Laying the Foundation

The history of Northeast Iowa Community College actually begins half a century prior to its founding in 1966. In 1916, the U.S. Bureau of Education recommended the establishment of pubic two-year colleges throughout the state to improve the quality of training for the teachers who served the numerous rural schools across the state. They suggested the creation of several Junior Colleges throughout the state which would serve as extensions of local high schools. Though this plan was not implemented directly by the State Board of Education, Iowa's first Junior College was established in Mason City in 1918. Between the years of 1918 and 1953 a total of 36 junior colleges were formed across the state, with the majority (33) of which being founded before 1931. These junior colleges found middling success through the early 20th century, often sporting low, but consistent attendance numbers. issues with enrollment, funding, public apathy, and lack of direction from the state, exacerbated by the great depression and the beginning of the second world war caused many Junior Colleges across the state to close their doors either temporarily, or in many cases permanently.

Due to the end of the second world war, large numbers of American servicemen returned to the state. Fearing an economic depression due to a surplus of workers, the United States government implemented the GI Bill, which gave millions of servicemen and women access to financial assistance to pay for college. In response to the increased demand, over two thirds of the Iowan junior colleges that closed during the great depression re-opened post 1946; however, the preexisting junior colleges were not designed to handle this new influx. Talks of changing the system began during this period, though it wasn't until the early 1960s, when the young 'Baby Boomer' generation was beginning to approach college age. Multiple studies conducted in the late 1940s through the early 1960s showed that, at the very minimum, both funding and the types of education provided would need to be increased to accommodate the growing population of students. Studies done in the early 1960s, in particular, proposed the creation of a statewide community college system to standardize the accreditation process and provide support to two year colleges. By 1965, legislation provided for the creation of area colleges and Vocational-Technical schools across 16 merged areas in the state.

The designated boundary for the educational areas was a heated debate, especially in northeast Iowa. Waterloo originally wanted the original Area One educational area, which encompassed public school districts in Allamakee, Chickasaw, Clayton, Fayette, Howard, and Winneshiek counties, to be included under its control. This idea was pushed back by both the city of Decorah and the speaker of the House and Senate who was a native of North Hampton, who both wanted the administrative center for this new vocational school. The debates ended with the city of Calmar being selected as the location for the school due to a mix of the city’s neutrality in the ongoing debate, central location, and access to major highways in the region.

Once the location was decided, the very first board of directors was elected in April 1966 and Max Clark was appointed as the first Area One Superintendent in May. The official formation of the Area One District was approved by the state board shortly after, on July 1st, 1966.

That very same year, NICC (Area I - Vocational-Technical School) purchased two parcels of land the first being 111 acres of farmland from Delbert J and Mary Anne Hageman and the second being 80 acres from Raymond and Florence Hageman (which the college received a 10 year option for and purchased at a later date). Land would officially be broken for construction early in 1967.

Career education programs in Calmar began in the fall of 1966. These first students attended classes out of rented buildings in downtown Calmar, including above D&D Variety Store. In 1967, a number of new programs were approved and on September 5, 1967 Area One Vocational-Technical schooled opened its doors to a total of 170 career students across 12 programs with an additional 900 adult education students. These students attended classes in rented buildings in Calmar, Ossian, Ft. Atkinson, and Decorah. It wasn’t until the fall of 1969 when classes were held on the Calmar Campus for the first time out of the Trades and Industry building and Classroom building (now Max Clark Hall). 1969 also saw the enactment of legislation requiring the establishment of a campus to serve any city with over 50,000 people. This impacted Dubuque, Delaware, and Jackson counties who were unable to agree on the formation of Area 8. This lead to discussions between the counties and Area 1 that concluded with both Dubuque and Delaware county joining the Merged Area 1 on July 1st, 1970. This merger expanded the district to include school districts in Allamakee, Winneshiek, Howard, Chickasaw, Fayette, Clayton, Dubuque, and Delaware counties; along with portions of Bremer, Buchanan, and Mitchell counties. All the while during this growth the college continued to add new programs every year and by 1971, when classes began in both Calmar and Dubuque, the college offered a total of 26 programs across the district. This number kept growing and by 1974 the college had a total 35 programs with over 1200 career ed. students and approx. 25,000 adult education students across the district. It was also in 1974 that the college purchased land to build the Peosta Campus, to move courses out of rented spaces in Dubuque.

