Galveston College

Galveston Community College, a two-year junior college on Galveston Island, was established in 1966. David Glenn Hunt was its first president. In 1935 the Galveston Independent School District formed the Galveston Community College District. A separate maintenance-tax proposal, however, was defeated. A similar attempt to win approval also failed in 1958. In 1965 voters of Galveston County approved the Union College District, which included Galveston Island, but they voted against a maintenance tax and construction funds for two campuses. In 1966 supporters of the junior college movement on the island reactivated the 1935 district, secured the appointment of a board of regents, won approval of a maintenance tax, and purchased an abandoned orphanage to use for classrooms and administrative offices. The college opened in September 1967 with an enrollment of 730.

Galveston Community College offers the first two years of standard college work leading to an associate in arts degree and specializes in a number of vocational and technical courses. In 1986 it had a library of 38,482 volumes and maintained two campuses on the island. The college is a member of the American Association of Junior Colleges, the Texas Association of Public Junior Colleges, and the Texas Association of Junior Colleges. In the spring of 1986 the enrollment was 1,749. For the 1992–93 regular session the school had 2,322 students, plus another 1,800 in extension classes or continuing education. The faculty numbered 276, including a large number of part-time instructors.