Coastal Bend College

Coastal Bend College, a two-year state college at Beeville, Texas, was originally known as Bee County College. It began when the Bee County Junior College District was established in November 1965. In December of that year voters approved a tax to support the college and the issuance of bonds to erect buildings. The board of trustees and President Grady C. Hogue began the college program in September 1967, with an enrollment of 790 students taught by twenty-four full-time and eleven part-time instructors. The campus, donated by the A. C. Jones family, is about a mile north of Beeville. The library holdings totaled 13,500 volumes in 1969. The school provided the first two years of college degree programs; it offered technical courses leading to associate's degrees in electronic data processing, drafting and design, electronics, and mid-management in business; it also provided vocational courses leading to certificates in automotive mechanics, business and accounting, general business, data processing, secretarial work, clerk-typist tasks, and nursing. The college was approved by the Texas Education Agency and the Texas College and University System Coordinating Board (later the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board). It is a member of the American Association of Junior Colleges and the Texas Association of Public Community/Junior Colleges, as well as numerous other professional and academic organizations. In 1974 the enrollment was 1,670. That year Norman E. Wallace became the school's second president. The institution had thirteen divisions: Distribution and Marketing, Health Services, Industrial, Kinesiology and Health Sciences, Language, Mathematics and Physics, Office Occupations, Performing Arts, Public Services, Science and Agriculture, Social Sciences, Technology, and Visual Arts. A faculty of ninety-five served an enrollment of 2,338 in 1991. Investment and physical-plant resources totaled $17,196,650 in 1991. Off-campus programs were offered in Alice and Kingsville. Bee County College offered A.A., A.S., and A.A.S. degrees, as well as certificates of achievement in various technological and vocational fields. The college changed its name in 1999. Enrollment was 3,241 in the spring of 2001. The faculty numbered 184. John Brockman was president.