Bronx Community College

History

The college was established in 1957 through the efforts of civic-minded groups who felt that there was a growing need for more higher education facilities in the Bronx. Classes began at Hunter College, and later at the former site of the Bronx High School of Science.

In 1973, the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York acquired the University Heights campus from New York University (NYU), which had sold the campus under threat of imminent bankruptcy. Beginning that fall, the BCC moved its operations to the 55 acre site overlooking the Harlem River.

In 2012, the North Hall and Library opened. The building is designed to resemble many of the historic structures on campus, and one end of the building is located next to an entrance of the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.

Academics

The college is home to the Center for Sustainable Energy, which was founded in 2003 as an educational resource for students pursuing careers in alternative energy.

Bronx Community College offers a wide array of workforce community development and personal enrichment courses and programs through Continuing & Professional Studies. CPS also delivers customized training for local employers. CPS works closely with unions, city, state and federal agencies and accepts vouchers and other forms of financial aid for individual students.

Since 1987, the college is also the local administrator of the SUNY Bronx Educational Opportunity Center. The SUNY Bronx EOC provides tuition free academic and vocational programs to New Yorkers who qualify and it is funded by the University Center for Academic and Workforce Development (UCAWD), part of the State University of New York.

Campus

The BCC campus originally housed New York University's undergraduate college and engineering school – which was absorbed by Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1973 but is once again part of NYU – and was created at a time when a number of prominent local universities had made the move to upper Manhattan and the Bronx in order to build bigger campuses, including Columbia University, and the City College of New York.

The campus consists of a mix of Classical revival buildings designed by architect Stanford White in 1892–1901 – including the Hall of Languages, the Cornelius Baker Hall of Philosophy and the Gould Memorial Library – and Brutalist concrete buildings by Marcel Breuer, including Begrisch Hall (1956–61) Other buildings – such as South Hall, formerly the Gustav H. Schwab House (1857); Butler Hall, formerly William Henry W. T. Mall House (); and MacCracken Hall, originally the Loring Andrews House () – are repurposed mansions which predate the campus.

On the BCC campus is the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, founded in 1900 by Henry Mitchell MacCracken, Chancellor of NYU from 1891 to 1910. It was the first such hall of fame in the United States. The Hall, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was also designed by Stanford White, and was established to honor prominent Americans who have had a significant impact on the country's history. It includes bronze busts of Alexander Graham Bell, Eli Whitney, and George Westinghouse

Athletics

Bronx Community College teams participate as a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). The Broncos are a member of the community college section of the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, track & field and volleyball.

In popular culture

The college has been used as the set for scenes in many movies:

• In 2001, parts of the film A Beautiful Mind that depicted MIT were instead filmed in the BCC, due to the film's low budget. The dome at BCC was also used in the filming of The Good Shepherd.
• The interior of the Gould Memorial Library was featured as a public library in the 1969 film Goodbye, Columbus.
• The Meister Hall building at BCC by architect Marcel Breuer was featured as a Russian Embassy in the 2008 film Burn After Reading by the Coen brothers.
• Other films that used the campus for filming have included The Thomas Crown Affair, The Siege, Mona Lisa Smile, Kinsey, and Riding in Cars With Boys.

Notable alumni

• David Berkowitz (b 1953), also known as the Son of Sam and .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer
• Richard Carmona (b 1949), is an American physician, nurse, police officer, public health administrator, and politician. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the seventeenth Surgeon General of the United States.
• Joel Martinez (b 1983), professionally known as The Kid Mero, is a Dominican-American writer, comedian, TV personality, voice actor, YouTube personality, music blogger and Twitter personality.
• Annabel Palma, is an American politician who served in the New York City Council from the 18th district from 2004 to 2017.
• Big Bank Hank, (1956–2014), is an American rapper a member of The Sugarhill Gang.

Gallery

File:BxCC Hall of Languages jeh.jpg|The Stanford White-designed Hall of Languages File:BxCC Hall of Philosophy jeh.jpg|The Hall of Philosophy, also designed by Stanford White File:Hall of Fame for Great Americans.jpg|The Hall of Fame for Great Americans is located on the BCC campus File:Gould Memorial Library dome from West 204th Street in Manhattan.jpg|The dome of the Gould Memorial Library can be seen above the trees from many locations in Upper Manhattan File:Begrisch Hall, Western Elevation crop.jpg|The western elevation of Marcel Breuer's Begrisch Hall File:Interior of Gould Memorial Library (Rotunda and Columns).jpg|Inside the Gould Memorial Library

References

References

1. . (2018). ["CUNY Bronx Community College"](https://nces.ed.gov/). *[[United States Department of Education]]*.
2. . (2018). ["Brand Guidelines"](https://www.bcc.cuny.edu/Communications-Marketing/documents/BCC_branding_guidelines.pdf). *City University of New York*.
3. . (2018). ["The Official Athletics Site of Bronx Community College"](http://www.bronxbroncos.com). *City University of New York*.
4. Peterson, Iver. (September 19, 1973). "N.Y.U. Says It Has Recovered From Brink of Bankruptcy". The New York Times.
5. Dunlap, David. (September 2, 2012). "City Room Blogging From Five Boroughs: 'Bronx Community College Gets a Library, and Building, Truly Its Own'". New York Times.
6. Wolfer, Sondra. (October 2010). "Federal DOE grant fuels Bronx, N.Y., community college's energy center". [[New York Daily News]].
7. [http://www.bcc.cuny.edu/cps "Continuing & Professional Studies"] {{webarchive. link. (June 27, 2014 on the BCC website)
8. "About {{!}} SUNY Bronx Educational Opportunity Center".
9. "Tuition Free Academic & Vocational Training {{!}} SUNY Educational Opportunity Center".
10. (June 2017). "Ten Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC) are a part of the University Center for Academic and Workforce Development (UCAWD) educational and workforce training programs in New York State".
11. Sheraton, Mimi. (December 15, 2000). "My Bronx: Yesterday's Heroes, Up on Pedestals". [[The New York Times]].
12. {{cite nycland
13. and the Colston Residence Hall and Cafeteria (1964).{{cite aia5|pages=860-61}}
14. "NHL nomination for University Heights Campus (Bronx Community College of the City University of New York)". National Park Service.
15. Ackman, Dan. (October 12, 2007). "Fame's Fortune". Wall Street Journal.
16. (November 15, 1976). "Three Are Elected To the Hall of Fame". The New York Times.
17. Halber, Deborah. (February 13, 2002). "MIT facts meet fiction in 'A Beautiful Mind'". MIT News Office.
18. "Working with Hollywood Filmmakers at BCC – CUNY Newswire".