Jefferson College - Vikon Yearbook (Hillsboro, MO)

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F Fx filiifrl Q , lb, ' Q A is LL - , '., V ,W ',,- is , 2 A uyjf k , ,,,, K X 5 g is 5 ' ' z get XT A ., , - .1 f , . 7 .Kiwi f , y Rfk . 35,31- 5 V ,k'f Un' - 'K .V Lf' i . ' K i ,. ' 1 f-h, V J Aki! . The first sign. Where the College will be. 5 On behalf of the students of' Jefferson College, the yearbook staff wishes to thank those responsible for giving us the opportunity to continue our education. It is with this wish that we present the following history of the College. The idea ofthe junior college comes from the German practice, infiuencial at the turn of the last century, of admitting students to the university at the end of their fourteenth rather than their twelfth year of education. The first public junior college in the United States was established in Joliet, Illinois in 1902. Although fifteen years later there were approximately six hundred students enrolled in nineteen American public iunior colleges, today the movement has grown to over one million students attending some seven hundred public iunior colleges, Today, a new public iunior college is opened or financed every two weeks in the United States.

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,W - IV. ily. ,V Man with many jobs. Conferring with the Board of Trustees, guiding the unfolding of the College, travel- ling to national conferences, and speaking, reading, and writing, Dr, McClain maintains a full and end- less schedule, yet he always gladly makes time for you if you want to come in and talk. DEDICA TION The 1965 Vikon is dedicated to DR. CHARLES J. McCLAlN, president of Jetlferson College, for the unusually distinctive and farsighted contribution which he has made in the for- mation and organization of Jefferson County's Hrst com- munity college. Dr. McClain completed work for his doctorate at the Uni- versity of Missouri in 1961, writing his dissertation on the iunior college, Last year he was elected vice president of the University Colleges and Junior Colleges Division of the Missouri State Teachers Asocia- tion, to become president this year. He serves on the Board of Governors of the Missouri Congress of Parents and Teachers and was past presi- dent of the Missouri Chapter of the Phi Delta Kappa Frater- nity. Dr. McClain is a man in- formed in a wide range of sub- jects, intense in his pursuit of quality education, interested in every person and facet of his college, and inspired in his ability to make quick and cor- rect decisions. Dr. McClain is married to Norma Gregory McClain and is the father of two daughters, Anita, age 13, and Melanie, age 10.

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However, the story of Jefferson County Junior College really begins with the Senate Bill Number Seven presented in the Missouri State Senate by Senator Earl R. Blackwell in the spring of 1961. This bill became the Junior College Act CSections 165.790-165.840 of the Revised Statutes of Missouril by signature of the Governor on July 25, 1961. The Junior College Act of 1961 made possible the formation and financing of public iunior colleges in Missouri. It provided: Cai that a iunior college could be financed through revenues from local taxes, state appropriations, and student fees, as directed by the State Board of Education, fbi that an appropriation of 513200 of state funds would be given to any such iunior college for every thirty semester hours of credit completed by a Missouri student in the college, and ici that the formation of such a college could be initiated by any district by presentation of an ' application to the State Board of Education signed by five percent of the number of district citizens voting in the previous school election, requesting that the Board call a district election to see whether a maiority of its citizens wished to establish a junior college district. A number of Jefferson County leaders were concerned that only twenty-three percent of the 1961 high school graduates of the county entered college, and they also knew that college graduates consistently are able to make better earnings than high school graduates iS177,685.00 more in a lifetime, on the average, according to 1958 United States Bureau of Census f1gures.1 So it was that on January 24, 1962, Mr. Francis V. Breeze, president of the Twin City Chamber of Commerce, called an open meeting of the people of Jefferson County in the Crystal City High School auditorium. At this meeting the people decided definitely to petition for a local public junior college. Clyde S. Hamrick, Superintendent of Schools of Senator Earl R. Blackwell A plan is offered. The Junior College Act The path is opened.