75 Moments from 75 Years

Sept. 9, 1946: We Are Born

Holyoke School Committee votes to establish the Holyoke Graduate School, a night program offering classes from 3 to 10 p.m. at what was then Holyoke High School on Sargeant Street. On Monday, Sept. 30, HGS, the first incarnation of HCC, held inaugural chapel exercises in the high school auditorium. Classes began the next evening, with 85 students and 15 part-time faculty members drawn from area colleges, including Smith, Mount Holyoke, Amherst, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst (then the Mass. State College
 of Agriculture).

Dec. 9, 1946: Founding Father

The city school committee appoints George E. Frost Jr. as director of Holyoke Graduate School. Frost, a city native and graduate of Holyoke High, was a math teacher by trade, educated at Holy Cross and Columbia University. He had been serving as principal of the Holyoke Evening School, HGS’s forerunner, when tapped for the director’s job. In those early years, Frost performed nearly every administrative role, functioning as de facto dean of faculty, dean of students, admissions director, registrar, bursar, business manager, clerk, and, sometimes, if the reports are true, janitor.

April 7, 1947: A New Name

After the Massachusetts General Court passes legislation permitting municipal higher education programs to call themselves junior colleges, the Holyoke School Committee votes to change the name of the Holyoke Graduate School to Holyoke Junior College.

June 8, 1948: Commencement

Holyoke Junior College confers its first degrees to 14 students, among them Thomas E. Zebrowski, who would be one of the last surviving members of the college’s first graduating class until his death in 2018 at the age of 99. Zebrowski, like many students at the young college, was a veteran of World War II and had spent five years on the battlefields of Europe before returning home and enrolling at HJC on the GI Bill. In 2007, HCC recognized Zebrowski with its Distinguished Alumni Award.

July 1, 1964: Community College

Holyoke Junior College joins the fledgling Massachusetts community college system. The school’s name is changed accordingly to Holyoke Community College with George Frost installed as its first president. Meanwhile, the city of Holyoke completes construction of a new high school and turns over the old high school building and high school gymnasium across the street (known as “the annex”) to HCC.

May 1966: The Annex

After a $300,000 renovation, funded by the state, the former Holyoke High School Annex (the gymnasium) is rededicated as the HCC Science Building, complete with lecture halls, laboratories, and faculty offices. It opens for classes during the fall 1966 semester. Meanwhile, construction begins on a $1.5 million renovation of the main HCC building, the former Holyoke High School on Sargeant Street. 

September 1967: 20^th Anniversary

After being temporarily relocated due to construction, HCC faculty and staff move back into the renovated Holyoke High School building. Classes are first held in the new campus building in September. As the 1967-1968 school year begins, and in celebration of the college’s 20th anniversary, President George Frost reflects on HCC’s growth, at the time 1,561 students, more than 60 full-time teachers, an expanding array of liberal arts and career programs, and a growing reputation as it an institution that prepares students well for transfer to four-year schools. 

Jan. 5, 1968: Community Commitment

President George Frost and Holyoke mayor William Taupier launch a campaign to keep the college in Holyoke with support from local educators, business leaders and politicians, including state House majority leader and (later HCC president) David Bartley ’54, and Maurice Donahue, president of the Mass. Senate. Taupier immediately pursues an option to purchase land on Homestead Avenue for a new campus.

Jan. 8, 1968: The Assembly

President George Frost and Holyoke mayor William Taupier launch a campaign to keep the college in Holyoke with support from local educators, business leaders and politicians, including state House majority leader and (later HCC president) David Bartley ’54, and Maurice Donahue, president of the Mass. Senate. Taupier immediately pursues an option to purchase land on Homestead Avenue for a new campus.   

The college organizes an assembly at Mountain Park to tell students where their classes and exams will be held. About 1,500 students show up. President George Frost vows that the school will be rebuilt: “We will have to start from scratch … and we will start now.” For the next six years, HCC would operate out of a disparate collection of city buildings, including the old Elmwood School, the First Baptist Church, the Lutheran Church, and the Armory, as well as rooms above the former Emily and Jenny’s restaurant on the corner of Sargeant Street and Elm. 

