon". The current president of De Anza college is Brian Murphy, replacing Martha Kanter who later became the Under Secretary of Education for the Obama Administration. The average class size at De Anza is 35, and approximately 2,800 students transfer per year. It also attracts a heavy international student population.
De Anza College is part of Silicon Valley's Foothill-De Anza Community College District, which also administers Foothill College in nearby Los Altos Hills, California. The district serves the cities of Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and San Jose. The district headquarters is on the Foothill campus.
De Anza holds a monthly flea market in its parking lot, which has become a community tradition as well as major source of income for the De Anza Associated Student Body (DASB). With a budget of over 1 million dollars, the DASB has one of the biggest student budgets of any community college in California.
De Anza formerly had their own campus police. They used to wear slacks and polo shirts, and officers were unarmed. The department was not a POST participating agency and in 2001, the campus police departments at De Anza and Foothill College were merged to become the Foothill-De Anza College District Police.