On Tuesday, Sept. 8, the MCC family celebrated the College’s Centennial on each campus with cake, punch and picture-taking — “selfie stations” included props such as party hats. Students, employees and members of the Board of Trustees joined in the revelry.
The many birthday cakes were provided by the MCC Foundation.
Proclamations congratulating MCC on 100 years of service were issued by city governments in our area: Kansas City, Belton, Grandview, Harrisonville, Raytown, Blue Springs, North Kansas City, Independence and Lee’s Summit. The Missouri Senate passed a resolution. Some of these official documents were read at the campus parties.
In the spring of 1915, a representative of the University of Missouri was invited to introduce a two-year college plan in Kansas City. The Kansas City Board of Education seized the opportunity to experiment with innovations in post-secondary education.
The board’s action was in response to a trend that had been growing in the Kansas City school system: Parents were keeping their children in high school for a fifth year. They felt the teens were not mature enough to leave home, and in some cases parents couldn’t afford to pay university tuition plus room and board. The community was asking for an opportunity to provide higher education locally.
Thus, the Kansas City Polytechnic Institute was born.
The institute was officially established by the school board on May 29, 1915, as the first public institution of higher education in Kansas City. The plan was to provide fifth-year students with college-level work. Classes began on Sept. 7, 1915, with about 200 students.
The institute used a building at 11th and Locust streets that had previously been the old Central High School. The president of the University of Missouri and the chancellor of the University of Kansas were both present at the opening convocation of the Polytechnic Institute.
Tuition was free to students 21 years or younger who lived within the school district. Students who lived outside the district paid $45 per semester. The institute offered not only classes that prepared students for additional college work, but also courses that could lead to profitable employment.
In the beginning, the institute included a junior college, a teacher training school, a high school, a mechanic arts school, a trade school and a business training school. A nurse training school was quickly added.
The junior college division became the most popular. The division’s curriculum mirrored course offerings at colleges of arts and sciences on university campuses. Eventually the high school division split off to join Manual Training High School, and the trade school division joined the Lathrop School of Mechanical Trades.
The college was one of the first two-year colleges in the United States to award the associate degree, and it became a national model for two-year post-secondary education.
After only three years, the new college was accredited by the North Central Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. The school was only the third two-year institution in the country to be accredited by the NCA. The academic standards were considered highly rigorous.
With the junior college division attracting so many students, the institute officially changed its name to the Junior College of Kansas City in 1919.
The community was excited. Parents viewed the junior college as a local opportunity for higher education, and the Kansas City school board saw it as a means of preparing professionals to serve businesses and the community.
From 1915 to 1964, the school board was the governing body of the college. In 1964, seven suburban school districts — Belton, Center, Grandview, Hickman Mills, Lee’s Summit, North Kansas City and Raytown — joined forces with the Kansas City School District to create the Metropolitan Community College District. That year the college Board of Trustees was elected and began governing the district.
As Kansas City expanded into the suburbs during the 1960s, so did MCC, opening the Longview, Maple Woods, and Penn Valley campuses in 1969.
In the 1980s and ’90s, Blue Springs, Park Hill, Independence and Fort Osage joined the MCC district. Blue River Community College was named the fourth campus in 1997, and the Business & Technology campus was added in 2002.
In December 2005, all five campuses joined together to become one Metropolitan Community College. The goal was to create a more unified district to serve the needs of students all over the Greater Kansas City region.
Today, MCC is a major public education provider in the area and one of the premier community college districts in the nation. With five campuses across the metropolitan community, MCC serves more than 37,000 students every year.
