The Learning College Project

Located on 243 acres of former farmland and flanking a spring-fed lake and two picturesque lakes linked by pedestrian bridges, Richland College opened in the fall of 1972 to an enrollment of 3,500 college credit students and 4,000 non-credit Continuing Education students. It now enroll some 14,000 college credit students and another 9,000 non-credit Continuing Education students each semester.

Over the years major expansions have included the three-story Neches Hall general classroom facility, the three-story Bohnam Hall business division facility, the Del Rio Hall computer science and classroom facility, the Hondo Hall Horticulture facility and demonstration gardens, and the Medina Hall general classroom facility that links Guadalupe Hall, Richland's physical education facility, to the rest of the campus. Lavaca Hall, Richland's Learning Resources Center, has also undergone a major expansion and Guadalupe Hall now includes a state-of-the-art Health and Fitness Center which is open to the community.

Keeping up with a changing profile
The profile of Richland's first college credit student body included 55% women, 45% men; 1/3 full-time, 2/3 part-time; 85% baccalaureate-bound; 15% career program-bound; 93% Anglo-American, 7% ethnic minorities; with an average age of 22. Today's profile includes 54% women, 46% men; 1/3 full-time, 2/3 part-time; 76% baccalaureate-bound, 33% career program-bound; 54.3% Anglo-American, 14.5% African-American, 11.6% Hispanic, 15.2% Asian American, and 0.6% Native American. The average student age is 29.

Richland's baccalaureate-track programs have always been comprehensive of what students would normally find at the first two years of a Texas public university. In recent years, Richland's academic program has added "learning community" clusters that are thematically bound with special emphases such as the Global studies Program, the Honors Program, the Mind-Body Health Program, and Studies Abroad, all designed to add coherence to academic programs planning, student retention, and integrated learning in areas of focused student interests and abilities.

In addition, Richland's World Languages/Cultures/Communications Division accommodates the community's burgeoning interest in acquiring a second language. Enrollment in Richland's English for Speakers of Other Languages classes has more than doubled in the last three years, reflecting the changes in the demography of our student body. Our new American English & Culture Institute, located in downtown Dallas, offers fast-track proficiency-based language study as well as immersion study in American culture.

Human and Academic Development offerings continue to serve larger numbers in basic reading, writing, and mathematics while a new, fast-track, one-year Associate Degree offers additional options for students while promoting academic excellence.

Technical training for the workplace
Change is the hallmark of Richland's career programs that are continuously refined to accommodate the more urgent training needs of workers in today's economy. In terms of program shift, the momentum is toward high technology and international programs, both in college credit and non-credit continuing education. The last decade saw the creation of the Office of Corporate Services for contract training tailored to the needs of specific local businesses. Corporate Services has recently given its first Centennial awards to companies who have trained more than 100 of their employees through Richland College. A variety of fast-track, intensive career programs also provide re-training for employees through the Workforce Development Act. Richland's large Basic Skills Learning Center and custom-contracted Workplace Literacy programs are growing daily to meet community demands for economic development.

New Services for new needs
Student learning support services and resources have grown exponentially form 1972 as Richland's student body has become more diverse. Richland's Multicultural Center, Adult Resource Center, Richland Restart, Richland Can!, the Emeritus Program, the Diversity Consultant program and the Mentor Program did not exist when Richland opened. In addition, Career Information, Planning and Placement Services, the Center for Independent Study, the Learning Differences Program and the Total Re-Integration Program for head-injured students are new or very different from their original counterparts.

Meeting the future...
The advent of computer technology, multimedia, and other forms of educational and administrative telecommunications has transformed the way we do business, the way we communicate, the way we teach, and how, when, and where students learn. One outgrowth of the "computer age" is Richland's Multimedia Learning Center, which is dedicated to teaching, learning, and hands-on experimentation with a variety of learning-centered multimedia software and hardware.

The R. Jan LeCroy Center for Educational Telecommunications, serving all colleges in the Dallas County Community College District, operates the STARLINK faculty development satellite network linking all Texas community colleges together for professional development purposes. The Center, located on Richland's campus, also uplinks and downlinks teleconferences nation-wide through the Community College Satellite Network. It is the nation's leading producer of college-level telecourses for distance learners, and it also produces live, interactive teleclasses for all DCCCD colleges, area businesses, and home-bound citizens through a variety of networks. The support center and the telecommunications center characterize learning at Richland in the 21st century that could not have been conceived in 1972.

...through quality people & processes
And, throughout all its history, it is Richland's faculty and staff who have made the quality difference in helping Richland's students succeed, for Richlanders have embraced change--even spawned it--as a partner leading us to a future of increasing excellence in teaching, learning, and community building.

Through continuous quality improvement, Richlanders continue to examine key organizational processes including teaching, learning and administrative processes to insure that they help Richlanders meet intended goals and objectives and to keep Richland responsive to the current and future learning needs of its students and community.