College of the Redwoods

College of the Redwoods should not be confused with the similarly named College of the Sequoias in the San Joaquin Valley city of Visalia, California.

College of the Redwoods
College of the Redwoods Cloudscape After Rain
Established	1964
Type	Public
President	Jeff Marsee
Academic staff	110 full-time; 375 part-time
Students	6,774 (Total Spring Semester 2009 enrollment)
Location	Eureka, California, USA
Campus	Rural; Three main educational sites, two off-campus sites which include 449,948 square feet (41,802 m2) of buildings sitting on 334 acres (1.4 km2).
Website	http://www.redwoods.edu/

College of the Redwoods (CR) is a public two-year community college whose main campus, comprising 270 acres (1.1 km²), is located on the southernmost edge of Eureka in Humboldt County, California. This sprawling site is spacious and distinctive in its modernistic use of massive, exposed wooden support beams in each structure. Situated on a naturally occurring shelf on the southwest side of Humboldt Hill, it has a commanding view of ranch land, Humboldt Bay Wildlife Refuge, and the southern portion of Humboldt Bay. Many students are drawn to its natural setting, nestled into a coastal forest. Current enrollment in the Spring of 2009 is 6,774 students (at all sites in the extensive district). This large Community College district provides education opportunities for students in four counties and has two large satellite campuses as well as smaller sites.

Curriculum specialties

The college offers a variety of transfer, vocational, and community-based classes, including its Fine Woodworking Program started by master woodworker James Krenov, a Police Academy, Nursing and Dental Programs, Truck Driving School, ever-evolving Computer Information Sciences, Computer-Aided Drafting, and Digital Media Departments, and the new, (added in 2006), Hospitality, Restaurant and Culinary Arts Program. The college is named after the Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trees native to the region.

Satellite campuses

CR has two satellite campuses: CR Del Norte in Crescent City, Del Norte County; and CR Mendocino Coast in Fort Bragg, Mendocino County. CR also has other off-campus sites, including the Arcata Instructional Site, the Eureka Downtown Instructional Site, the Bianchi Farm and the Klamath-Trinity Instructional Site on the Hoopa Valley Tribe reservation.

History

The original Redwoods Community College District was formed in 1964 by a vote of the people of Humboldt County. In 1975, residents of the coastal portion of Mendocino County voted to join the District, and in 1978 Del Norte County similarly joined. The college serves these areas, as well as a portion of Trinity County.

Finances

Beginning with the passage of Proposition 13 by California in 1978, College of the Redwoods and most public institutions in the state have suffered declining revenue, and this has continued following the Dot-Com Bust. All of this occurs while simultaneously suffering increasing costs due to inflation, population growth, and increasingly unfunded state and federal mandates. In 2006, Humboldt County voters passed Measure Q to supply $40,000,000 funding to upgrade and renovate facilities at the main campus.

Sunset photo taken from College Dorms.

Alumni

• John James Nazarian (born 1952), celebrity private investigator

Points of interest

• Humboldt Botanical Garden
• University of Redwood

External links

• Official web site.
• CR WebAdvisor.
• MyCR.
• AskCR.
• CR's Academic Disciplines Listings.
• CR's Law Enforcement & Police Academy.
• CR's Fine Woodworking Program.