Foothill College
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Foothill College is a
public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
community college A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...
in Los Altos Hills, California. It is part of the Foothill–De Anza Community College District. It was founded on January 15, 1957, and offers 84
Associate degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree ...
programs, 2
Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
programs, and 124 certificate programs.


History

In July 1956, Palo Alto Unified School District Superintendent Henry M. Gunn called a meeting of local school superintendents that led to the creation of Foothill College. Calvin Flint, then President of Monterey Peninsula College, was hired as the first District Superintendent and President; he started work on March 1, 1958.Couch, 10. Candidates for the new college's name, besides Foothill, were Peninsula, Junipero Serra, Mid-Peninsula, Earl Warren, Herbert Hoover, North Santa Clara, Altos, Valley, Skyline, Highland, and Intercity.Couch, 11. At first the name was Foothill Junior College, but because Flint insisted that his new college would be "not junior to anyone", the Board dropped the "Junior" in September 1958. Foothill held its first classes in the old Highway School campus on El Camino Real in Mountain View on September 15, 1958. It was accredited by March of the next year and was the first school in the state to ever reach full accreditation in less than six months. The owl mascot originated from a concrete owl that was a decoration on the Highway School's bell tower; it was later moved to the new campus. The campus was designed by architect Ernest Kump and landscape architects Hideo Sasaki and Peter Walker, to resemble a neo-Japanese garden. The Foothill College was intended as a junior college for 3,500 full-time students, within the 122-acre campus, the first of many junior colleges built after World War II in California. Soon after its completion, Foothill was widely recognized as a pioneer, setting high standards for new campus design. Traditionally, Foothill serves the communities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, Mountain View, and
Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
; together these communities form the northwest corner of
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
. The college sits next to Interstate 280, at the interchange with El Monte Road. In 1993, Foothill and its sister school De Anza College became the first California Community Colleges to offer Domestic Partner benefits. The colleges were among a very small number of institutions of higher education to do so, with Pitzer College and the University of Iowa in 1991 and Stanford and the University of Chicago in 1992. On December 10, 2001, Foothill College abruptly canceled its men's basketball season after completing just six games. Questions arose over how housing and tuition for six international players were being paid by Tariq Abdul-Wahad, then with the NBA's
Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (NBA), Northwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA), W ...
and alumnus of
San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the List of oldest schools in California, oldest public university on the West Coast of ...
. In 2002, a second campus was opened on the site of the former Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, in facilities leased from the Palo Alto School District. In September 2016, this was replaced by the Sunnyvale Center, which the college built on part of the site of the now closed Onizuka Air Force Station, preserving artefacts from the "Blue Cube" and embedding shards of its skin in walkways. The new center can accommodate more than 1,600 students. The campus serves a very large number of international students who are attempting to acquire associate degrees as the basis for transferring into prestigious American universities; according to a ''Community College Week'' survey in 2001, Foothill had the 12th highest population of international students out of all community colleges in the United States. The school was harshly criticized in 2002 by ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...
'' for its aggressive recruitment of such students, since they are a lucrative revenue source who pay a much higher tuition. In 2003, to accommodate nearly 14,000 students on a campus designed for 3,500, the college began renovating almost the entire campus, including demolition and replacement of unsafe buildings. Two of the new buildings in the lower campus complex have
green roof A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...
s topped with grass.


Foothill Electronics Museum

Between 1973 and 1991, an electronics museum stood on the Foothill College campus. The museum was established with the help of the Douglas Perham Electronic Foundation, which wanted a permanent home for its extensive electronics collection, including papers of the inventor of the
vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...
amplifier,
Lee de Forest #REDIRECT Lee de Forest {{redirect category shell, {{R from move{{R from other capitalisation ...
. The foundation raised money to construct a museum building on the Foothill campus and donated its collection to the college. The museum opened in 1973, and was initially operated by employees of Foothill College for six years until 1979, just after the passage of
Proposition 13 Proposition 13 (officially named the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) is an amendment of the Constitution of California enacted during 1978, by means of the initiative process, to cap property taxes and limit property reassessmen ...
rolled back property taxes and reduced funds to run the college. In response to the funding shortage, volunteers began staffing the museum. However, in 1988, the college board of trustees decided to close the museum, sell or donate the assets, and use the space for classrooms. A newly appointed Perham board member, Bart Lee, took on the case and sued Foothill, claiming the college violated an agreement with the Perham Foundation. The foundation was eventually awarded $775,000, which they used to document, pack up, and place the collection in storage before a 1991 deadline. The collection stayed in storage for twelve years, before being acquired in 2003 by History San José and put on display as The Perham Collection of Early Electronics.


