VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM: THREE DECADES OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICE

Abstract

The Virginia Community College System (VCCS), though a relatively young system of higher educational institutions, has strong and rich ties to Virginia's early history. The importance of public education in the development and preservation of our free society was well established by Thomas Jefferson. The VCCS plan of 23 community colleges emerged in the 1960s and became well established in the 1970s, a time when higher education needed to be extended more broadly to the population. After substantial growth and maturing of the system in the 1980s, the VCCS approaches the closing of the century with new and exciting applications of technology, distance learning, and teaching vitality as steps toward achieving its mission.