Jan. 9, 1968: Local Impact

Holyoke mayor William Taupier and the Holyoke Board of Alderman take out an advertisement in the Holyoke Daily Transcript Telegram, asking residents to write to Gov. John Volpe and other state officials, urging them to approve rebuilding the college in Holyoke. Three days later, following a presentation by President George Frost, Rep. David Bartley, and delivery of numerous bags of mail, the State Board of Regional Community College votes to keep the college in Holyoke, and bells ring out across the city. 

Aug. 1, 1968: The HCC Foundation

President George Frost enlists alumnus Joseph Wright ’54 for help starting a nonprofit to raise money to help rebuild the college on its new campus. Thus, the Friends of Holyoke Community College is incorporated. In 1985, the name was changed to the Holyoke Community College Foundation, the first community college foundation in Massachusetts. Over the years, the foundation has provided more than $3 million in direct aid to students in the form of scholarships, while also investing in classroom equipment and technology for select academic and student support programs. With total assets of more than $14 million, the HCC Foundation maintains a larger endowment than any other community college foundation in Massachusetts. 

June 6, 1971: Groundbreaking

State officials hold a groundbreaking ceremony on the site of the former Sheehan dairy farm on Homestead Avenue, land the city of Holyoke had purchased for the new HCC campus just months after the 1968 fire. On hand for the event were alumnus,  state House speaker (and future HCC president) David Bartley ‘54; former state Senate President Maurice Donahue; and Holyoke city mayor William S. Taupier, who had led the initial campaign to keep the college in Holyoke. Phase I of the project included construction of three main campus buildings, A (now Donahue), B (now Frost), and D (now Marieb), along with a power plant and athletic fields. 

September 1971: No YCC Without HCC 

As a teenage entrepreneur, Michael Kittredge ‘73 was already running a fledgling candle business out of his parents’ South Hadley home when he started taking classes at HCC. In subsequent years, though, as his start-up grew, he often credited the college for providing the lessons that helped him turn that one-man operation into the Yankee Candle Company, the global retailing giant, New England tourist attraction, and one of the region’s largest employers. “Without HCC,” he would later say, “there would be no YCC.”

Feb. 19, 1974: A New Home

On the first day of the spring 1974 semester, with construction completed on the college’s three main academic buildings – those now known as Frost, Donahue and Marieb – HCC officially welcomes students to its new 135-acre campus on Homestead Avenue. After the “nightmare” of the previous six years, professor George Ashley said, the new campus was like “Disneyland.” 

April 27, 1975: Open House

With construction of C building (Fine & Performing Arts) now complete, HCC welcomes the entire community to a day-long, campus-wide open house. Visitors stream through HCC’s 59 classrooms, 47 labs, half-dozen seminar rooms, art studios and auditorium. Outside they find 20 acres of parking lots, playing fields, tennis courts, running track, and walkways. The 135-acre wooded campus soon became a popular spot for hikers, joggers, and dog walkers. It still is.

July 1975: Changing of the Guard

George Frost retires after nearly 30 years as HCC’s first and, to this day, its longest-serving leader (first as director, then as president). He is succeeded by former state House speaker and HCC alumnus David Bartley ‘54, who becomes the college’s second president. In one of his first official acts, President Bartley asks Frost to return as founding director of a new alumni association, and Frost agrees.

Sept. 1976: Going Remote, Baby Steps 

Long before COVID-19, HCC takes its first steps into the new field of remote education with  “Degree Via TV” as it was called in the Sept. 21, 1976, issue of the HCC Journal. The Journal broke the news of two new HCC-sponsored, three-credit courses, “Introduction to Business” and “Introduction to Psychology,” to be broadcast over WGBY-TV, the local public television station. “We shall one day soon be granting degrees to folks unable to attend regular classes, but still eager for education,” President David Bartley said at the time. Prophetic.

Feb. 2, 1976: Calling All Alumni

HCC opens an alumni office with retired president George Frost as the volunteer director of the college’s new Alumni Association. The association’s purpose: promote the interests of HCC and show its 6,000 alumni what Holyoke Community College can do for them. Forty-five years later, HCC’s Alumni Association is still going strong, with HCC graduates now numbering more than 30,000.

