CORNING COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Education and Training > Vocational Education

Under the sponsorship of the Corning-Painted Post School District, Corning Community College opened its doors in September 1958 with eight faculty members and a student body of 118. The new college was led by 32-year-old Dr. William Lee Perry [pictured] and started in a Corning School District building on Chemung Street.

By 1960, the College enrollment increased to 350 full-time students and 260 part-time students, with the number of faculty doubling to 16. The College continued to grow and began looking for a permanent home. In October 1960, thanks to a generous gift of land by Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. and a $2,250,000 donation from Corning Glass Works Foundation, the College began construction of a new campus on Spencer Hill.

Dr. Perry spearheaded the planning, design, and construction of the College on Spencer Hill, and classes began on the hill in the fall of 1963.

The campus was formally dedicated in May 1964, and it received its first Middle States accreditation in June of that year.
When Dr. Perry left in June 1966, full-time faculty had grown to 70, with the College organized into six academic divisions. Dr. Robert W. Frederick, Jr. became the College’s second president in July 1966. The College celebrated its 10th birthday in 1968 with a graduating class of 524 — nearly 10 times the size of the first graduating class in 1960. In 1970, the College added the Nursing Building, increasing classroom capacity by 25 percent. Then in 1971, a new maintenance building helped increase classroom space by moving maintenance staff out of the academic buildings.
When Dr. Frederick left the Presidency in 1975, the number of full-time faculty had risen to 84, and the College had expanded to eight academic divisions. Also, the Goff Road building had been added to the College’s facilities. When Dr. Donald Hangen accepted the position as the College’s third president, the student body had grown to 1,952 full-time and 832 part-time students.

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