Intro by Anna Mays, Vice Provost for Educational Partnerships
Dallas College is pleased to join our Catch the Next colleagues as a new member of the Ascender initiative. With the collaboration of a team of over 30 faculty, staff and administrators, the Dallas College Ascender framework and milestones to be achieved have been developed and over 140 students have been enrolled in paired Learning Frameworks and English course sections starting 8/22. Executive Vice Chancellor Dr. Greg Morris and fifteen faculty attended the initial May 2022 Catch the Next Seminar in Dallas and an additional eighteen faculty are interested in attending professional development and teaching Ascender participants. Dr. Catherine Olivarez, Dean of Transfer, Articulation, and Alternative Credit Programs, is assuming the role of administrator for Ascender at Dallas College and can be contacted at colivarez@dallascollege.edu
Profiles of Dallas College’s Seven Campuses
Dallas College originally operated as a district of seven independently accredited colleges. In 2020, those colleges united under a single name in order to offer students a more streamlined, more convenient experience.
Richland Campus was established in 1972, and is located on 243 acres of former farmland adjacent to the cities of Richardson and Garland. It is a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Recipient and a Hispanic Serving Institution.
For greater scheduling flexibility, Richland offers traditional 16-week fall and spring semester classes with 4-, 6-and 8-week term classes also offered as options throughout these semesters, as well as during summer semesters. Richland also offers Winter Term and May Term classes. It offers the two-year college transfer associate degree, the one-year fast track associate degree plus associate degrees and one-year certificates.
Signature Programs include Advanced Manufacturing, Accounting and Finance, Pre-Medical, Pre-Dental and Related Health Sciences, and Electronics Technology and Engineering.
Academic Programs include School of Engineering, Business, and Technology; School of Humanities, Fine, and Performing Arts; School of Learning Enrichment and Academic Development; School of Mathematics, Science, and Health Professions; and School of World Languages, Cultures, and Communications.
Brookhaven Campus was founded in 1978, making it the youngest of the seven Dallas College locations. The campus now welcomes more than 13,000 students each semester and serves the Farmers Branch, Carrollton, Addison and North Dallas areas. It is on 192-acres and currently has a total of 467,000 square feet of building space divided among 18 buildings. These buildings include the 20,000-square- Brookhaven College Geotechnology Institute, one of three similar facilities nationwide to offer continuing professional development to professionals in the oil and gas industries, and the Brookhaven College School of the Arts (BCSA) expanded facility, with a 2,400-square-foot gallery, a renovated ceramics/kiln yard, Macintosh computer lab and a 680-seat performance hall.
Brookhaven provides freshman- and sophomore-level academic credit courses, which may be applied toward an associate degree or transferred to a four-year college or university. The Core Curriculum is guaranteed to transfer to public universities in Texas. Career and technical education programs help prepare students for immediate entrance into the workforce. Along with traditional transfer class offerings, Brookhaven College’s technical program offerings include accounting, automotive technology, business administration, child development, computer information systems, e-commerce, emergency medical services, geospatial technology, international business and trade, management, marketing, nursing, office technology, paramedicine, radiologic technology and visual communications. Continuing education classes offer personal or professional development in a variety of subjects including art, business, computers, health care careers, education, English for Speakers of Other Languages, music, nonprofit management, real estate and more. Corporate training also is available.
Cedar Valley Campus covers 300 acres and is located in Lancaster, serving southern Dallas and northern Ellis counties. Cedar Valley opened in the summer of 1977, and has an enrollment of more than 6,000 students. It serves an approximately 75-square-mile area of southern Dallas County including the suburbs of Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville, Glenn Heights, Hutchins, Lancaster, Seagoville, and Wilmer as well as the Dallas neighborhoods of Highland Hills, Pleasant Grove and Red Bird.
Beginning in Spring of 2004, Cedar Valley College began operating the Cedar Valley College Center at Cedar Hill. The extension center will assist the district’s continuing education program featuring classes on computer software, dance, English as a second language, health and wellness, writing résumés and CPA accreditation.
For the 2008-09 school year, Cedar Valley began a joint dual credit enrollment project with the Dallas Independent School District and the Cedar Hill Independent School District by opening two early college high school campuses, one in Dallas and one in Cedar Hill. The new Dallas school is named Early College High School and provides the opportunity for its graduates to accomplish a high-school diploma and 60 hours of college credit concurrently. Like most early college high school programs, the school was designed to attract students who do not typically enroll in traditional dual-credit programs, such students whose parents did not attend college and those that might feel a college education is not financially possible.
