Other name | RSC |
---|---|
Type | Public community college |
Established | 1978 |
Affiliation | Maricopa County Community College District |
President | Kate Smith |
Students | 52,881 (2016-17) |
Location | , , United States 33°24′46″N111°58′26″W / 33.4127°N 111.9740°W |
Campus | Urban |
Branches | Avondale Luke Air Force Base Phoenix Queen Creek Surprise |
Colors | Blue, Sky Blue and Navy Blue |
Nickname | Rio Waves |
Mascot | Splash |
Website | www.riosalado.edu |
Rio Salado College is a public community college headquartered in Tempe, Arizona United States. It is part of the Maricopa County Community College District and accredited by The Higher Learning Commission. It offers associate degree and certificate programs in online, in-person, and hybrid formats.
Rio Salado College was founded on March 14, 1978 [1] as one of 10 Maricopa Community Colleges. At the time, the college offered remote classrooms in 180 facilities throughout the Valley of the Sun. [2] Rio Salado College offered its first online classes in 1996 and by 2006 had converted a majority of its course offerings to an online format. The school is recognized as a leader in higher education innovation, [3] specializing in online education and distance learning.
Rio Salado College is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission.
The administrative headquarters of Rio Salado College are in Tempe, Arizona. Rio Salado relocated from its original location in Phoenix to Tempe in 1996. The Tempe location houses three main buildings: The Conference Center at Rio, the Tower at Rio, and the Rio at Hohokam administrative building. [4]
Rio Salado College is affiliated with 15 physical locations across Maricopa county including 11 RSC locations, two Communiversities, SPOT 127 Youth Media Center and the East Valley Veterans Education Center. Services and hours of operation vary by location. The college also provides educational services through its incarcerated re-entry program at ASPC-Lewis and ASPC-Perryville. [5] In addition to College Bridge Pathways programming [6] that includes: Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, Adults Achieving a College Education, High School Equivalency preparation, English Language Acquisition for Adults and STAR-Path Model options at Avondale, RSC Lifelong Learning Center, and RSC Thomas.
The Rio Salado College School of Dental Hygiene offers an accredited dental hygiene program. The school has been training students since 1998. It is a partnership between Rio Salado College, The Arizona Dental Association and Delta Dental Insurance. The School of Dental Hygiene moved from the West Valley to its current location at the Tempe HQ in 2012. [7]
Tempe is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, with the Census Bureau reporting a 2020 population of 180,587. The city is named after the Vale of Tempe in Greece. Tempe is located in the East Valley section of metropolitan Phoenix; it is bordered by Phoenix and Guadalupe on the west, Scottsdale and the Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community on the north, Chandler on the south, and Mesa on the east. Tempe is also the location of the main campus of Arizona State University.
Midwestern University (MWU) is a private medical and professional school with campuses in Downers Grove, Illinois and Glendale, Arizona. As of the 2020–21 academic year, a total of 2,987 students were enrolled at the Downers Grove campus and 3,902 were enrolled at the Glendale campus.
Mesa Community College (MCC) is a public community college in Mesa, Arizona. It is the largest of the 10 community colleges in the Maricopa County Community College District, the largest community college district in the United States in terms of enrollment.
Pima Community College (PCC) is a public community college in Pima County, Arizona. It serves the Tucson metropolitan area with a community college district consisting of five campuses, four education centers, and several adult education learning centers. It provides traditional and online instruction for over 144 programs. The college also offers workforce training, non-credit personal interest classes and post-baccalaureate certificates. PCC is one of the largest multi-campus community colleges in the United States, with relative ranking varying between fourth and tenth largest. PCC is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
KJZZ is a National Public Radio member station in Phoenix, Arizona. Owned by Rio Salado College, it operates from studios on the college's campus in Tempe. KJZZ airs a format of NPR, jazz, and blues. KJZZ is sister station to the area's main classical music station, KBAQ.
University of Advancing Technology (UAT) is a private for-profit university in Tempe, Arizona. Founded in 1983, UAT integrates technology into its general education requirements. The institution offers core classes, as well as deep sets of courses in each major. Each student is required to complete a "Student Innovation Project" and internship to graduate.
The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD), also known as Maricopa Community Colleges, is a public community college district in Maricopa County, Arizona. Headquartered in Tempe, MCCCD is among the largest community college districts in the United States, serving more than 100,000 students each year in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
GateWay Community College is a community college in Phoenix, Arizona. Established in 1968, GateWay is one of ten regionally accredited colleges in the Maricopa County Community College District. The Maricopa Skill Center was rebranded as the Trade and Technical Training Division of GateWay in 2016, offering many of the same programs, just under a new division name within GateWay Community College.
Prairie State College is a public community college in Chicago Heights, Illinois. It is the only college operated by Illinois Community College District 515.
Ross Medical Education Center is a private for-profit college with its headquarters in St. Clair, Michigan, and multiple additional locations in the United States, most of them in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. Ross was an investment of JLL Partners from 2011 until its conversion to 501(c)(3) nonprofit status in 2021; it is still classified as a for-profit institution by the U.S. Department of Education.
Missouri College was a for-profit college in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1963, the school was accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. Missouri College offered bachelor's degrees in Healthcare Management and specialized associate degrees in Business Administration, Dental Hygiene, Allied Health, and Occupational Therapy Assisting. Massage Therapy was one of the several diploma programs offered in the college catalog.
The history of Arizona State University began March 12, 1885 with the founding of the establishment originally named the Territorial Normal School at Tempe. The school was founded after John Samuel Armstrong first introduced House Bill 164, “An Act to Establish a Normal School in the Territory of Arizona” to the 13th Legislative Assembly of the Arizona Territory. Instruction was instituted on February 8, 1886, under the supervision of Principal Hiram Bradford Farmer. Land for the school was donated by Tempe residents George and Martha Wilson, allowing 33 students to meet in a single room.
Carrington College is a network of for-profit private colleges with its headquarters in Sacramento, California and 17 locations throughout the Western United States. Established in 1967, it has a student enrollment of over 5,200 and 132,000 alumni.
West Coast University (WCU) is a private, for-profit university focused on healthcare degrees with campus locations in Los Angeles, Anaheim, and Ontario, California; Richardson, Texas; and Miami, Florida. David Pyle founded American Career College in 1979 under the name of American College of Optics. Originally the school focused only on optical dispensing. In May 1997, Pyle purchased West Coast University, which was chartered by the State of California in 1909, out of bankruptcy, and developed a program for the training of registered nurses.
Sun Sounds of Arizona is a radio reading service serving the state of Arizona. It is an outreach service of Rio Salado College in Tempe, Arizona, with additional offices in Tucson, Flagstaff and Yuma.
The Phoenix Metropolitan Area consists of a valley that has multiple city regions in it. The East Valley is a multi-city region within the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of Arizona. East Valley is a loosely defined region, with differing definition of what constitutes it.