Spring 1977: Here to Assist

HCC establishes the Learning Assistance Center to provide tutoring services to students. In November 2000, the center, really an assortment of tutoring areas around campus, moved to consolidated spaces on the second floor of the HCC Donahue Building, where it was renamed the Center for Academic Program Support, better known as CAPS. CAPS consists of three separate but adjoining areas, the Writing Center, the Math Center and the Tutoring Center, that together employ some 70 part-time tutors, about 25 percent of them alumni. 

Nov. 14, 1977: On the Air

WCCH begins broadcasting as an FCC-licensed FM radio station. The late HCC professor Everett Clegg, director of HCC’s Audio Visual Center, had established a limited college radio station the year before called, more logically, “WHCC,” but it could only be heard on campus. Holy Cross College had already claimed WHCC for its own FM station, so HCC reversed its call letters to WCCH. Staffed by student DJs, the progressive music station soon became popular as “The New Voice in the Valley.” Today, managed by students in the HCC Radio Club, WCCH broadcasts its 10 watts of power on 103.5 FM, 24 hours a day. 

Spring 1980: Professor Marieb 

Elaine Nicpon Marieb, an HCC professor of biology, graduates from the college’s registered nursing program. She had enrolled to get a better understanding of the course material from a student’s point of view. Marieb would go on to become a best-selling author of the world’s most popular textbooks on Anatomy & Physiology as well as HCC’s most generous patron. Her donations during her lifetime totaled nearly $1.5 million. Today, her name can be found in more places on the HCC campus than anyone else’s, most prominently on the main science building, a student lounge and study center, an A&P lab, and dozens of placards marking the offices of HCC professors honored over the years with the Elaine Marieb Chair for Teaching Excellence Award. 

Spring 1980: Student Central

HCC opens the Campus Center (then G building). The original design of the three-story, 60,000 square-foot structure matched the other campus buildings, with the exception of the sloping façade that would prove problematic in later years. At the time, the first floor housed the college bookstore and three game rooms; the second, four dining areas, a cafeteria and kitchen run by students in HCC’s Hotel and Food Management program; the third, offices for student government, clubs and publications. For the next four decades, the Campus Center would be plagued by water leaks until a complete overhaul in recent years.

 1984: Women in Transition

HCC establishes a “Women in Transition” program for those seeking education and job training after years being out of the workforce. It had evolved from a previous incarnation as “Women in Business,” itself descended from an even earlier version specifically for “displaced homemakers.” The legacy of those programs continues at HCC today as New Directions and Pathways – support and transfer programs for non-traditional age students, the latter primarily women. 

Spring 1986: ESL Spoken Here

HCC offers English as a Second Language classes for the first time. It started as a non-credit, grant-funded program with two levels of ESL and three part-time instructors. Today, HCC’s English as a Second Language studies program is the largest and most comprehensive in western Massachusetts. The goal after all these years remains the same: helping non-native speakers prepare to do college-level academic work, in English.

Fall 1988: Playing Through

Spearheaded by President David Bartley and Dr. Frances Baker, a Holyoke podiatrist and college trustee, HCC launches an annual golf tournament to raise money for the college through its  nonprofit foundation. Since that first HCC Foundation Golf Classic, the annual benefit has raised more than $500,000. The tournament is traditionally played on the second Monday of September at Springfield Country Club.

Spring 1993: Disability and Deaf Services

HCC establishes a stand-alone office for students with disabilities following the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1992 and the subsequent rise in the numbers of students identifying as disabled. A few years later, HCC added Deaf Services (to support one of the largest Deaf and hard of hearing populations in the state) and set up an Assistive Technology Center. HCC’s Office for Students with Disabilities and Deaf Services (OSDDS) now serves more than 800 students every year.

