Higher Education In Queens:
Queensborough Community College Is Gateway School
BY DIANA SANDERS

Q u e e n s b o r o u g h Community College (QCC) is one of the six community colleges in the City University of New York (CUNY) system. Some 85 percent of its culturally diverse student body comes from the neighborhoods surrounding its Bayside campus.

The college enrolled its first students in 1959. Today, the 37-acre campus consists of 14 buildings that hold dance studios, recital halls, digital art laboratories and an astronomy observatory as well as classrooms. The Kurt R. Schmeller Library, named for a former president of the college, holds more than 150,000 volumes. The Art Gallery also holds the Holocaust Resource Center, which serves as a witness to the genocidal practices of the 20th and 21st centuries with exhibits, documentation and testimonies of survivors. Robert F. Kennedy Hall, the college gymnasium and fitness center, houses athletic services, including tennis, track and a swimming pool that is nearly Olympic in size. The student union at QCC offers a range of activities that include student government and the college's student newspaper.

The college has 260 full-time faculty, all committed to QCC's mission to provide solid post-secondary education. As a community, or junior college, QCC offers associate degree and specialized certificate programs that enable students to transfer to four-year institutions and continue their education at the bachelors or masters degree level. Students who earn associate degrees at QCC enter four-year institutions with standing as juniors. Of the approximately 45,000 students to graduate from QCC to date, half went on to enroll in fouryear institutions.

Weekend programs and class sessions held late in the evening have been included in order to aid students who must balance college with other priorities, including work and family. QCC's low tuition fees and financial aid opportunities have opened many doors to those of limited financial means. The college is proud to offer opportunities for higher education that all students can afford.