Jefferson State Community College, more often known as 'Jeff State', is a two-year college in the Alabama Community College System. The current campus locations are the Jefferson Campus in eastern Jefferson County, the Shelby-Hoover Campus in northern Shelby County, the St. Clair-Pell City Campus in Pell City, and the Chilton-Clanton Campus in Clanton.
Jefferson State offers more than 120 university transfer programs, 20 career programs with multiple options, and numerous certificate programs. These programs are offered during the day, evening, weekends and via the Internet. The school is well known for its competitive Heath and Biological Science programs. It has an ESL program as well as a variety of community and continuing education classes. It hosts a Career Center, workforce training, and call center classes on campus. Each campus is equipped with computer labs and libraries available to all students, faculty, and staff.
In addition to its academic programs, Jeff State has a variety of campus organizations and activity groups. The activity groups include the College Scholars Team, Intramural Sports, Speech Team (Forensics Team), Jefferson State Singers, Writer's Roundtable, and the Wingspan Literary Magazine. The campus organizations include professional and social/community groups. These are as follows: Alpha Beta Chi, Association of Clinical Laboratory Technician Students, Association of Radiologic Technology Students, Designers and Builders Club, Sigma Phi Sigma, Student Nursing Association, Student Chapter of the National Association of Veterinary Technicians, Jeff State Ambassadors, Art and Animation Guild, Phi Theta Kappa, Sigma Kappa Delta, Student Government Association, and Students in Free Enterprise.
Jefferson State offers a comprehensive approach to customized workforce training through an ACT Center, Training for Business and Industry, GED programs, adult education, remedial education, workforce readiness training, and programs to assist dislocated workers, displaced homemakers and other special populations.
Accreditation
Jefferson State is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award the Associate Degree. Individual academic programs are nationally accredited by 10 different professional evaluating organizations
Huntingdon College now offers a bachelor’s degree program that has classes at three of Jeff State's campuses. The courses are accelerated so that students can attend class one night a week and complete their bachelor’s degree in a traditional time frame. Classes last 5 weeks and students can receive financial aid through Huntingdon for this program.
History
Jefferson State Junior College was established on May 3, 1963, by an act of the State Legislature. The first students enrolled at Jeff State in September 1965. The Alabama State Board of Education officially changed the name of the school to Jefferson State Community College on February 23, 1989.
The original campus is located on 274 acres (1.11Â km2) in Center Point, Alabama. The thirteen buildings that make up the campus are named for community benefactors (H.Y. and Ruby Carson, John B. Bethune, Harvey DeRamus, and Eugene Fitzgerald), elected officials (James B. Allen, George C. Wallace, Lurleen B. Wallace, and Harold C. Martin), and former Jeff State presidents (Leroy Brown and George L. Layton).
The college opened an extension center in Shelby County, Alabama in January 1993. In June 1996, the center was designated a branch campus by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. The Shelby Campus in Hoover, Alabama has three multi-purpose buildings on 60 acres (240,000Â m2).
In 2003, the Alabama State Board of Education revised the college's service area to include the western part of St. Clair County, Alabama. Classes began meeting at the St. Clair Center in Moody, Alabama in Fall 2003. On April 22, 2004, the board approved another instructional site for St. Clair County in Pell City, Alabama, and classes started meeting there in Fall 2004. With 50 acres (200,000Â m2) deeded to the school by the St. Clair Economic Development Council, Jeff State constructed a new center in Pell City. The college offered classes in that three-story facility in Fall 2006.
In 2007, the Board again revised the college's service area to include Chilton County, Alabama and approved construction for a multipurpose instructional facility in Clanton, Alabama. The new center was completed and classes began in Fall 2008.
Jeff State has had three presidents: Dr. Leroy Brown (1964-1971), Dr. George L. Layton (1971-1979), Dr. Judy M. Merritt (1979-2014), and interim president Keith Brown (2014â€"present) .
Campuses
The Shelby-Hoover campus is in Shelby County, partially in the City of Hoover and partially in an unincorporated area. The Math-Science Building and the General Studies Building are in Hoover while the Health Science Building is located across the city line. The Birmingham Supplementary School Inc. (BSS, ãƒãƒ¼ãƒŸãƒ³ã‚°ãƒãƒ 日本語補ç¿'æ ¡ BÄminguhamu Nihongo HoshÅ«kÅ), a part-time Japanese school, holds its classes at the Shelby-Hoover campus, while its office is at the Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, LLC facility in unincorporated Talladega County, near Lincoln. The school first opened on September 1, 2001.
Libraries
A fully stocked academic library is located at all four locations of Jeff State. The libraries contain over 135,000 items including books, periodicals, videos, and government documents. Access to over 52,000 electronic books and articles is available through the library's website.
Each library is staffed by a librarian during business hours. The libraries at the Jefferson and Shelby-Hoover campuses are open Monday through Thursday, 7:30amâ€"9:00pm and Friday 7:30amâ€"4:00pm. The libraries at St. Clair-Pell City and Chilton-Clanton vary their hours each semester according to student and faculty need. The Jefferson campus library is located on the second floor of the James B. Allen building. The Shelby-Hoover campus library is located on the ground floor of the General Studies Building. The St. Clair-Pell City site library is located in room 117 of the main building. The Chilton-Clanton site library is located in room 114 of the main building.
Facts
Jefferson State was also home to WJSR radio. The station went silent in 2014.
Approximately 10,004 students enrolled in 2010, the highest enrollment ever seen at the college.
Beta Lambda Delta, the Shelby Campus chapter of two year institution Honor's Society Phi Theta Kappa, came in as Fourth Alternate internationally in 2007, taking home 7 awards total. In 2008, the Beta Lambda Delta Chapter was named Most Distinguished Chapter International, the highest award available to a Phi Theta Kappa chapter. The chapter also received the award in 2009, the first time a chapter has taken the top honor two years in a row, in over 30 years.
Jeff State's Students in Free Enterprise, SIFE, Team received the second runner-up award at the SIFE Regional Competition in Atlanta, GA, on Monday, April 4, 2011.
References
External links
- Jefferson State Community College