Fall 1993: Learning Communities 

HCC psychology professor Jack Mino and English professor David Ram develop a model for an integrated teaching program called a Learning Community. Learning Communities, or LC’s, are a special genre of team-taught courses that combine classes from two academic disciplines focused on a singular theme or topic. Since then, HCC has become a national leader in LC education. Today, HCC offers about a dozen Learning Communities every semester, many in collaboration with other colleges, including Amherst and Smith. 

Oct. 27, 1994: The Great Debate

HCC hosts an election-year debate between sitting Democratic U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney. Afterward, they signed the debate banner that still hangs on the wall outside the theater in HCC’s Fine & Performing Arts building. Kennedy wrote: “I am glad the real debate was here in Holyoke!” Romney: “What a great experience! Thank you all!”

Fall 1999: LAALC

HCC opens an adult learning center in Ludlow, Mass., in response to a report that showed lower high school attainment rates in the city due primarily to the large population of older Portuguese immigrants. The Ludlow Area Adult Learning Center serves 150-175 students every year. In 2020, LAALC students spoke 35 languages and originated from 38 different countries.

Fall 1999: Now on the Tee

Electronic media professor Jay Ducharme ‘78 forms the HCC Disc Golf Club and begins construction of HCC’s Disc Golf Course. Ducharme would complete the 5,167-foot, par 56 course in 2007, and continue to make updates and repairs right up through his retirement from HCC in 2020. The HCC disc golf course is today one of the few 18-hole layouts in the Pioneer Valley. When he started, Ducharme designed the front 9 with families in mind, the holes open and inviting. The back 9, though, is more challenging, as it winds through the woods. “It’s a beast,” Ducharme once warned,  “like Jekyll and Hyde.” 

Nov. 1, 1999: The Sound of Music

In recognition of the high quality of its music curriculum, HCC becomes an accredited member of the prestigious National Association of Schools of Music. It is still the only community college in Massachusetts that holds this distinction. HCC offers an associate degree in music and a certificate in musical performance. Its faculty consists of practicing musical professionals. Beyond instruction, the department offers a series of free public concerts each semester, hosts guest performers and speakers, and sponsors the annual HCC Jazz Festival. 

May 21, 2002: Take a Hike

President David Bartley ’54 formally dedicates the HCC Natural Refuge and Trail System, a series of marked trails through the woods behind the campus. Winston Lavalle, (now retired) HCC professor of biology and environmental science, had originally bushwhacked those trails in the 1970s. “We’re very lucky,” Lavalle said on a visit to HCC in 2013. “Many schools don’t have places to study nature right next door. Here you step out, and you’re right there.”

Aug. 25, 2000: On Display

HCC celebrates the grand opening of the Taber Art Gallery, named after Holyoke’s Donald Taber, retired president and chairman of American Pad and Paper. Taber, an avid art collector, donated 45 pieces from his collection to the college, many that are still displayed around campus.

Jan. 1, 2004: Record Reign

David M. Bartley ’54 retires after 28 years as president of HCC. The Holyoke native, HCC alumnus, and former Speaker of the State House of Representatives, was the first – and is still the only – community college graduate in Massachusetts to serve as president of his alma mater, and he did that longer than any community college president in state history.

August 16, 2004: The New Boss

HCC welcomes William F. Messner as the college’s third president. A Bronx, N.Y., native and former professor of American history, Messner had been chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Colleges system, his own alma mater, before coming to HCC for a term that would prioritize HCC’s service to the community.  

Spring 2006: Full Inclusion

The Mass. Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education selects HCC as the site for the state’s first dual enrollment program for high school students with intellectual disabilities. Originally called Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment – ICE – the program enables students to participate fully in college classes and college life with assistance from educational coaches. This ground-breaking initiative established a national model of inclusion for students who had previously been excluded from higher education. Now known as MAICEI (Massachusetts Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment Initiative), the HCC program celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2016. 

May 19, 2006: Taking Care of Business

HCC opens the Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development, named for alumnus Michael Kittredge ’73, who donated $1 million to build it. The five-floor, 55,000-square-foot facility houses an array of instructional facilities, including a spacious conference center and 20 classrooms fully outfitted with the latest technology – “precisely the tools needed to help faculty, staff and students achieve their goals,” noted President Messner.

