The notion of applied history is used to complicate present-minded conceptions of higher education by examining both the continuities and changes in colleges and universities. The collection of essays aims to leave the reader with two habits: (1) the active use of the methods and strategies of historical research in approaching professional…

An overview is provided of the 40-year history of Diablo Valley College (DVC), examining the educational ideals of the founders of the college and the changes in the goals of community college education in Central Contra Costa County, California. Part 1 sets the historical scene for the establishment of public two-year colleges nationally, in…

The founding and development of private, primarily church-related, black colleges in Texas from 1865-1954 are reviewed, with focus primarily on 11 institutions that offered college-level work. Comparisons are made to public black colleges of Texas as well as to other black U.S. colleges and universities. Topical areas include: institutional…

An account of the upheavals that have taken place at Fresno State College since the mid-60s are discussed by a professor who witnessed the course of events. Troubled with the same tensions and polarities of other campuses across the country due to such factors as the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam war, Fresno State fell victim to its…

The administrators and faculties of higher educational institutions are frequently so engaged in the problems of individual institutions that they do not find time nor occasion to take stock at periodic intervals of the activities and general progress of the universities and colleges of the United States. The author was tasked to prepare this…