The new Cedar Hill school is named Cedar Hill Collegiate High School, and attracts students who are seeking 60 college credit hours upon graduating high school. The school is open to students of all backgrounds; however, the staff worked particularly hard to recruit black and Latino males, who are the least likely to earn college degrees.
Since 1970, Eastfield Campus has provided excellence in teaching and learning to the residents of Mesquite, Garland, southeast Dallas County and the surrounding communities. Sometimes known as the “Educational Village” because of its unique architecture, it is located on 244 acres at the intersection of Interstate 30 and Motley Drive in Mesquite. Functional building clusters give students easy access to classrooms and labs and the overall aesthetic effect has earned Eastfield several architectural awards of excellence. The landscape planning includes terraced areas throughout the campus and are a show case of esthetic local drought resistant plants.
It is a Hispanic Serving Institution offering a variety of free services designed to boost Hispanic students’ success, thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Students pursue careers in fields such as computer-aided design and drafting, criminal justice, digital imaging, electronic commerce, social work, automotive technology and more.
The Hive is a popular gathering place at lunch or in the morning before class, and programs in sign language, painting and child development are reflected in the activities seen throughout the campus. A performance hall, galleries and labs are filled with students who want to become writers, singers, artists, digital imaging technicians and teachers.
El Centro Campus was the first college of the district to open its doors in 1966. Its Spanish name reflects its location at 801 Main Street in downtown Dallas, in the former Sanger Harris department store building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and a member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). El Centro’s location allows students from all parts of Dallas County to take advantage of core educational courses transferable to four-year institutions, as well as career training in more than 50 fields and a variety of continuing education and workforce education courses. Many of the degree plans offered at El Centro specialize in the medical and technological fields including in-demand careers in the health field like: Dental Hygiene, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Cardiac Sonography and more. Signature programs include the Culinary Arts, Bakery/Pastry Arts, and Food and Hospitality Management program which provides training through classroom instruction and hands-on participation. Students get real world experience each semester preparing complete three-course meal services that are open to the public; El Centro was the first campus of Dallas College to offer a nursing program and has established relationships with several top-ranked hospitals in the Dallas area; and the Fashion Marketing/Fashion Design program which offers hands-on learning with opportunities to work with trade professionals. Through specialized alliances, students have the chance to compete for scholarships and industry opportunities.
Mountain View Campus has served Oak Cliff and southwestern Dallas County since 1970. It sits on both sides of a limestone canyon, connected by glass pedestrian bridges. It features an enrollment of about 11,500 credit students and another 9,000 continuing education students. Over 20 countries are represented by its international students.
Mountain View has an on-campus observatory and a performing mariachi band. It also has a Bilingual Education Center dedicated to training bilingual teachers for elementary and secondary school classrooms. Trini Garza Early College High School, an early college senior high school of the Dallas Independent School District, is on the college property
Mountain View offers more than 35 degree and certificate programs. Its signature programs include nursing, welding, occupational therapy, and mechatronics, which teaches students to diagnose and repair high-tech machinery and robotics.
North Lake Campus is in Irving, and opened in 1977. The campus’ 276 wooded acres feature a lake and DART light rail station.
In 2005, the college purchased a 35.8-acre tract of land in Coppell as the site of a satellite campus, which opened in 2008 as North Lake – North Campus. The North Campus location in far northwestern Dallas County pulls students not only from Dallas County, but also from neighboring Tarrant County and Denton County. The North Campus is also home to the college’s logistics technology program.
North Lake – South Campus was opened in fall 2009 and is located on the northeast corner of Shady Grove and MacArthur Boulevard in Irving, with the primary purpose of providing educational opportunities for those in need of basic academic skills, language acquisition, and job competencies in the under-served areas of South Irving.
North Lake has an enrollment of about 5,000 credit students and an additional 3,000 continuing education students. It stands out for its unique combination of arts and technology education. It’s signature programs include Video Technology with video editing, graphics and special effects; Information Technology; Logistics and Mortgage Banking.
In 2019 the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) opened North Lake Early College High School, which has a campus for students in grades 9-10 at North Lake South and will have a grade 11-12 campus at North Lake North. (https://www.dallascollege.edu/about)