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| Type | Public community college |
|---|---|
| Established | 1969 |
| Endowment | $5.55 million (2020) [1] |
| President | Joianne L. Smith [2] |
| Students | 7,433 (spring 2022) [3] |
| Location | Des Plaines and Skokie , , United States |
| Website | www.oakton.edu |
Oakton College is a public community college with campuses in Des Plaines, Illinois and Skokie, Illinois. It was established in 1969 in Morton Grove, Illinois and moved to its current locations in 1980.
Oakton College opened in 1969 as Oakton Community College in former industrial buildings at Oakton and Nagle in Morton Grove. This original campus closed when the Des Plaines and Skokie campuses opened in 1980. The Skokie campus opened in 1980 at the site of the former Niles East High School, an art deco architecture building that was used in the films Sixteen Candles and Risky Business . The school produced two Nobel laureates. A photograph of the school from 1993 is in the collection of the local historical society. [4] The college demolished the school buildings. Oakton College's Koehnline Museum of Art has about 40 film posters from African American films. [5] [6] It announced on January 2, 2023 that it will be renamed Oakton College as of January 17, with updated logo and branding to roll out over the next year. [7]
Oakton's main campus in Des Plaines is located on 147 acres (59.5 ha) of woodlands and prairie, between Golf Road to the south and Central Road to the north, bordered on the west by the Des Plaines River. The college, a modern, red-brick building with 435,000 square feet (40,400 m2), houses 65 classrooms and 46 educational laboratories, as well as student services, administrative and faculty offices. Special facilities include 19 computer classrooms; Automotive Technology Lab, Performing Arts Center; the Business Institute; the William A. Koehnline Museum of Art ( /ˈkɛnlaɪn/ ); a Child Care Center; and a teleconferencing center, gym, fitness center, library and bookstore. The Des Plaines Campus has about 10,000 students enrolled.
Construction on a new addition to the northeast side of the campus began in April 2012, with a projected open date in time for the 2014 summer semester. However, due to weather and issues with the concrete slab used for the ground settlement, the building was not available for use until the spring semester of 2015. The $39 million addition, which stands three stories tall and spans 93,000 square feet, is the largest structural change to the campus since its opening in 1980. The new building, which houses health and sciences classes, is part of a $68.5 million five year Facilities Master Plan which went into effect in December 2010. [8] The community college will seek certification with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design due to its features, which include self shading windows which will provide natural lighting to 75 percent of the classrooms during the day. [9] In honor of President Margaret Burke Lee and her planned retirement in June 2015 after 30 years of service, the building has been named the Margaret Burke Lee Science and Health Careers Center.
Joianne L. Smith is the college's fourth president. [10]
The Ray Hartstein Campus adjoins a residential area in Skokie. The state-of-the-art building was dedicated in 1995 and is set on a spacious lawn with mature trees as well as new plantings. The building provides almost 165,000 square feet (15,300 m2) of space for 31 classrooms, 12 laboratories and other educational and administrative offices. Special facilities include a teleconferencing and distance learning center; a Child Care Center; and offices for student activities, the Emeritus Program, Alliance for Lifelong Learning (ALL) and English as a Second Language (ESL)/Literacy.
The college offers both credit and non-credit classes. Some credit classes include courses in Accounting, Computer Science, Humanities, Mathematics, etc. Oakton College is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and the North Central Association.
In 2014, Oakton entered into a dual enrollment agreement with Shimer College, a Great Books Program college in Chicago, under which Oakton students could attend Shimer classes for credit at Oakton. [11] It was the first extension of Shimer's dual enrollment system beyond the City Colleges of Chicago.
Oakton College is a member of National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), and offers men's teams in baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, and track and field; and women's teams in basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball. Students may also participate in a variety of intramural sports on campus.
There are over 50 clubs on campus. The community college also has a Student Government Association, Student Judicial Board, the student newspaper OCCurrence, and other student led programs.
Cook County Suburban Community College District 535 [12] serves 450,000 residents in northeast Cook County, Illinois. The school serves Chicago's North Shore suburbs of Des Plaines, Evanston, Glencoe, Glenview, Golf, Kenilworth, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northbrook, Northfield, Park Ridge, Rosemont, Skokie, Wilmette, and Winnetka.
Morton Grove is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 census, the population was 25,297. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area.
Niles is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, located in the townships of Maine and Niles, directly neighboring Chicago's far northwest border. Per the 2020 census, the population was 30,912. The current mayor of Niles is George Alpogianis.
Skokie is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. According to the 2020 census, its population was 67,824. Skokie lies approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of Chicago's downtown Loop. The name Skokie comes from a Potawatomi word for "marsh". For many years, Skokie promoted itself as "The World's Largest Village". Skokie's streets, like that of many suburbs, are largely a continuation of the Chicago street grid, and the village is served by the Chicago Transit Authority, further cementing its connection to the city.
The North Shore consists of many affluent suburbs north of Chicago, Illinois, bordering the shores of Lake Michigan. These communities fall within suburban Cook County and Lake County. The North Shore's membership is often a topic of debate, and it includes some Chicago suburbs which do not border Lake Michigan. However, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Highwood, Highland Park, Deerfield, Glencoe, Northbrook, Northfield, Winnetka, Kenilworth, Wilmette, Golf, Glenview, Skokie, Lincolnwood, and Evanston, are generally considered to be the main constituents of the North Shore. The North Shore is known for its affluence, high level of education, proximity to Chicago, and top-rated public schools. Lake County, Illinois is among the wealthiest counties in the U.S. and several of the wealthiest zip codes are there.
