COCC’s Bend campus turns 50 with big party

Central Oregon Community College is marking the 50 th anniversary of its Bend campus on Awbrey Butte.

A naming ceremony for the Campus Center took place Thursday afternoon in honor of R.L. and Joyce Coats, who donated 140 acres for the college campus in 1962.

In 1949, COCC started at the old Bend High School. COCC’s spokesman Ron Paradis says the campus has been a pillar of the community ever since then.

“When we opened in 1949, there were no such thing such as community colleges in Oregon –, we were the first,” Paradis said. “You know, in the ’60s, moving up here, just expanding.”

Today COCC also has expanded to locations in Redmond, Madras and Prineville.

COCC President Shirley Metcalf says she’s proud the school serves to help workforce development.

“We serve part-time students,” she said. “We tend to serve students who are the first of their family to go to a college, minorities as well as more females.”.

The theme of the 50 th Anniversary celebration was the “Past, Present and Future.” The past was represented at the Barber Library with historic photographs and a time capsule , the present at the college’s Health Careers Center — and future at the Science Center.