Howard Community College (HCC or Howard CC) is a public community college in Columbia, Maryland. It offers classes for credit in more than 100 programs, non-credit classes, and workforce development programs. In addition to the main campus in Columbia, courses are also held at two satellite campuses. History In 1966, Howard Community College was founded by the Board of Education in Howard County and formally authorized by the Howard County Commissioners Charles E. Miller, J. Hubert Black, and David W. Force. The board recommended that the college would operate under a separate budget than the school system. The first HCC board would be drawn from the current state appointed county school board. HCC was approved as the State of Maryland's 14th community college in late 1967. The school was built on a prehistoric Native American settlement which became the site of the Dieker farm, which was later inherited by Gustave Basler's (1858-1938) wife Dora Dieker. Alfred Christian Bassler sold his share of his father's 400 acre Cedar Lane farm to Community Research and Development to be the site of the project; the sale included a trade of land in Clarksville off of Shepherd Lane. His family home, barn, granaries and silos were demolished in 1969. A groundbreaking ceremony in June 1969 began construction on in the heart of the planned community of Columbia that, at the time, was just beginning to take shape. In October 1970, the first classes took place in a new structure called the Learning Resources Center, now the James Clark Jr. Library Building, with 10 full-time faculty and just over 600 full-time students attending classes in HCC's nine credit programs. HCCs first president was Dr. Alfred J. Smith Jr, former dean of faculty at Corning Community College, hired in June 1969. In 1973, he signed a five-year contract to remain as president. In 1976, Smith faced scrutiny for accounting expense allowances from the County which funded 35% of operational costs. Dwight Burrill took the role of dean in 1981, serving for seventeen years. In 1980, the Columbia Film Society moves to the HCC performing arts center for weekend movies. Dr. Mary Ellen Duncan became president of the college in 1998, followed by Dr. Kathleen Hetherington in 2007. In 2019 HCC won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the category of education. That same year, the original ST and Nursing buildings were remodeled and renamed Academic