Community Colleges: Building Pathways to the Future

The American postsecondary education system has seen many transformations, but none so democratic and revolutionary as the founding of the first community college in Joliet, Illinois in 1901. Then-president of the University of Chicago William Harper Rainey, and several other influential university presidents, were convinced that for America to grow and prosper, an accessible pathway was needed to open postsecondary education to all. As a result, community colleges were born.