Fullerton College is a public, two-year community college governed by a Board ofTrustees under the laws of the State of California. It was established in April, 1913, when the governing board of Fullerton Union High School approved a motion that a two-year postgraduate course be added to the curriculum. The new Junior College - for such it was called from the beginning - opened in September, 1913, with 26 students and a curriculum of 10 courses. In 1922 the college was reorganized as an independent junior college district. After holding classes on the Fullerton High School campus for its first 23 years, the college began moving to its own fourteen acre campus next door in 1936.
With four major structures
in use before World War II, the building program expanded dramatically
with the influx of G.I.'s after the war and with the Orange County population
explosion during the 50's and 60's. In 1964 residents of the Anaheim Union
High School District, the Brea-Olinda Unified District, and the Placentia
Unified District elected to form an interim junior college district to
be merged with the existing Fullerton Junior College District. Named the
North Orange County Junior College District, it encompassed an area of
about 150 square miles. With this enlarged district, proposed plans called
for the establishment of two additional junior colleges. Cypress College
was opened in 1966 just in time to alleviate some of the enrollment pressure
at Fullerton. The Board of Trustees also purchased 170 acres east of Yorba
Linda in 1964 and an additional 20 acres in 1975 as the site for future
development of a third district college.
The "Junior" designation was eliminated by Board action in 1972.
The institution has been officially known as Fullerton College since then.
In 1975 the State Board of Governors divided the Garden Grove High School
District into three areas to be served by the Coast, Rancho Santiago,
and North Orange County Community
College Districts. The area allocated to the
NOCCCD encompasses an area of five square miles and a population of
about 37,000.