Fasman Yeshiva High School, known colloquially as Skokie Yeshiva, is an Orthodox Jewish all-boys high school in Skokie, Illinois. Fasman Yeshiva offers a dual curriculum of secular and Judaic studies.
Niles East High School was a public 4–year school in Skokie, Illinois. Operated by Niles Township High Schools District 219, Niles East was first opened in 1938 and closed after the 1979–1980 school year. Niles East's sister schools Niles West High School and Niles North High School remain open. The school was known as Niles Township High School until Niles West High School opened in 1959. The school sports teams were named the Trojans. The school's greatest claims to fame are its two Nobel Laureate alumni—perhaps even more notable because the school was open for only 42 years. The school buildings were demolished by Oakton College.
Golf School District 67 is located in Morton Grove, Illinois. The Village of Morton Grove is approximately 13 miles north of downtown Chicago. The district consists of two schools: Hynes Elementary School and Golf Middle School. Students in Pre-Kindergarten through fourth grade attend Hynes Elementary School, and those in grades five through eight attend Golf Middle School. The school district has an enrollment of approximately 695 students and is served by 90 teachers and staff.
The 9th congressional district of Illinois covers parts of Cook, Lake, and McHenry counties as of the 2021 redistricting which followed the 2020 census. It includes all or parts of Chicago, Evanston, Glenview, Skokie, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Prospect Heights, Wilmette, Buffalo Grove, Hawthorn Woods, Wauconda, Island Lake, Long Grove, Lake Barrington, Algonquin Township, Cary, Crystal Lake, Lake in the Hills, Lakewood, Oakwood Hills, Trout Valley, Algonquin, Port Barrington, Barrington Hills, and Fox River Grove. It is anchored in Chicago's North Side, along Lake Michigan, and covers many of Chicago's northern suburbs. Democrat Jan Schakowsky has represented the district since January 1999.
Niles West High School (NWHS), officially Niles Township High School West, is a public four-year high school located in Skokie, Illinois, a north suburb of Chicago, in the United States. NWHS is part of the Niles Township Community High School District 219, which also includes Niles North High School. The name of the school teams originally was the Indians, which later was changed to the Wolves, in 2001. The feeder middle-schools for NWHS are Lincoln Junior High School (Skokie), Fairview South School (Skokie), Lincoln Hall Middle School (Lincolnwood), Culver Middle School (Niles), and Park View School. Niles West High School also matriculates many students from MCC Academy, Morton Grove, Illinois.
St. Martha Catholic Church is a parish in the Archdiocese of Chicago located in Morton Grove, Illinois.
Maine Township is one of 29 townships in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 140,600 at the 2020 census. The township was founded in 1850.
Niles Township is one of the 29 townships in Cook County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2020 census, its population was 112,407.
Prairie State College is a public community college in Chicago Heights, Illinois. It is the only college operated by Illinois Community College District 515.
Skokie/Morton Grove School District 69 is an elementary school district based in the northern Cook County village for which the district is named: Skokie, Illinois, United States. The district is composed of two elementary schools and one junior high school; one of the two elementary schools is home to a preschool program, while the other elementary school is the only school in the district not located in the village of Skokie. Students that are submitted to the TOPS Preschool Program are admitted to one of two teachers in Madison Elementary School, an institution that also teaches students in kindergarten or in grades one and two under direction of principal Christopher Basten.
Shawnee Community College (SCC) is a public community college in Ullin, Illinois. It is part of the Illinois Community College System.
The Mount Carroll Seminary was the name of Shimer College from 1853 to 1896. The Seminary was located in Mount Carroll, Illinois, in the United States. A pioneering institution in its time and place, the Mount Carroll Seminary served as a center of culture and education in 19th-century northwestern Illinois. Despite frequent prognostications of failure, it grew from 11 students in a single room to more than 100 students on a spacious campus with four principal buildings. Unusually for the time, the school was governed entirely by women, most notably the founder Frances Wood Shimer, who was the chief administrator throughout the Seminary's entire existence.
The 2020 estimate of the Jewish population in metropolitan Chicago is around 319,600, according to Brandeis University's Chicago Report. The population of Jewish people within the City of Chicago's limits is estimated to be around 120,000, with another 200,000 residing in the suburbs surrounding the major city. At the end of the 20th century there were a total of 270,000 Jews in the Chicago area, with 30% in the city limits. In 1995, over 80% of the suburban Jewish population lived in the northern and northwestern suburbs of Chicago. At this time, West Rogers Park was - and continues to be - the largest Jewish community within the city of Chicago. Over time, the Jewish population within the city has declined and today tends to be older and more well-educated than the Chicago average; however, recent decades have seen a resurgence in urban Chicago's Jewish population, particularly beyond the boundaries of traditional Jewish neighborhoods. The Jewish immigrants to Chicago came from many different countries, with the most common being Eastern Europe and Germany.
Skokie School District 73½ is a grade school district in east central Skokie, Cook County, Illinois.
Muslim Community Center Academy (MCCA) is a Muslim K-12 school in the Chicago metropolitan area and in Illinois. Pre-Kindergarten and elementary school students attend classes in Skokie while secondary grades are in Morton Grove.
42°03′48″N87°52′49″W / 42.063444°N 87.880201°W
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