The more things change
Snapshots from the Sacramento City College yearbook
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
Serving big dreams since 1916, Sacramento City College turned 90 this year. SCC backs thousands of student ambitions—be they curiosity about the stars, breaking into UC Berkeley, writing for healing or professional teeth cleaning—with educational opportunity for 20 bucks a unit. The 60-acre college on Freeport Boulevard offers as many dimensions of diversity as the city does, and because SCC keeps reinventing itself to meet local needs, the college is primed to be a point source of possibility for years to come.
Here are treasures and tidbits from SCC history, more of which can be found in the recently released Celebrating 90 years: Sacramento City College 1916-2006. Co-authored by SCC journalism professor Jan Haag and public-services specialist Ann McHatton, the magazine-style publication is available only at the Sacramento City College store.
Belle Cooledge started what was then called Sacramento Junior College from scratch. On the upper floor of Sacramento High School, located at 18th and K streets, the high-school math teacher took on college instruction in 1916. In what faculty and students called “damp and musty” quarters, Cooledge created a new space for 46 students to get a stellar education at a down-to-earth cost.Just two years later, SJC closed its doors when its male students entered World War I. That year, six women became the first graduates of SJC.Cooledge, who would become Sacramento’s first female mayor in 1947, kept serving the community. One of 60 stateside Army nurses, she helped treat returning soldiers in Southern California. As Cooledge prepared to ship out to France, armistice sent her back to Sacramento, where she reopened SJC in 1920.Gaining a wing of its own, SJC set up shop at the new Sacramento High School on 34th and Y streets in 1920. Crowned dean, Cooledge chose teachers, decided curriculum, ordered supplies and helped plan socials as SJC’s only administrator. The dean dished out student loans from a cigar box in her desk, funded by the local Parent Teacher Association, the college’s patrons’ association, and her own cash.
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
Staging its own brand of Ziegfeld Follies, SJC held its first Art Ball in 1927, featuring a giant clam shell and performances by mermaids. The extravaganza, themed “Deep Sea” and created by art teacher John B. Matthew and the student Art League, kicked off the first of 22 annual events.
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
While raising money for scholarships, the Art Balls expressed the mindset of their time. The 1942 “Victory” Art Ball marked wishful thinking for the outcome of World War II. The devil chased students wearing papier-mâché heads of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito in 1943’s “United Nations.”
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
The fifth rule of 1928’s “frosh rules” demanded lower classmen “wear dinks and jeans every day.” Failure to sport the dink, a gold-and-crimson beanie, was punishable by “paddlings, writing essays, or performing certain duties pertaining to student activities.”
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
Women like Betty Pevin and Tony Crawford entered the aeronautics program and learned aircraft mechanics during World War II.
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
Tents on playing fields and soldiers studying and sleeping in the administration building were familiar sights as SJC geared up for World War II. The student population dwindled to 400 and many college faculty headed out for military duty. One-hundred students died in the war.
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
On December 7, 1941, Fumiko Yabe sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” at an SJC concert. The Sacramento Bee wrote: “It was scarcely necessary to say what was on the mind of everyone as the audience gathered. … No one who heard it felt she meant every word of it personally."The campus newspaper announced on May 15, 1942: “Japanese being relocated to camps. None will be allowed in the city limits after noon tomorrow.” The student body dropped 10 percent overnight.
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
From nursing to motorcycle mechanics, SCC supplies students with job-ready skills. The college set up its cosmetology program in 1940.
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
In the ‘50s, dances, parties and pie-eating contests meant good times. Hart’s Drive-In on Freeport Boulevard priced burgers and shakes at 19 cents (fries cost a dime). Student bands like the Outhouse 8-2 and the Silver Dollar Jazz Band played it cool on campus. In 1959, the college changed its name to Sacramento City College.
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
Instructor Steven Hansen invited students to rebel in 1969 by painting classroom walls. Phrases like “Born to be wild,” “Nothing is revealed: we just got tired of looking at it your way,” and “Status quo: that’s Latin for the mess we’re in,” punctuated the art spree. Hansen helped his students raise money for the $350 repainting bill.
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
SCC built several outreach centers, including the Oak Park School of Afro-American Thought, first envisioned by the Black Student Union in the ’60s.
Courtesy Of Sacramento City College
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