Delta 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 sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior se ...

University Center, Michigan University Center is an unincorporated community in Frankenlust Township, Bay County in the U.S. state of Michigan, and the name of the post office with the ZIP code of 48710. The locale is named for the institutions of higher education served b ...

History

Delta College's district had its beginning in 1955 with

Saginaw Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...

, Midland, and Bay counties making up the district. In 1957, the voters of the tri-counties approved the construction of the college, and it opened for classes in 1961. Delta College replaced Bay City Junior College, established in 1922, because the junior college could no longer support the growing enrollment. With Saginaw Valley College established in 1964, later renamed Saginaw Valley State College in 1975, and finally named

Saginaw Valley State University Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) is a public university in University Center, Michigan in Saginaw County. It was founded in 1963 as Saginaw Valley College. It is located on in Saginaw County's Kochville Township, approximately north of ...

. In 1987, both Delta College and

form

. In 1967, the college opened two residence halls on the campus. Occupancy of the dorms peaked in 1980 at 178 students. 85 students were in the residence halls in 1990. The following year, one of the halls was closed with the second dorm closing in 1993.

Governance

Delta College is a community college with its district consisting of Saginaw, Midland and Bay counties. The board of trustees is made up of nine trustees, three from each county.

Downtown Centers

Delta College has remote campuses in each of its three neighboring counties: Delta College Planetarium in downtown Bay City; Delta College Midland Center in downtown Midland; and Delta College Saginaw Center in downtown Saginaw. The former Ricker Center in Saginaw was closed following the opening of the Downtown location.

Athletics

Delta College offers six varsity sports competing in the

NJCAA The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), founded in 1938, is the governing association of community college, state college and junior college athletics throughout the United States. Currently the NJCAA holds 24 separate regions ...

, and is in the

MCCAA The Michigan Community College Athletic Association (MCCAA) is a junior college conference throughout Michigan and northern Indiana in Region 12 of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). The men's sports organized by the MCCAA ...

's conference. The Pioneers compete in men's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and women's basketball, baseball,

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

, women's soccer and men's golf. Delta has won two national championships, in men's basketball in 1989 and softball in 1999. The women's soccer team and baseball teams were added as varsity sports during the 2011–2012 academic year.

Media

The college owns and operates

WDCQ-TV WDCQ-TV, virtual channel 19 (UHF digital channel 15), branded on-air as Delta College Public Media, is a Public Broadcasting Service ( PBS) member television station licensed to Bad Axe, Michigan, United States and serving the Flint/Tri-Cities t ...

, the region's

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

station; and

WUCX-FM WUCX-FM, 90.1 FM in Bay City, Michigan, is a public radio station licensed to Central Michigan University and operated jointly with Delta College. It airs programming (both local and syndicated) separate from WCMU-FM between 5 a.m. and 3 p.m. on ...

, the

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

affiliate, owned by Central Michigan University (CMU) and co-operated by Delta College and CMU. Collectively, these stations are known as Delta College Public Media and they serve an audience of 1.2 million people in mid-Michigan. The college's student-run newspaper is the Delta Collegiate and has been published since the college opened in 1961. The newspaper prints a new issue every two weeks during the fall and winter semester. The Library Learning Information Center (LLIC) now has an online archive of the first 50 years of the Delta Collegiate.

References

External links

* {{authority control Community colleges in Michigan Michigan Community College Athletic Association Education in Bay County, Michigan Educational institutions established in 1961 Education in Saginaw County, Michigan Education in Midland County, Michigan 1961 establishments in Michigan Saginaw Intermediate School District NJCAA athletics