About Harper College

Our roots run deep.
As far back as the early 1960s, when the greater Chicago metropolitan area was just beginning to spread out past O'Hare, the citizens of four fledgling northwest suburban townships already knew what they wanted.

What they wanted was a college.
And so, on March 27, 1965, with the ink barely dry on the brand new Illinois Community College Act, voters in the townships of Elk Grove, Palatine, Schaumburg and Wheeling overwhelmingly approved a referendum to establish a community college district. Within 34 days, those same voters returned to the polls to elect seven citizens from among 48 candidates to serve as the first Board of Trustees. The college they envisioned had no name, no buildings, no staff, and no curriculum. What it did have, however, was widespread community support and a dedicated board of seven individuals who, from their first meeting in May 1965, began to formulate a plan for what their college would one day become.

Over the next year, the Board of Trustees continued to meet on a regular basis. A president was hired, architects chosen, a site selected. And the college was given its name-William Rainey Harper-in honor of the man who "fathered" the community college concept. In 1967, voters returned again to the polls, this time to approve a $7,375,000 building referendum by a 4-1 margin. And while ground was being broken for a new campus in Palatine, Harper College was already offering classes at a nearby high school. About 1,700 students enrolled for that first term in the fall of 1967. By the following year, enrollment had jumped to 3,700. In the 1999 school year, the College had enrolled approximately 24,000 students!

Harper College was on a roll, so to speak. But steadily increasing enrollment was only one indication of the success that lay ahead. Academic excellence was another. By 1971-just six years after its founding-the College had already received unqualified full accreditation. That was especially good news for students with plans to complete their baccalaureate degrees at four-year colleges and universities. Full accreditation meant they could be assured that credits earned at Harper would readily transfer to other institutions of higher learning.

Our campus is a special place.
Harper College welcomed its first students in the fall of 1967 without a campus or a classroom to call its own. The first classes were held evenings only at Elk Grove High School. Two years later, classes moved to the initial structures on Harper's rolling 200-acre campus.

From the very beginning, this was to be a campus like no other. The architects envisioned a "village" atmosphere and so into their plans, they incorporated multi-level plazas, picturesque pedestrian walkways, even a lake with a footbridge connecting the campus to the parking lots. The buildings were fashioned from earthtone materials-brick, wood and concrete. Glass window walls offered a variety of interior and exterior views. Thirty years later, this campus remains a stimulating, pleasing environment, ideal for learning and working.

The desire to create an aesthetically pleasing atmosphere outside was extended inside as well. Among the original concepts for Harper College was a provision for displaying works of art. By the time the initial buildings were completed and occupied in May 1970, the College had acquired a sizable collection of paintings, prints and sculpture; these were used as display throughout the campus. Over the past three decades, this collection has continued to grow and provide aesthetic enjoyment for students, staff, faculty and the community at large.

Initial campus construction was completed in record time and formally dedicated on May 3, 1970. Among the early structures were a comprehensive library and learning resources center; a science and technology laboratory and classroom complex; a lecture-demonstration center; a fine and applied arts complex; a vocational-technical center; a park management and greenhouse facility; a student activities center; an administrative and data processing center; and a central utility facility designed to serve the entire campus. Later additions have included a physical education building, two classroom-specialized career program buildings, a campus publications building and a liberal arts center, which includes a bookstore, "black box theatre," and three-dimensional art studios devoted to ceramics, sculpture, stagecraft and metal work. In 1990, a privately funded, 784-square foot observatory was constructed. Subsequently, capital improvements were made to the science complex, fine arts wing and central utility facility.

Our purpose is clear.
Harper College was conceived and created by a community that simply wanted more education for more of its citizens. Thus, from its inception in 1965, Harper College has operated with a single purpose in mind: We seek to provide the best possible program of higher education at reasonable cost for the community we serve.

As a community college, a primary objective has long centered on providing the first two years of baccalaureate education in liberal arts, sciences and preprofessional curricula so that students can prepare themselves for transfer to four-year colleges and universities to complete their degrees and satisfy their individual educational goals. In addition, the focus at Harper has broadened to include more opportunities for career education, training and retraining, professional development and personal enrichment. For example, increasing emphasis has been placed on providing technical and semi-technical education so that non-transfer students may prepare themselves for entry into specific careers, such as computer technology, criminal justice, nursing, early childhood education, park maintenance and hospitality management, directly from their community college experience. In addition, our ability to provide area employers and employees with opportunities for training, retraining and upgrading of skills has become increasingly important as a way to address rapid technological change and adjustments in the work environment.

But there is more to the curriculum at Harper College than courses designed to prepare students for a specific career or to help them earn a particular degree or certificate. We recognize, too, our responsibility to educate all of our students so that may assume a more active and meaningful role in a free and fluid societyœso that they may vote more intelligently, produce more efficiently, adapt more readily to a complex world. As a result, we aim to not only teach students what is known, we strive to teach them where and how to look for knowledge that may not yet be available. And as life becomes more complex, the personal enrichment courses we offer provide increasing numbers of men and women with an outlet for creative energies, a means for cultivating hidden talents and a way to reduce the stress of their day-to-day lives.

With a firm commitment to the dignity and significance of each individual, Harper College strives to help each student find his or her place in the world. We seek to provide the necessary training so that every student can achieve his or her personal goals. And, above all, we desire to create an environment in which questions may be asked, theories may be tested and every student who passes through our doors may realize his or her full potential. This has been our goal for more than three decades. It will guide us through the new millennium.