Lorain County Community College

History

Lorain County Community College was the first community college in Ohio to have a permanent campus, located at 1005 North Abbe Road, Elyria, Ohio. The college was founded on July 15, 1963.

Its fifth president, Marcia Ballinger, was inaugurated on July 1, 2016.

In 2018, the college was recognized by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) as the 2018 Recipient of the AACC Award of Excellence in Student Success. Two years later, Achieving the Dream awarded the college the 2020 Leah Meyer Austin Award, ATD's national prize reserved for network colleges that show greatest, sustained improvements in student outcomes and student success.

Academics

LCCC operates on a semester system and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. It offers program and career pathways in arts and humanities; engineering, business and information technologies; health and wellness, science and mathematics; social sciences and human services.

The college offers traditional and online courses for numerous associate programs as well as classes that easily transfer to other colleges and universities.

LCCC's Division of Arts and Humanities has been home to several distinguished scholars and artists, notably 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry finalist and 2006 Lannan Literary Award-winning poet and memoirist Bruce Weigl and composer Jeffrey Mumford, 2013 composer-in-residence at the National Gallery of Art. Marilyn Valentino, professor emeritus of English, served as national chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication in 2010.

The college was the first community college in Ohio to offer an applied bachelor's degree in micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS). The MEMS program prepares students for entry into a career after completing hands-on paid internships. LCCC is also currently the only community college in Ohio to offer a MEMS associate degree program.

LCCC was the first community college to exhibit a fabrication lab, the "Fab Lab", on its campus. As a Massachusetts Institute of Technology project in 2005, it was the second public facility in the country with the equipment. This technology allows students and the community first-hand experience with a very technical and economical skill.

References

References

1. (February 12, 2025). "U.S. and Canadian 2024 NCSE Participating Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2024 Endowment Market Value, Change in Market Value from FY23 to FY24, and FY24 Endowment Market Values Per Full-time Equivalent Student". National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO).
2. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/dfr/2023/ReportHTML.aspx?unitId=203748
3. "Lorain County Community College Named One of Three Community Colleges to Lead Ohio in Delivering Applied Bachelor's Degrees".
4. (2020-08-27). "Lorain County Community College History: Founding, Timeline, and Milestones".
5. "Lorain County Community College names Marcia Ballinger next president {{!}} Ohio {{!}} morningjournal.com".
6. College, Lorain County Community. "LCCC Recognized as Top Community College in the Nation for Excellence in Student Success by American Association of Community Colleges".
7. "LCCC Wins National Honor for Improving Student Success - Lorain County Community College".
8. Valentino, Marilyn J.. (2010). "2010 CCCC Chair's Address: Rethinking the Fourth C: Call to Action". National Council of Teachers of English.
9. (23 June 2017). "Lorain County Community College plans to be first in the state to offer a bachelor's degree".
10. Mangels, John. (2009-06-18). "Fabrication labs let student and adult inventors create products, solve problems". The Plain Dealer.
11. Stolberg, Sheryl. (22 January 2010). "Obama vows to 'never stop fighting'". [[The Seattle Times]] via [[Google News]].