Presidents

* Calvin C. Flint (1957–1973) * Hubert H. Semans (1967–1973) * James S. Fitzgerald (1973–1982) * Thomas H. Clements (1982–1994) * Bernadine Chuck Fong (1994–2006) * Penny Patz (interim) (2006–2007) * Judy Miner (2007–2015) * Kimberlee Messina (interim) (2015–2016) * Thuy Thi Nguyen (2016–2021) * Bernadine Chuck Fong (interim) (2021–2023) * Kristina Whalen (2023-)


Accreditation

Foothill College is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. Specific programs at the college are also accredited by the American Veterinary Medical Association, American Dental Association Commission on Dental Accreditation, American Medical Association Council on Medical Education, and Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs.


Organization

The community college district's headquarters are located in one corner of the Foothill campus. The district also administers De Anza College in nearby Cupertino. The college has several divisions: * Business & Social Sciences * Counseling & Student Services * Fine Arts & Communication * Instructional Services & Libraries * Language Arts * Kinesiology & Athletics * Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics


Athletics

Foothill is a member of the Coast Conference of the California Community College Commission on Athletics and NorCal Football Conference. The school mascot is an owl. The Los Altos Hills campus has a track and field that is open to the public.


Intercollegiate teams

* Football * Men's and women's basketball * Men's and women's soccer * Men's and women's swimming * Men's and women's tennis


Student government

Foothill's student government is the Associated Students of Foothill College (ASFC). Student government provides its student body the opportunity to self-govern and participate with faculty, staff, and administration.


Accomplishments

Five Foothill professors have won the Hayward Award of the Academic Senate of the California Community Colleges, given each year to a faculty member who has a "track record of excellence in both teaching and professional activities". Foothill's winners include Jay Manley, Mike McHargue, Elizabeth Barkley,
Andrew Fraknoi Andrew Fraknoi (born 1948) is a retired professor of astronomy recognized for his lifetime of work using everyday language to make astronomy more accessible and popular for both students and the general public. In 2017 Fraknoi retired from his po ...
, and Scott Lankford. In addition, Frank Cascarano and David Marasco are Fellows of the American Association of Physics Teachers. Foothill College's Physics Show, started in 2007 by physics professors Frank Cascarano and David Marasco on the model of ''The Wonders of Physics'' at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is one of the largest popular physics presentations in the US, with an annual audience of more than 25,000, with a total attendance of over 200,000. Proceeds from The Physics Show are used to bus students from local Title 1 schools to Foothill for special performances of the show.


Notable alumni

*
Adrienne Barbeau Adrienne Jo Barbeau (born June 11, 1945) is an American actress and author. She came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical ''Grease (musical), Grease'', and as Carol Traynor, the divorced daughter of Maude Findl ...
, actress in the TV series '' Maude'', and former wife of the film director
John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror film, horror, action film, action, and science fiction film, science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is ...
* Rudy Arroyo, Major League Baseball player * Rick Bladt, Major League Baseball player * Gene Block, chancellor of the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
* Paul Bravo, professional soccer player, coach and executive * Chrisann Brennan, American artist and author of '' The Bite in the Apple'', mother of
Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology company Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder o ...
first child,
Lisa Brennan-Jobs Lisa Nicole Brennan-Jobs ( Brennan; born May 17, 1978) is an American writer. She is the daughter of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan. Jobs initially denied paternity for several years, which led to a legal case and various ...
, the author of ''Small Fry''. * Mike Brewer, Major League Baseball player * Tony Brewer, Major League Baseball player * Kirill Dmitriev, Russian investment banker * Dan Duran, Major League Baseball player * Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields *
Brad Gilbert Brad Gilbert (born August 9, 1961) is an American former professional tennis player, tennis coach, and tennis commentator and analyst for ESPN. During his career, he won 20 singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 ...
, All American tennis player at Foothill, former pro player ranked as high as #4, and coach to
Andre Agassi Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 101 ...
* Kevin Gutierrez, Dual Athlete (Football and Soccer), Soccer Ambassador * Tim Hanley, professional soccer player, and MLS assistant coach * Jon Nakamatsu, Japanese-American pianist * Juice Newton, musician * Stu Pederson, Major League Baseball player * Chris Robinson, hip-hop/pop music video director * Steve Sampson, All American soccer player, coach of the USMNT at the
1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...
, and
MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanctioned by the United ...
champion coach. *
Wayne Wang Wayne Wang (; born January 12, 1949) is a Hong Kong-American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Considered a pioneer of Asian-American cinema, he was one of the first Chinese-American filmmakers to gain a major foothold in Hollyw ...
, Hong Kong-born American film director.


See also

*
California Community Colleges system The California Community Colleges is a postsecondary education University system, system in the U.S. state of California.California Education CodSection 70900(added to the Education Code by Chapter 973 of the California Statutes of 1988Assembly ...
* KFJC


References


External links


Official website
{{authority control California Community Colleges Universities and colleges established in 1957 Universities and colleges in Santa Clara County, California Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Two-year colleges in the United States 1957 establishments in California