Fall 2006: Transfer Path

HCC’s Pathways program begins when Mount Holyoke College receives a grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Since the grant expired in 2010, Pathways has been supported by the HCC Foundation and in particular donations from professor emerita Elaine Marieb ’80. Each year, Pathways helps dozens of HCC students transfer to some of the most competitive four-year colleges in the U.S, such as Mount Holyoke, Smith, Amherst, Hampshire, Brandeis, Cornell, and Yale.

January 2007: Katrina Relief

Vivian Ostrowski, then the HCC Student Activities coordinator, leads a team of 40 HCC students, faculty, and staff to New Orleans to help residents there rebuild their lives after the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. For a week, they hauled trash, built shelters, distributed water, and offered moral support to residents whose lives were upended by the storm. Among the HCC relief workers were President Bill Messner and HCC alumnus Steve Bailey ‘77, technical director of the Leslie Phillips Theater. A second team went in 2008. 

Spring 2007: HCC Shuttle

Thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, HCC begins running a free shuttle bus from its Homestead Avenue campus to downtown Holyoke, so students living in the city can get home safely after public bus service has ended for the day. The shuttle, part of the college’s efforts to increase community outreach, is called La Guagua Pa’l College (“the bus to college”).

June 7, 2007: Happy 60th

HCC celebrates its 60th anniversary with a gala event in the Bartley Center that was attended by 300 people, many of them alumni. A 60-foot cake featured sixty candles, each marking one of HCC’s decades, lit by the daughter and granddaughter of HCC’s first president, George Frost.

April 13, 2008: Theater Life 

HCC hosts a reunion for theater alumni and rededicates the college auditorium – previously known as “The Forum” – as the “Leslie Phillips Theater,” in honor of the college’s drama matriarch, the late, great professor Leslie Phillips, who laid the foundation for HCC’s modern theater program. On hand for the festivities was alumnus Tim McKenna ’82, who gave members of Phillips’ family cuttings from the original geranium he had bought for the stage set of the last play Phillips directed more than 20 years before. Among her many idiosyncrasies, Phillips, who died in 1988, made a habit of lying down on the stage flat on her back before every show she directed, right before the audience came in. “I just love his moment,” she would say. “It’s like dawn on Christmas morning. Wonderful.”

July 9, 2008: Time Check 

HCC dedicates the Alumni Association Clock Tower in recognition of $500,000 in donations alumni made toward the construction of the Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development. The tower actually includes two custom-made clocks, each seven feet across, one facing east, the other west,  both run by built-in computers. 

Oct. 28, 2009: Media Arts 

The college holds a grand opening for its Media Arts Center. The 10,500-square-foot facility on the third floor of the Campus Center is dedicated to instruction in photography and multimedia arts, featuring specialized studios and classrooms for animation, game design, sound and video production, digital imaging, and photography labs for both wet and digital processing. A lounge area with two large flat screen monitors displays student work, while a 60-seat black box performance space equipped with lighting, video projection, and state-of-the art sound system is available for film screenings and multimedia productions. 

Feb. 24, 2010: Safe Zone

The Bunker, a combination meeting space, study area, lounge, and resource center for HCC student-veterans, opens, the name coined by Marine veteran Robert S. McRobbie ’14. “As all  vets know, the bunker is a safe zone,” he said. 

September 2010: In the Community

HCC opens a satellite facility in downtown Holyoke. Known by its acronym PAFEC, the Picknelly Adult & Family Education Center is a joint project between the college, a network of community groups and the Picknelly family. The four-story complex on Maple Street, above the Holyoke bus terminal, occupies an old fire station that was renovated from top to bottom. At PAFEC, HCC offers a series of literacy programs through its Adult Learning Center, including GED preparation, English for Speakers of Other Languages classes, tutoring and mentoring, career counseling, workforce development classes, and transition to college programs, as well as credit classes taught by HCC instructors. “With the Picknelly Center,” President Bill Messner said at the time, “we’re putting our classrooms where our heart is – in the community.” 

