OCC Reaches Middle Age in Fine Style

Orange Coast College students said the institution’s birthday party Tuesday was “totally awesome.”

And who could disagree?

The birthday cake weighed 850 pounds.

Skydivers, dressed in pirate garb to match the team nickname of OCC, parachuted into the campus quad in Costa Mesa.

Music blared, cheerleaders yelled and more than 5,000 of the community college’s 25,500 students jammed the quad for a noontime bash.

“This is a very colorful celebration,” Chancellor Alfred Fernandez said in somewhat of an understatement.

The birthday fete was the culmination of a yearlong celebration of Orange Coast College’s 40th anniversary. Classes opened for the first time at the college Sept. 13, 1948.

“This very special day marks the beginning of our fifth decade,” said Dean of Students Sharon Donoff in a short speech. “Orange Coast College has grown from a sleepy junior college of just 500 students to one of the largest and most dynamic community colleges in the nation.”

OCC, in fact, grew to become the largest single-campus community college in California. But after zooming to 35,000 students in the mid-1970s, the college’s enrollment began to decline. That pattern, however, ended four years ago.

“The college is certainly growing again,” Fernandez said. And college public information officer Jim Carnett said, “It’s the fourth straight year of increased enrollment.”

As the outdoor birthday celebration continued, students cheered as the pirate-garbed skydivers landed in the quad.

“We were in the neighborhood, so we just dropped in,” quipped one of the skydivers, Jeff Jones of Perris Valley, a 1975 graduate of the college.

“I was a liberal arts major here,” Jones said. “It’s a great college.”

A few feet away, a new student, Maureen Connolly, 24, of Newport Beach also praised the community college as she stood in line for a birthday barbecue being served to the students.

“This is a wonderful place,” she said. Looking over the big, happy crowd, she said: “It’s so friendly. I just love it.”