College of the Redwoods


College of the Redwoods is a public two-year community college with its main campus in Eureka, California. It is part of the Redwoods Community College District that serves four counties and has two branch campuses, as well as three additional sites. On-campus housing is available at the main campus.

Curriculum specialties

College of the Redwoods is one of 114 colleges in the California Community College system. 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, Computer Information Sciences, Computer-Aided Drafting, and Digital Media Departments, Yurok language and the Hospitality, Restaurant and Culinary Arts Program. The college is named after the Coast Redwood trees native to the region.

Satellite campuses

CR has a satellite branch campuses, CR Del Norte in Crescent City, Del Norte County. Another former satellite campus CR Mendocino Coast in Fort Bragg, Mendocino County, was transferred to Mendocino College and renamed as the Mendocino College Coast Center in 2017. CR also has other off-campus sites, including the Bianchi Farm in Shively, the Klamath-Trinity Instructional Site on the Hoopa Valley Tribe reservation, and the Southern Humboldt Instructional Site in Garberville in Southern Humboldt County. The Arcata Instructional Site, the McKinleyville Instructional Site, and the Eureka Downtown Instructional Site were closed in the summer of 2012, though Community Education re-located to a new Eureka downtown site.

History

The original Redwoods Community College District was formed in 1964 by a vote of the people of Humboldt County. Founding President Eugene J. Portugal and his wife Dottie Portugal shaped the look of the campus. 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.
In 2012, CR's regional accreditor Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges placed the college on "Show Cause" status, warning the college that its accreditation might be withdrawn. Two years later removed the college from probation and reaffirmed its accreditation.

Administration

The college is part of the Redwoods Community College District, itself part of the California Community Colleges System. The district is governed by the elected seven-member Board of Trustees.

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, voters passed Bond Measure Q/B to allow issuance of $40,320,000 in bond funding to upgrade and renovate facilities at the main campus in Eureka and the branch campuses in Crescent City and Fort Bragg. Measure Q Bond Funds were also used to acquire the Garberville Site in Southern Humboldt County.

Notable alumni