This article needs additional citations for verification .(August 2010) |
Type | Public community college |
---|---|
Established | 1968 |
Parent institution | Virginia Community College System |
President | Towuanna Porter Brannon |
Students | 8,676 (2022-2023) |
Location | , , United States 37°03′49″N76°25′10″W / 37.0636°N 76.4194°W |
Campus | Urban |
Colors | Purple, Green & White |
Nickname | Gators |
Sporting affiliations | NJCAA Region 10 |
Mascot | Gillie the Gator |
Website | www.vpcc.edu |
Virginia Peninsula Community College (VPCC) is a public community college with two campuses in Virginia, one in Hampton and the other in James City County. It also has two education centers The Southeast Higher Education Center in Newport News and the Williamsburg Discovery Center in Williamsburg. [1] It is part of the Virginia Community College System. It mostly serves students living on the Peninsula region of Hampton Roads, but it also has students from other parts of southeastern Virginia.
The college adopted its current name in July 2022, having formerly been known as Thomas Nelson Community College (TNCC) since its inception. The decision to rename the college was approved by the Virginia State Board for Community Colleges in September 2021.
The college was originally named after Thomas Nelson, Jr. (December 26, 1738 – January 4, 1789), who was an American planter, soldier, and statesman from Yorktown, Virginia. He is regarded as one of the U.S. Founding Fathers, since he signed the Declaration of Independence as a member of the Virginia delegation. [2] He served as Governor of Virginia in 1781. Nelson County, Virginia, and Nelson County, Kentucky, are also named in his honor.
The construction of VPCC began in August 1967. Four buildings were planned for construction, and the cornerstone was laid in December 1967. More than 1,200 Students began classes on September 20, 1968, and the first class of students graduated with associate degrees on June 13, 1970. [3]
In 2014, the school faced a lawsuit from student Christian Parks related to the right to speak freely in public on campus at a conversational level on certain topics. The lawsuit cited 41 violations in the school's policy. The ACLU and the ACLJ supported the lawsuit. [4]
In summer 2020 the Virginia State Board for Community Colleges approached multiple colleges and recommended that they review their names to determine if they were appropriate and inclusive. The following year the college's Local Advisory Board determined that the name needed to be changed, as Thomas Nelson, Jr. was a slaveholder. In September 2021 the name Virginia Peninsula Community College was recommended as a replacement for Thomas Nelson Community College; it was approved by the State Board later that same month. Two buildings on the campus, Griffin and Wythe, will be renamed as they were named after associates of Nelson. The decision was made to not rename three other buildings with similar names as, at the time, they were due to be demolished and replaced. [5] This decision marked Thomas Nelson as the fourth such institution to rename themselves during 2021. [6]
VPCC offers 50 associate degree programs and has over 60 certificate programs. [7]
Virginia Peninsula Community College competes in the Carolinas Junior College Conference of the NJCAA's Division III. Sports offered include baseball, men and women's basketball, beach volleyball, softball as well as intramural sports such as flag football and basketball. [8]
Williamsburg is an independent city in Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula, Williamsburg is in the northern part of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. It is bordered by James City County on the west and south and York County on the east.
Poquoson, informally known as Bull Island, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,460. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Poquoson with surrounding York County for statistical purposes.
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Hampton Roads is the name of a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's Point near where the Chesapeake Bay flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It also gave its name to the surrounding metropolitan region located in the southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina portions of the Tidewater Region.
Old Dominion University (ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. Established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary, an extension school of the College of William & Mary for people with fewer financial assets, members of the military, and non-traditional students in Norfolk-Virginia Beach area of the Hampton Roads region. The university has since expanded into a residential college for traditional students and is one of the largest universities in Virginia with an enrollment of 23,494 students for the 2023 academic year. The university also enrolls over 600 international students from 99 countries. Its main campus covers 250 acres (1.0 km2) straddling the city neighborhoods of Larchmont, Highland Park, and Lambert's Point, approximately five miles (8.0 km) north of Downtown Norfolk along the Elizabeth River.
Virginia Wesleyan University (VWU) is a private university in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The university is nonsectarian but historically affiliated with The United Methodist Church. It enrolls 1,607 students annually in undergraduate and graduate programs, 355 students at LUJ/VWU Global (Japan), and 1,403 in VWU Online. Virginia Wesleyan transitioned from a college to a university in 2017.
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West Virginia University at Parkersburg, abbreviated WVUP and WVU Parkersburg, is a public community college in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Although it was originally part of West Virginia University, it is now an independent public institution with its own board of governors and degree-granting authority. Conceived as a community college to serve seven counties in west central West Virginia, it now offers baccalaureate programs. It is the largest community college in West Virginia and the state's fifth largest public college with over 3,900 students.
Mountain State University (MSU) was a private university in Beckley, West Virginia. It closed in 2013. It was formerly named Beckley College and then The College of West Virginia.
Utah Tech University (UT), formerly Dixie State University (DSU), is a polytechnic 4-year public university in St. George, Utah. The university offers doctoral degrees, master's degrees, bachelor's degrees, associate degrees, and certifications. As of fall 2022, there are 12,556 students enrolled at UT.
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Colby–Sawyer College is a private college in New London, New Hampshire. It was founded as a coeducational academy in 1837 and sits on a 200-acre (0.81 km2) campus.
Marymount University is a private Catholic university with its main campus in Arlington County, Virginia. It was founded as Marymount College in 1950. Marymount offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. It has approximately 4,257 students enrolled, representing 50 states and 70 countries.
Herron Gymnasium was a gymnasium and classroom building on the Miami University campus in Oxford, Ohio. Later known as Van Voorhis Hall, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in November 1979. Originally conceived in 1893, it was constructed in 1897 and named for John W. Herron, a Miami alumnus and Cincinnati judge. It was Miami University's first gymnasium, and would serve as the main recreational center until the construction of Withrow Court in 1932, which led Herron to become a women's gym. Except for an interlude during World War II when it served as a Navy barracks, it served as a women's gym until the construction of "New Herron" in 1962. In the late 20th century its use diminished to AFROTC and men's intramural sports, and the gymnasium was demolished in 1986 and replaced with a parking lot.
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The history of the College of William & Mary can be traced back to a 1693 royal charter establishing "a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and the good arts and sciences" in the British Colony of Virginia. It fulfilled an early colonial vision dating back to 1618 to construct a university level program modeled after Cambridge and Oxford at Henricus. A plaque on the Wren Building, the college's first structure, ascribes the institution's origin to "the college proposed at Henrico." It was named for the reigning joint monarchs of Great Britain, King William III and Queen Mary II. The selection of the new college's location on high ground at the center ridge of the Virginia Peninsula at the tiny community of Middle Plantation is credited to its first President, Reverend Dr. James Blair, who was also the Commissary of the Bishop of London in Virginia. A few years later, the favorable location and resources of the new school helped Dr. Blair and a committee of 5 students influence the House of Burgesses and Governor Francis Nicholson to move the capital there from Jamestown. The following year, 1699, the town was renamed Williamsburg.
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