Moraine Valley Community College

This article is about the college. For the geological formation, see Moraine Valley.

Moraine Valley Community College

Motto	Changing lives for a changing world
Type	Community college
Established	1967
President	Dr. Sylvia Jenkins
Vice-president	Dr. Pamela Haney, Dr. Normah Salleh-Barone
Students	36,000
Location	Palos Hills , Illinois , United States
Campus	Suburban
Colors	Green and white
Mascot	The Cyclones
Website	www.morainevalley.edu
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Moraine Valley Community Collegeis located in Palos Hills, Illinois in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Founded in 1967, it is the second largest community college in the state. It has an enrollment of approximately 36,000. The main campus of 294 acres (119.0 ha) is nestled in the Cook County Forest Preserves. The college also operates satellite facilities in Blue Island and Tinley Park, Illinois.

MVCC offers its students many accommodations to help them succeed. Night and weekend classes, distance learning, and on-campus day care are all made available to students. Career counseling and services are also available to help students secure jobs after they leave college. To help alleviate the financial burdens that students bear, the college offers employment to its students. Additionally, the college offers athletic scholarships to help some of its students obtain an education more easily.

History

In 1967, the college was officially created after two years of effort, which included proposals, approval, and planning. It opened its first temporary office in Oak Lawn, IL. A year later, a contest was held to give the college its name, Moraine Valley Community College. The name was chosen because of its location: “where the Valparaiso and Tinley moraines meet to form a valley.“ Since no campus was yet established, the first classes were held in leased warehouses in Alsip, IL.

A year later in 1969, seven “temporary buildings” were opened on the Palos Hills campus. In 1970, with enrollment at 4,089, construction began on the first permanent building on the campus, which opened two years later in 1972. From that point on, buildings have been continually added to the campus until as recently as 2008, while the temporary buildings were torn down until the last one in 1994. In 2004, the first extension site, The Moraine Valley Education Center, opened in Blue Island, IL. On October 6, 2010, the college’s second extension site, the Southwest Education Center, was opened in Tinley Park, IL. The US Green Building Council awarded that facility LEED Platinum certification for its high level of "green" performance.

College Presidents

• Dr. Robert E. Turner: 1968-1975
• Dr. James D. Koeller: 1975-1982
• Dr. Fred Gaskin: 1982-1991
• Dr. Vernon O. Crawley: 1991–2012
• Dr. Sylvia Jenkins: 2012–present

International students

MVCC has grown in its international student interest over the years. In the late 1970s, the college had only about 40 international students. After a few years in 1984, no international students were enrolled in the college. Throughout this time, Diane Viverito, then an assistant dean at the college, gathered research about the international student population. She stated that the reason for the diminished number of foreign students was because “the college was not welcoming to international students.” In 1989, the college started a program to appeal to students of other countries and to aid them in their academic endeavors, and as a result, the international student population has grown to about 300 in the present day.

Many accommodations are now made for international students at MVCC. Some of these accommodations are listed below:

• Intensive English Program(in lieu of the TOEFL)
• Airport Arrival Service
• Housing Assistance
• Cross Cultural Counseling

Campus activities

Athletics

As a member of the NJCAA, the Moraine Valley Cyclones participate in many intercollegiate sports, including men’s baseball, cross-country, basketball, golf, soccer, and women’s basketball, cross-country, golf, soccer, softball, and volleyball. MVCC is also a member of the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference, which consists of seven other junior colleges in the surrounding area. Of all the sports teams at MVCC, the Women’s Basketball team is of particular note, as they have won the last four ISCC Conference Championships from 2006-2010.

In 1998, the mascot for the college was changed from the Marauders to the Cyclones.

Student life

MVCC offers its students many opportunities to get involved on campus. For sports, students can play on intramural sports teams for ultimate frisbee, flag football, volleyball, soccer, and basketball. There are also about 40 clubs and organizations in which students on campus can participate. The focus of these groups include, but are not limited to, special academic interests, religion, diversity and awareness, service, and student government. Additionally, MVCC provides various facilities for its students to spend their free time, such as the Performing Arts Center, a game room, the Health Fitness Center, a 1.45-mile jogging path, and the G. Jack Bradley observation deck. It is also referred to as "The Valley" by faculty and staff.

External links

• Official website
• Student newspaper
• Moraine Valley Library