ABSTRACT
In general, published histories of public two-year colleges suggest that their development proceeded from the universities, especially the research universities in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. Leaders at the research universities wanted to create an institution which would be able to handle the press of students starting to graduate from the rapidly developing secondary schools. While some authors disagree sharply on the consequences of that impetus, they acknowledge its beginning (Brint & Karabel, 1989; Cohen & Brawer, 1996). In contrast, the church-affiliated junior college often began from the roots of either a denominationally sponsored secondary school or as a somewhat indistinct postsecondary institution. For example, Northwestern College (Iowa) began as an academy for the Reformed Churches, and it became a four-year institution in 1961 after years of offering a twoyear program emphasizing teacher education (DeBoer, 1996, p. 140). In the same denomination, Calvin College began as six-year ministerial education school in 1876, and by 1906 it was known as John Calvin Junior College. In 1910, the institution added a third year of instruction and no longer used “junior,” although it was not until 1920 that Calvin College added the fourth year (DeBoer, 1996, pp.138-139). Thus while the public two-year college has a long history as an institution with considerable influences from the top down, the church-affiliated college represents a bottom-up development, and there is no history of that development. Furthermore, denominations rather than postsecondary institutions are responsible for these junior colleges.
