Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) is a community college system in the United States serving the greater Harrisburg, Pennsylvania metropolitan area and south-central Pennsylvania. HACC is accredited by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.
HACC serves 21,000 degree-seeking students as well as 50,000 in noncredit programs for personal and professional growth opportunities. The College has more than 30,000 alumni, many of whom support the College with both their time and gifts, have achieved distinction in almost every field, including business, medicine, law, the arts, education, human and public service, the military, and the technologies. Elizabethtown College partnered with HACC, where students can take one course at Elizabethtown for the price HACC offers. This was done so HACC students can further their education and Elizabethtown can enroll more students.
History
HACC, established in 1964, was the first community college in Pennsylvania. It currently consists of five major campuses throughout south-central Pennsylvania, as well as several off-site centers, and a virtual campus, that provides online distance education courses. The college maintains its 212-acre (857,934 m²) central campus in Harrisburg and others in Gettysburg, Lancaster, and Lebanon. In the Fall of 2007 York became the fifth major campus. These facilities enroll over 18,000 degree students within a ten-county region.
Harrisburg Campus
Among other buildings, HACC's Harrisburg campus contains The Rose Lehrman Arts Center. Built in 1975, The Rose Lehrman Arts Center houses a Live at Rose Lehrman Performing Artists series, the Rose Lehrman Arts Gallery, box office and concession stands, and space for college theatre, music, and art programs. Every year, The Live at Rose Lehrman Performing Artist Series brings in a variety of diverse, artistically excellent professional performances in live dance, music, theatre, and family events to enhance the Central Pennsylvania community while offering unique academic enrichment experiences for students through workshops and artist residenices. Notable dance, music, and theater companies that have performed in Rose Lehrman's 400-seat theatre have been Martha Graham Dance Company, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Turtle Island String Quartet, Aquila Theatre, and Missoula Children's Theatre, among others.
The Rose Lehrman Art Gallery hosts temporary exhibitions of professional artists as well as HACC's permanent art collection. The Art Gallery has recently acquired through the purchase from its Student Government Association, such works as a ceramic platter by Jesse Potts and 10 ceramic vessels by Toshikp Takaezu. Former exhibitions have included Susan Moore: Paintings, Jerome Hershey: Then&Now,Luba Lukova: Social Justice, and Paula Winokur: Geographical Observations.
The Lancaster Campus
The HACC Lancaster campus is at 1641 Old Philadelphia Pike in East Lampeter Township and serves over 4000 students.
Midtown Campus
Around 2007, HACC enlarged its Midtown site, located in the Midtown neighborhood of Harrisburg, along with the Penn Center in Uptown Harrisburg. The Midtown siteâ€"part of the Harrisburg Campusâ€"is the former Evangelical Press building, which is being renovated to become the urban campus. The 125,000-square-foot (11,600 m2) project is to become the center for HACC's building and trade programs and was expected to bring more than 2,500 students to Midtown each day, beginning in Fall 2007. The leasing of the new building also helped spur new commercial and residential construction throughout the Midtown area. The Community Center of Technology and the Arts on 4th Street became part of the Midtown site with Boyd Street (now a walkway) connecting to the other Midtown building.
Activities
HACC students at the Harrisburg campus recently began extramural competition within the Eastern Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference (EPCC), competing in the sports of Volleyball, Basketball and Soccer.
There are three organizations on the Harrisburg Campus: Student Government Association, or SGA, The Fourth Estate, and the Students of Wildwood Activities Team, or more commonly, SWAT.
There are a number of clubs on the Harrisburg campus, including several honors fraternities, major-related clubs, multicultural clubs such as: International Awareness Club, HACC Allies, Mosaico, and clubs for fun, such as the Japanese Animation Culture Club (HACC JACC), Live Action Role Players of HACC (LARP), and the Computers and Networking Technology Club.
The Lancaster Campus has: Environmental Science Club, and a Soccer Club that plays in a tournament .
Name
In 2005, Harrisburg Area Community College adopted the slogan: Central Pennsylvania's Community College. While Harrisburg Area Community College remains the college's full legal name, the college registered the legal alias HACC, Central Pennsylvania's Community College in 2007 and began using that name almost exclusively.
Notable alumni
- Daniel C. Miller, Harrisburg City Controller
- Joy Ufema, first Thanatology Nurse in U.S.
References
External links
- Official website
- McCormick Library and HACC Library System website
- Yahoo! Education profile: Harrisburg Area Community College
