History and Heritage
Situated within one of New York’s most diverse counties, RCC offers multiple windows of opportunity for you to build a future of hope and success. Rockland Community College was founded on a dream. Lester Rounds, a local school superintendent, proposed the idea for an affordable, grassroots, two-year college in his doctoral dissertation for Columbia University. Amid stirring of Rockland County’s conversion from sleepy hinterland to bustling suburbia along with a burgeoning school-age population, spiraling college costs, and growing need for advanced skills, Rounds and other forward-thinkers spent five years bringing the dream to fruition. In the fall of 1959, Rockland Community College opened its doors to 139 students: 87 men and 52 women, 119 full-time and 20 part-time. They were high school graduates eager to capitalize on an affordable, two-year alternative at their doorstep. They were homemakers with children to care for. They were veterans thankful for a second chance. (“Rockland Community College: The Early Years,” by Jamie Kempton, Donning Company Press, 2000.)
In 2010, RCC celebrated its 50th Anniversary and continues to strive to meet the dreams of Lester Rounds and the other founders of the College.
As a community college operating under the program of the State University of New York, RCC offers an outstanding education at a fraction of the price charged by private colleges.
Located just 25 miles northwest of New York City, on a safe and attractive 175-acre campus, RCC is convenient to the excitement and culture of New York City as well as to the recreation and history of the scenic Hudson Valley.
Rockland Community College, the only public higher education institution in Rockland County, offers small classes, personal attention and caring faculty. In addition to the main campus in Suffern, the College operates an extension center located in Haverstraw. Close to 10,000 people are enrolled in credit and non-credit courses and over 200,000 visit the campus each year for cultural, recreational and commercial events. Enrollment of about 7,000 full- and part-time students includes about 100 international students representing 25 foreign countries.
More information about the history of the College can be found on the College website by clicking:
https://sunyrockland.edu/about/history/