Farm Implement and Welding building - Calmar

In 1975, Charles Joss was appointed as superintendent and for the first time a woman, Jane Forster, was appointed as the director of Adult/Continuing Education. Program offerings continued to grow each year in this period, along with enrollment in both adult/continuing education and career education. By 1977, over 30,000 students were enrolled in the adult ed. Programs with over 1,400 students enrolled in career ed. programs. This population of students was also the first group of students to attend the college after both “Centers” (North Center in Calmar and South Center in Dubuque, soon to be Peosta) were fully accredited by the NCA. In 1978, Clyde Kramer was appointed as Superintendent, with the Peosta campus officially beginning its construction, which was completed one year later in 1979, officially becoming the permanent location for the college’s “South Center”. It was by 1979 that all but three of the programs (one at the North Center, and two at the South Center) were being hosted at buildings owned by the college. With the completion of the South Center the college officially changed its name to Northeast Iowa Technical Institute. Things were changing fast for the college. New programs were being added yearly, enrollment was growing at a consistent pace, and in 1980, a 20 ¼ cent levy was extended to expand the facilities in Peosta. That didn’t slow development at the Calmar campus though, as a 7500 square foot Livestock Lab Complex was built in 1981 for the Dairy program. In 1982 the Peosta Campus’ phase two construction plan was completed, and a 10,000 square foot addition to the Calmar Trade and Industrial building began. 1982 saw over 30,000 adult/continuing ed. and over 1,600 career ed. students in 38 different programs. In 1983, the Farm Implement/Welding Building was completed, and Iowa’s 260E Iowa New Job Training Program, which gave community colleges the responsibility to administer training services for new and expanding businesses, was implemented. Iowa’s 260E Iowa New Job Training Program and subsequent 260F Iowa Jobs Program (1992), had over 95 projects, over 6,237 new jobs trained, and over $13M dollars spent for training by 1999.

1987-88 was a period of great change for the college. Ron Hutkin was appointed as superintendent. Shortly afterwards multiple need surveys were conducted both within the local communities and with the students. These needs surveys inspired board member George Shearer to hold up a copy of TIME magazine and declare, “It’s ‘time’ we became a community college,” during a board meeting. The board generally agreed and voted to start seeking full community college status with the Department of Education; the primary pursuit of C.C. status was undergone during 1988. The Dept. of Ed. would not help us fight for the status application and the notion that NITI should become a full community college, rather than just a technical/vocational school faced major backlash both in legislation and from other private colleges in our geographical region, primarily Clarke College (now University). Legislative opposition was spearheaded by Avenson, the speaker of the house at the time, until he attended a meeting with Area One students who worked to garner his support for the change in status. In the end, it took a two-year agreement with five independent colleges before the Dept. of Ed. would take the recommendation to the State Board of Education and the Coordinating Council. This two-year agreement, which was only possible because of UIU president Jim Richleau, established that even though NITI would be allowed to become a community college, it could not offer the AA for for the first two years and the transfer of general education could only be permitted in AAS & Career Option programs. With the agreement established and the official recommendation given to the state, we officially became a community college on the 18th of August, 1988, with our name changing from Northeast Iowa Technical Institute (NITI) to Northeast Iowa Community College (NICC) happening shortly thereafter.

Today, NICC serves communities and students between the two main campuses in Calmar and Peosta with centers in Cresco, Waukon, New Hampton, Oelwein, Manchester, and Dubuque. Serving 8 counties with over 200,000 people with over 5,000 consistant enrollment.