By Lindsay Overmyer
CCC Journalism Program
BLACKWOOD – Camden County College is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
A music and dance group performs at Camden County College this winter. By Lindsay Overmyer, CCC Journalism Program
The college opened on Sept. 25, 1967. Efforts to found it began only six months prior. Otto R. Mauke was the first president.
Since it opened, CCC has undergone numerous waves of renovation, including some recent ones. Austin Greathouse, a student from 2013 to 2015, recalled, “They started building the new bursar’s office while I was attending. That was the biggest change for me.” That was part of the renovation of Taft Hall as a student services center.
The most significant change that Professor Keith O’Shaughnessy can note over his 10 years of teaching at CCC is “the decrease in enrollment in the time that I’ve been here.” He added he doesn’t see it to be the fault of the college and, much to his appreciation, “now our answer to that is our new relationship with Rutgers-Camden. More people will want to come here now, because it’s so easy to transfer.”
“I went because it was cheap and it was the best place to get what I was looking for,” said Stacie McCormick, reflecting on her attendance from 2007 to 2009. Her husband and fellow alumnus, Jim McCormick, agreed. He attended in 2000 and 2001.
Zakk Kite-Dean, a student who enrolled in fall 2016, gave the college positive reviews but said there is always room for improvement. “(The college needs) a more diverse library … A lot of the time I go in there and I want a book and it’s not in the catalog. They need more books.” Also, Kite-Dean, a member of CCC’s ensemble, wished “there was more practice space.”
Beginning on April 26, CCC will celebrate its 50th anniversary with the 50th Annual Student Show, a mixed media art show. The opening reception will be from 5 to 7 p.m. April 26. The show will run from April 26 to May 19.
“It will be essentially a campus-wide arts festival, in commemoration of the anniversary and in celebration of our arts culture,” O’Shaughnessy said. He added it will include performances by student musicians, exhibitions of student artwork and “an elaborate spread of refreshments.”
“MAD LIT Live” will take place sometime after, O’Shaughnessy said. “(It will be) the exhibition and performance of student art inspired by the MAD LIT Review … The goal is to have a student writer performing in conjunction with a student artist.”
