Community College Visit
Cindy L. Moore
Overview of the Community College/AET555
April 19, 2015
Professor Jennifer Churchill-Allen
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Hillsborough Community College is located in Tampa, Florida, and offers open access and an affordable option for prospective students who reside locally or within the surrounding communities. Hillsborough Community College, or HCC, as it is referenced in the community, was founded in 1968 and has expanded to meet the growing needs of the community. The institutional purpose is noted in its mission that seeks to empower students through education whereby the outcome produces contributing society members. By this, today, HCC sustains 5 campuses and 3 regional centers, supports the educational interests of over 46,000 students, and balances a budget exceeding 220 million. Although Hillsborough Community
College identifies as one college entity, area residents embrace the diversity of each of its five campuses and the unique qualities and academic focus of each campus.
The Ybor City campus is one of HCC’s 5 campuses, which offers a unique campus design, diverse student populations, general education and specialized degrees and certificates, an array of student services, diverse delivery modalities, and solid community partnerships.
Campus Design
The Ybor City campus of Hillsborough Community College is appealing due to its urban ambiance and architectural design as the campus is embedded in the historic district referred to as Ybor City. The Chamber of Commerce highlights that
Vincente Martinez-Ybor who transitioned his cigar factory from Key West to Tampa founded Ybor City in 1886. Today, the Chamber of Commerce notes that Ybor City is recognized as a National History Landmark and the city continues to be committed to both preserving and developing this district space often also coined the “Latin

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Quarter”. HCC students and visitors enjoy brick streets, watching roaming tourists, and enjoying restaurants, coffee shops, shopping, and an active nightlife.
The Ybor City campus of Hillsborough Community College is enmeshed within this historic district. The campus is made up of 10 buildings that are fragmentally located within the historic district and include administrative and student service buildings, performing arts space, a childcare development center, library building, public service building, and a collaborative studio. Although the buildings are architecturally aligned with historic district criteria, the classroom space offers students and faculty with climate conducive accommodations and state of the art technology. Veltri, Banning, and Davies (2006) qualitatively analyzed student perceptions of classroom design and noted that design variables such as climate, technology, furniture placement impacts student learning.
Each structure is within a close walking distance, yet students, faculty, and staff move about the campus within the city district. In other words, a walk from the public service building to the student service building will include walking past a privately owned bar, restaurant, and movie theater complex. Although this campus design is appealing for some, it offers unique challenges in terms of campus safety and enforcing college policy. For example, students are often sharing sidewalk space with city residents and identifying who is a student or faculty and who is not is often an arduous task. Given that most buildings are open access during campus hours, this allows the potential for individuals, with no legitimate college business, to access structures in an attempt to use the library computers, restroom facilities, etc. Obviously, this is a safety issue. In addition, HCC implemented a tobacco free

4 policy several years ago. Students and staff, alike, quickly realized that simply walking across the street to smoke would maintain compliance thus challenging administrative and policymaking initiatives.
Student Population
The Ybor City campus of HCC is similar to other campuses at HCC as well as community colleges nationwide in that enrollments and demographics may fluctuate from year to year based upon the economic and various other changes.
Institutional research data at HCC as presented in the Fact Book states that over
15,000 students were enrolled in both credit and non-credit courses during the
2013-2014 academic year. In addition, the HCC Fact Book data confirms the significantly student body reporting that 25.2 are Hispanic, 27.3 are African
American, and 42% are White. Moreover, consistent with the analysis of Cohen and
Brawer (2008), the Ybor City campus reported that the mean age of students were
28.5 and slightly more females than males were enrolled during the 2013-2014 academic year. Again, these statistics mirror the national trends as presented by
Cohen and Brawer (2008).
Admission, Registration, and Students Services
Admission and registration processes for incoming and continuing students at Hillsborough Community College can be completed on any campus of the institution. Unique for students who take courses on the Ybor City campus, however, is that the enrollment counselors, academic advisors, testing center, bookstore, and student information is all housed in the same building. This is an important design feature for the campus as it offers students the opportunity to

5 access services and complete processes with one stop. Registration processes for incoming and continuing students are accomplished online allowing students the added convenience of searching for available courses and registering on computers or by using a personal smart phone. In addition, in some instances, students are also provided virtual academic advising by campus advisors, which, again, accommodates and considers the needs of students today. Jones and Hansen (2014) highlight the necessity for community colleges to provide web-based advising and counseling as a means to more intensively connect students to the college.
Degrees and Certificates/Delivery Modalities
Prospective HCC students have many options as it relates to degrees, certificates, and delivery modalities at the Ybor City campus. Students, indeed, have the option to complete general education requirements to satisfy the Associate of
Arts degree at the Ybor City campus. Yet, the academic areas of focus on the Ybor
City campus include fine arts programs such as dance, theatre, and graphic arts, child care, business management, computer programing, office education, fire science, and the criminal justice studies program. In addition, the Ybor City campus houses programs in radio and television production. These programs, collectively, support AA, AS, and certificate options. A dynamic feature of this campus is the collaboration between academics and practical training. For example, the criminal justice studies courses are taught in a building that is also used for the law enforcement academy. Likewise, childcare courses are taught next to the childcare center located on campus; this often provides students provided the opportunity to link academic theory and curriculum with practical application. Lastly, regardless of

6 the chosen academic track, students have the option to take courses live in the classroom, online, or in a combined hybrid format, which invariably meets the scheduling demands of students while also cultivating a competitive edge with other schools in the area.
Community Partnerships
Given the location of Ybor City and the close proximity of local businesses, community partnerships are seemingly cultivated with ease. Local restaurants and coffee shops partner with the campus in supporting student government events, administrative and awards functions, and other social events on campus. In addition, local law enforcement agencies partner with the Ybor City campus in assisting with academy training for the cadets. Lastly, the professional experiences and associated connections of faculty as well as the expectations of community involvement from faculty, staff, and students alike create an atmosphere of collaborative community partnership.
Conclusion
The Ybor City campus of Hillsborough Community College offers students an exemplary educational experience in the heart of an urban area. Students who are seeking to complete a degree or certificate in higher education at a campus which offers diversity in terms of student populations, faculty, and academic programming; while simultaneously being exposed to practical, real world training may find such on the Ybor City campus.

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References
Cohen, A. M. & Brawer, F. B. (2008). The American Community College (5 th ed.). San
Francisco, CA: Wiley & Sons.
Hillsborough Community College Fact Book http://www.hccfl.edu/media/1060728/final%20draft%20factbook%202014%20n ovember21%202014.pdf
Hillsborough Community College Website ( www.hccfl.edu
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Jones, S. J. & Hansen, K. (2014). Technology review: Virtual intrusive advising-supporting community college students through web-based synchronous technologies. Community College Enterprise, 20(1), 89-93.
The Chamber of Commerce, Tampa http://ybor.org/
Veltri, S., Banning, J. H., & Davies, T. G. (2006). The community college classroom environment: Student perceptions. College Student Journal, 40(3), 517-527.