City: Chicago, IL

Category: Education

Telephone: (312) 255-1244

Description: The City Colleges of Chicago were founded a century ago on the tenets of providing higher education for the city’s working class and immigrant population. The first was originally called the “people’s college” and opened in 1911 as an abbreviated baccalaureate program, which grew tremendously, fought off funding woes for a while, then was closed in 1933 as a cost-cutting measure during the Depression. But the outcry from students and labor movement activists (including well-known lawyer and civil libertarian Clarence Darrow) proved loud enough to bring back the college—and two more too. In 1956, Chicago pioneered college instruction via television, broadening the City Colleges teaching reach even further. By 1962, the current number of seven colleges had opened, and later the curriculum was expanded to put a greater focus on vocational education. By the late 1980s, the City College community was more diverse than ever, with students representing 50 countries and more than half of them women. They now offer transfer programs that prepare students for a 4-year college or university; programs of study ranging from architecture to agriculture, hospitality to manufacturing; as well as continuing education, adult education, child development, and more. Visit the website to find out more specifics about each of the seven colleges.