Colleges that have 'gone independent' -- John Bear asks for help

I'm doing some consulting with a community college that is considering from one school district to another. I'd also like them to consider the possibility of becoming independent, free-standing, and I'm trying to find/remember examples of colleges and universities who have done this . . . and having trouble figuring how how to do such a search.

One example would be Excelsior College leaving the jurisdiction of the state of New York [and changing its name, first to Regents, then Excelsior]. There must be others, including those leaving church control to become independent, and perhaps situations such as the various member universities of the University of Wales leaving to become independent.

Thoughts, either on examples, or on search algorithms, would be much appreciated, either here, or at [email protected]

Thank you.

PS: I am not being paid for this consultancy; it is pro bono.

 

I belive this is what you're talking about. They were part of Permian Junior College system as a branch campus. They are now a 4 year college on their own.


Midland College - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Are you talking about going from one public system to another, or starting under ine public/private school and then becomeing it's own school, or starting public and then going private?

I do not remeber any of the first (one public system to another).

Here in California we have several examples of the second (starting under ine public/private school and then becomeing it's own school) UC Merced, CSU Monterey, CSU Channel islands being the latest.

And as to the last (public to private), that must be very rare.

 

John,

I came across this info:

New Mexico Independent Community Colleges

"Clovis Community College
Clovis Community Colleges was originally established in 1961 as a branch campus of Eastern New Mexico University. It became a locally-controlled, locally-governed independent community college upon approval of district voters in 1990. The college now occupies approximately 100 acres of land with a modern $25 million facility, including the Dr. W. D. Dabbs Library and the Dr. H. A. Miller Student Services Center."

If I come across others I'll post back.

 

This is probably not what you're thinking about but the first thing that came to mind when I read your question was what happened (and continues to evolve) in the University of Wales system. All those schools, Lampeter, Cardiff, Bangor, etc. were all part of the U of W system and then some of them broke away and became independent universities.

 

Thank you, folks. Very helpful information.

I am concluding that this sort of change in status is not extremely rare . . . but not all that common, either. Other examples I've found include:

U of New Orleans [was a branch of LSU]
U of New Haven [was a branch of Northeastern U]
York U [was a branch of the U of Toronto]
Kettering U [was General Motors Institute, then became independent]
U of Auckland [a college of U of New Zealand; cut adrift when UNZ closed]
Boise State U [was an Episcopal school, Boise Junior College; went independent]

 

Houston Community College was part of the Houston Independent School District. Now, we are a stand alone college.

HCCS is the second attempt of the Houston Independent School District to create a community college. In 1927, the district founded its first community colleges, Houston Junior College (for whites), which later evolved into the University of Houston and the Houston College for Negroes (now Texas Southern University). In 1971, the district founded HCCS after HJC's and HCN's evolutions into the University of Houston and Texas Southern University respectively. In its early days, HCCS once used HISD school campuses for teaching facilities with classes during evenings and weekends like its ancestors. Around 1997 HCCS began to transfer operations to community college district-operated campuses throughout the HCCS service area.[2)

TSPR Houston Community College System - Chapter 10

 

Does the split between La Sierra U and Loma Linda U in SoCal count?

There's also talk of splitting off the Riverside Community College campuses (Riverside County, CA) into standalone entities.