Sept. 21, 2011: Computer Literacy

HCC dedicates the Gill Technology Center on the first floor of the year-old Picknelly Adult & Family Education Center in downtown Holyoke. The facility, named in memory of Thomas Gill III, a member of HCC’s IT Department, offers free and low cost basic computer classes in English and Spanish and open computer sessions for the general public.

Fall 2010: Elms@HCC

HCC begins a new partnership with Elms College that will for the first time allow HCC graduates to earn a bachelor’s degree right on the HCC campus. To date, 245 HCC graduates have earned bachelor’s degrees through the Elms@HCC program in psychology, accounting, business management, marketing and healthcare management.   

Dec. 7, 2011: Good Impressions

In partnership with Providence Ministries, HCC opens the Career Closet on the first floor of the Kittredge Center. Its purpose: Provide free business attire to HCC students who have job interviews and internships but might not have the resources to buy proper clothes. Previously a storage room, the Career Closet maintains a collection of about 5,000 items, including suits, shirts, slacks, dresses, sweaters and shoes for both men and women.  

Aug. 13, 2012: Butts Out

HCC initiates a campus-wide ban on smoking. “The decision to establish a smoke-free campus reflects HCC’s commitment to provide an accessible, safe and healthy environment in which to learn and work,” HCC President William Messner said in a message explaining the new policy. “It is also a result of the efforts of HCC students and the staff members of the HCC Smoke-Free Committee, who urged us to join the hundreds of other colleges and universities that have already made ‘smoke-free’ a reality.” 

March 25, 2014: Mission Marieb

HCC professor emerita Elaine Marieb ’80 issues a generous challenge to spark support for the HCC Foundation’s “Building Healthy Communities” campaign: She pledges $1 million if 1,000 other donors make contributions before Dec. 31, 2014. The challenge, called “Mission: Marieb,” was met by early June. The campaign raised a total of $5.5 million, exceeding its goal, “more money than we have ever raised at the college,” President William Messner said at a June 2014 barbecue held in Marieb’s honor.

Feb. 4, 2015: Basic Needs

In collaboration with the United Way Pioneer Valley and PeoplesBank, HCC opens its Thrive Financial Success Center to help students and community members learn money management,  budgeting and other financial literacy skills. As the Thrive Student Resource Center and Food Pantry, it is now a place where students can find help with more basic needs that can interfere with their studies, chiefly hunger, housing insecurity, and healthcare.

April 10, 2015: International Nods

A London-based wire-service reporter interviews English professor Elizabeth Trobaugh and environmental science professor Steve Winters for a story about a Learning Community class they teach on “Cli-Fi,” an emerging genre of science fiction that focuses on climate change. “Cli-Fi: Stories and Science of the Coming Climate Apocalypse” combines Introduction to Literature and Topics in Science and consists of classroom discussions plus a weekly science lab. The news report was picked up by The New York Times and other

May 22, 2015: The Open Road

After more than a decade of planning and development, HCC opens a new campus access road and dedicates it in the name of alumnus Jack Doyle ’51, the late president of O’Connell Development in Holyoke and the long-time treasurer of the HCC Foundation. Doyle’s expertise and financial acumen helped the foundation steadily grow its assets in support of the college and its students. Doyle Drive, now one of three main entrances to the campus, runs from the Campus Road behind the Kid’s Place to Route 202 (Westfield Road). “He was a great advisor,” former HCC president David Bartley ’54 said at the dedication ceremony, “so I think it’s about time the college paid tribute.”  

Oct. 16, 2015: ‘An Extraordinary Legacy’

HCC celebrates the grand opening of the Center for Health Education & Simulation, the new home of the school’s nursing and radiologic technology programs. After touring the building, U.S. Congressman and alumnus Richard Neal ’70 calls it an “extraordinary legacy.” 

June 3, 2016: Branching Out

Further expanding its community outreach, HCC opens a satellite office in downtown Ware called “E2E,” short for Education to Employment: Quaboag Region Workforce Training and Community College Center, a collaboration with the Quaboag Valley Community Development Corporation. “This is a great day for Ware and a great day for our region, which has been lacking in sources of education beyond high school for so long,” said Sheila Cuddy, executive director of the Quaboag Valley CDC. 

