Tarrant County College’s Hurst campus is marking 50 years of serving the community. The TCC Northeast 50th anniversary celebration is set for Wednesday, April 10. Students, faculty, staff, alumni and members of the public are invited to attend.
The event begins in the campus’s Larry J. Darlage Center Corner (828 W. Harwood Rd., NSTU Student Center, 1615A) from 6 to 7 p.m. and then continues in the outdoor campus quad from 7 to 8 p.m. The celebration will include refreshments, an alumni reception, a festival of memories, recognition of retiring TCC Board of Trustees President Louise Appleman and the official kickoff of a time capsule project.
Time capsule organizers are collecting small mementos from all 50 years of Northeast operations to create a full commemoration of the campus. Students, alumni, employees and community members can submit items for consideration until May 15. More details are available at the event.
“The celebration is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on a half century of exceptional higher education, significant community partnerships and transformative economic development in northeast Tarrant County,” said Tahita Fulkerson, Ph.D., interim president of TCC Northeast. “TCC plays a vital role in helping the center of the Metroplex grow and thrive, and we at TCC Northeast are proud of our collaborations with many community partners.”
The Tarrant County Junior College District (now the Tarrant County College District) formed in 1965 through a vote by Tarrant County residents. TCC Northeast is the College’s second campus. It was set to open in fall 1968, but a strike by the Iron Workers Union and bad weather caused a delay. The first group of TCC Northeast students began classes at TCC South in Fort Worth and moved to the new campus at the border of Hurst and North Richland Hills in spring 1969. (For more TCC history, check out tccd.edu/50th.)
Today, TCC Northeast annually welcomes more than 12,000 students studying such varied subjects as child development, dental hygiene, information technology, teacher education, visual and performing arts and world languages. The campus hosts community programs for seniors and special needs adults as well as College for Kids. The campus is also home to the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD Collegiate Academy, which allows students to earn up to an associate degree by high school graduation at no cost to them. TCC Northeast’s new president, Kenya Ayers, Ed.D., will assume her position this summer. For more information on the campus, visit tccd.edu/locations/northeast-campus.