Parkland

With many students graduating and others anticipating summer, it's a fabulous time to look back at what has been accomplished.

For Parkland, that requires taking a glace at a rich 43 year history.

Did you know that Parkland, when it started its educational path in 1967, was housed temporarily in downtown Champaign in buildings such as the current Nitaya Thai restaurant? There were 1,338 students enrolled at the time.

Parkland College was unnamed then, and was referred to as the "District 505 Community College." It did not have semesters, rather, operated on a quarterly term. For the academic year, this meant three quarters would be offered with one quarter for the summer. The cost for students was $4.50 per hour, and books were estimated to cost $100 for the year.

The college then moved to its permanent address, our current college campus, in 1973. The land was formally the McMilan/Ehler farm, according to Sally Foster Wallace's writings on Parkland's history titled Parkland Works.

Here, enrollment grew to 4,500 students, and salaries for teachers and staff were set at $8,000- $11,000 annually.

Sonja Williams, who took classes when Parkland first opened in the 60's, said of her experience, "It was the best transition between high school and college I could ask for."

Williams is now an educator in the state of North Carolina, working specifically with children of migrant families. She said that her time at Parkland was really memorable. It was a unique way to go to school, she thought.

"It was really cool, I took classes downtown and at a grocery store in West Champaign," said Williams and she remembered having to bike completely across town to make it to class.

Back then, there were six divisions in what now make up Parkland's nine departments. The vision for Parkland College started with a group of community educators who wanted to set up an agriculture and vocations institution, but quickly evolved to a junior college with much more to offer, according to Wallace