Alvin Community College Historical Statement

The Alvin Community College District, a two-year public community college, was approved by the qualified voters of the Alvin Independent School District on November 2, 1948. From its inception until 1971, the College was administered by officials of the Alvin Independent School District. The 1971-72 academic year marked the beginning of a new era in the history of Alvin Community College. A separate administration, tax district, and College Board were established to assume the management, control, and operation of a newly created Alvin Junior College District.

Initially, when the College and public schools were in the same system, the College was part of Alvin High School. The first classes began on September 12, 1949, in facilities which grouped grades 11 through 14 in one building and which placed Alvin under a system known as the 6-4-4 plan.

One of the more important changes at Alvin Community College was the building of a separate facility for academic work at the college level and dropping of the 6-4-4 plan in favor of a 6-3-3-2 arrangement. The college program was strengthened by additional facilities, by an enlarged faculty, and by successfully meeting the standards of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (1959). Alvin Community College moved to its present campus in the summer of 1963.

By a vote of both the original district and voters of adjoining territories, the college district was enlarged to nearly twice its geographical size in 1974. Then, in the spring of 1975, an $8 million bond issue was approved, providing funds for the facilities necessary to meet an expanding enrollment. Several new buildings were added to the growing campus.

In 1998 the College expanded into its service area with the establishment of the Pearland College Center in Pearland.

The enrollment of Alvin Community College has grown from 134 students in 1949 to over 4,000 students today.