Delta College (Michigan)


Delta College is a community college located in Bay County's Frankenlust Township, 5.5 miles southwest of Bay City, Michigan. Delta College's district had its beginning in 1955 with Saginaw, Midland, and Bay counties making up the district. In 1957, the voters of the tri-counties approved the construction of the college, and it opened for classes in 1961. Delta College replaced Bay City Junior College, established in 1922, because the junior college could no longer support the growing enrollment. With Saginaw Valley College established in 1964, later renamed Saginaw Valley State College in 1975, and finally named Saginaw Valley State University. In 1987, both Delta College and Saginaw Valley State University form University Center, Michigan.

History

In 1967, the college opened two residence halls on the campus. Occupancy of the dorms peaked in 1980 at 178 students.
85 students were in the residence halls in 1990. The following year, one of the halls was closed with the second dorm closing in 1993.

Governance

Delta Community College is a community college with its district consisting of Saginaw, Midland and Bay counties. The Board of Trustees is made up of nine trustees, three from each county.

Learning centers

Delta College has learning centers in each of its three neighboring counties: Delta College Planetarium and Learning Center in Bay City; Delta College Midland Center in Midland; and Saginaw Center in Downtown Saginaw. The former Ricker Center in Saginaw was closed following the opening of the Downtown location.

Athletics

Delta College offers six varsity sports competing in the NJCAA, and is in the MCCAA's conference. The Pioneers compete in men's basketball and women's basketball, baseball, softball, women's soccer and men's golf. Delta has won three national championships, in men's basketball in 1989, softball in 1999 and baseball in 2017. The women's soccer team and baseball teams were added as varsity sports during the 2011-2012 academic year. Try outs for their state recognized team will begin the first weekend of July in 2017.

Media

The college owns and operates WDCQ-TV, the region's PBS station; and WUCX-FM, the NPR affiliate, owned by Central Michigan University and co-operated by Delta College and CMU. Collectively, these stations are known as Delta College Quality Public Broadcasting and they serve an audience of 1.2 million people in mid-Michigan.
The college's student-run newspaper is the Delta Collegiate and has been published since the college opened in 1961. The newspaper prints a new issue every two weeks during the fall and winter semester. The Library Learning Information Center now has an online archive of the first 50 years of the Delta Collegiate.