July 31, 2016: Messner Retires

William F. Messner, 70, retires, ending his 12-year run as HCC’s third president, one marked by an increased emphasis on community service and outreach. “It’s been an honor to serve as HCC’s president,” he said. “This is a fine institution with a proud history, a deeply committed faculty and staff and a critical mission.”

Fall 2016: Hispanic Serving Institution

HCC marks a major milestone: For the first time, Hispanic student enrollment at the college surpasses 25 percent. With that, HCC joins a growing national club of colleges and universities that are recognized by the U.S. Dept. of Education as “Hispanic Serving Institutions,” or HSI’s. The designation makes HCC eligible for grants to expand educational opportunities and enhance services and supports for Hispanic students. 

May 30, 2017: Transfer Success

A national report names HCC one of top six transfer schools in the United States. In particular, the report highlights the relationship between HCC and the University of Massachusetts, as a model of a successful transfer partnership.

Nov. 3, 2017: Madam President

Christina Royal is inaugurated as HCC’s fourth president and the first woman to hold that position. In her inauguration address, delivered from the stage of the Leslie Phillips Theater, before more than 200 faculty, staff, students, and guests, Royal affirmed her commitment to the community college concept – that everyone deserves an affordable and high-quality college education.

Jan. 23, 2018: Economic Powerhouse

A report calculates HCC’s economic value to the Pioneer Valley at nearly $215 million a year and notes that HCC represents a wise investment for both students and taxpayers. The largest economic impact comes from alumni: $155.1 million a year.

April 13, 2018: Get Cooking

HCC celebrates the grand opening of the HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute, a 20,000 square-foot teaching and training facility on the first two floors of The Cubit Building, a former factory on Race Street in Holyoke’s Innovation District – a fitting new home for HCC’s Culinary Arts program, the only one in the Massachusetts state college system accredited by the American Culinary Federation. The $6.53 million project received the Boston Foundation’s 2018 Deval Patrick Prize, which recognizes community colleges for building effective career pathways.

Sept. 4, 2018: Center for Life Sciences 

Classes begin in HCC’s $4.55 million Center for Life Sciences. The 13,000-square-foot facility on the first floor of HCC’s Marieb Building features a suite of new biotechnology classrooms and the only ISO-certified instructional cleanroom at any Massachusetts community college.

May 28, 2019: Legacy Gift

HCC receives a $1 million legacy gift from former faculty member and alumna Elaine Marieb ‘80. Before her death in December 2018, Marieb had set up the donation as part of her estate plan, with the money earmarked for HCC programs that support nontraditional-age students, particularly women. This was Marieb’s second million-dolllar gift to HCC; the first she made during her lifetime to support construction of HCC’s Center for Health Education and Simulation, and Center for Life Sciences. In March 2020, HCC received another posthumous donation in Marieb’s name –  $7.5 million from the Elaine Marieb Foundation, to renovate the entire Marieb science building and expand the Center for Life Sciences into the upper floors. 

Oct. 21, 2019: Cannabis Education

HCC announces the creation of the Cannabis Education Center to provide training, workshops, and business resources to individuals who want to work in the state’s newly legalized cannabis industry. Based in the HCC Kittredge Center for Business and Workforce Development, the CEC is the first center of its kind
 in Massachusetts.

Feb. 28, 2020: Grand Reopening

Gov. Charlie Baker helps HCC celebrate the grand reopening of the Campus Center after a two-year, $43.5 million renovation. Baker toured the 66,000-square-foot building, which now includes Admissions and Advising on the first floor; and a Student Engagement area on the second. “One of the things that makes space like this so important and precious is it gives young people a place to call their own,” he said. “This is breathtaking. It speaks volumes about how important a space like this can be on a college campus.” 

March 23, 2020: Going Remote

In response to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic and in keeping with Gov. Charlie Baker’s stay-at-home advisory, HCC suspends in-person instruction for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester. Remote instruction and work become the norm, as the campus is closed to all but a handful of essential staff. For the next 17 months, through summer and fall 2020, and winter, spring and summer 2021, the college would continue to operate almost entirely at a distance.