Mohave Community College is a rural, two-year, comprehensive community college serving more than 13,000 students annually. It serves the northwest corner of the State of Arizona and its neighboring communities in California, Nevada, and Utah, constituting a vast and diverse service area.
In order to service this large community, Mohave Community College has established four separate campuses, one each in the four communities of Kingman, Lake Havasu, Mohave Valley and Colorado City.
Mohave County, the College’s service area, covers over thirteen thousand square miles and is the fifth largest county in the United States. Mohave borders the largest county in the contiguous states on its western edge (San Bernardino County, California) and the second largest on its eastern edge (Coconino County, Arizona).
The county population for 2006 was 193,025, a 24.5% increase since 2004. Mohave County has experienced a steady growth in population over the last several years. The major population centers in Mohave County are located in Kingman, Lake Havasu and Bullhead City. The rest of the population is dispersed throughout the county.
Kingman
Kingman is the county seat and is located near Interstate 40. Kingman’s initial economy was built upon mining and ranching. With the closure of the local mines, however, light industry, tourism, and service industries have begun to drive the local economy. Recent industrial developments include North Star Steel, Goodyear, Allied Signal, Guardian Fiber Glass, and the Griffith Energy Power Plant.
Lake Havasu City
Lake Havasu City is located on Lake Havasu, a lake formed by the Colorado River. Lake Havasu City, best known for its London Bridge, is a modern, planned community and popular retirement center; it is also a well-known tourist location. While Mohave County as a whole has experienced significant growth, Lake Havasu City leads the county in total growth, especially for those people aged fifty and older. While its local economy includes some light manufacturing, it is primarily a service-based economy.
Bullhead City
Bullhead City is located along the Colorado River across from Laughlin, Nevada, the third largest gaming industry community in Nevada. Laughlin continues to expand its casino and entertainment industry and is a primary employer for the Bullhead City Community. The population in Bullhead City has more than doubled over the past ten years. At the same time, the local campus has become the largest campus in terms of unduplicated student headcount, serving students from the surrounding areas of Mohave Valley and Laughlin.
Northern Mohave County
This area, which is isolated from the rest of the county by the Grand Canyon is serviced by a campus located in Colorado City. Census figures for this area are difficult to obtain and range anywhere from 6,000 to 9,000 residents. There is no available census data for the smaller outlying communities. Colorado City was established as a fundamentalist Mormon community. Its geographic isolation and its desire to remain homogenous make this North Community Campus a unique educational service area.
Mohave Community College uses distance learning to provide additional remote instructional sites situated throughout the rural communities of the county in order to provide educational opportunities to all county residents.
Mission Statement
“The mission of Mohave Community College is to serve our students and communities by providing an environment for educational excellence, innovation and awareness.”
Mohave Community College is aggressively broadening its impact through expanding community services, responding to the needs of industry, providing opportunities for small business development, and working in partnerships with the county’s secondary school system to provide enhanced educational opportunities for the College’s constituents. Mohave continues to fulfill its mission in a unique and challenging service environment.
Institutional History
Mohave Community College was established as a county college by a vote of the people on November 3, 1971. Recognizing the vastness of the service area, the first Board of Governors made a commitment to establishing three main campus sites. In June 1971, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Neal donated 160 acres of land, located approximately one mile north of the present city limits of Kingman, for a college site, which is where the College’s first facilities were developed. In October 1972, McCulloch Properties donated to the College a parcel of land located in Lake Havasu City; the parcel also included a manufacturing facility. Later, 320 acres in Mohave Valley and 238 acres in Lake Havasu City were acquired from the Bureau of Land Management to meet expanded needs.
During the 1971-72 and 1972-73 school years, Mohave’s course offerings were occupational in nature and were offered primarily at night. During the Fall of 1973, Mohave began to offer classes in academic areas, including university transfer courses, leading to AA (Associate of Arts) and AAS (Associate of Applied Science) degrees. In 1974 Mohave’s plan for integration into the state system was signed into law, and the College became part of the Arizona State System of Community Colleges.
In 1981, Mohave received full accreditation from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA). In 1982, the College received full accreditation of its Associate Degree in Nursing. In the same year, the Board of Governors approved the development of a telecommunications system to link the three main campuses together electronically.
In 1988, the College began plans to expand the telecommunications system to Colorado City, linking the upper one-third of the College’s service area to the other Mohave campuses.
In the late 1980s, Mohave became the primary provider of Adult Education/GED program services in the county and began educating its students through instructional delivery by videotape (Distance Learning). The Nursing program became available at North Mohave Center (Colorado City), and a new casino training facility opened at the Bullhead City Campus.
The 1990s proved to be an equally eventful time in the life of the College. The College experienced a significant growth in terms of student enrollment, program offerings, facilities development, and staff and faculty growth.
In 2000-2001 Mohave Community College had course offerings of 3,531 total courses and 28,311 students (duplicate headcount), a significant increase from the College’s first year in 1971, when the College opened with only twenty-seven courses and enrolled 1,068 students (duplicate headcount).
Over the past years, Mohave Community College has become a true comprehensive community college that focuses on serving the needs of its constituents. The College has made a sustained effort to offer programs that provide students with the skills, training, and education that they need to secure rewarding and lucrative jobs, and, just as importantly, to provide students with the kind of support services they need to succeed in their academic preparation.
Mohave Community College is improving in all areas of higher education. The College has enjoyed many successes. The number of students who persist from one semester to the next continues to increase, and students’ grades have improved overall. More students are earning certificates and degrees in a timely manner and are finding gainful employment as a result. Most importantly, a clear sense of purpose now pervades the College. That purpose is to provide students with the skills and training they need to find good jobs either immediately upon graduation or in the future after successful completion of baccalaureate and graduate degrees. It is this sense of purpose—a cohesive vision—that has instilled pride in all of the College’s employees.
Institutional Affiliations
Mohave Community College is a member of the Western Undergraduate Exchange Program, a program of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
MCC belongs to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), and the College President has been selected to serve on the prestigious AACC Board.
Students of MCC transfer to the following three universities in Arizona, all of which accept Mohave Community College’s general education core degree, AGEC, as a transfer block:
In addition to its collaboration with the three Arizona universities, MCC has academic partnerships with a number of four-year colleges:
MCC also partners with AZCAS, The Arizona Course Applicability System, which provides students and academic counselors access to student transfer information online.
Mohave Community College has made a strong commitment to teaching with technology, recently partnering with Sungard Collegis, a technology support service that works closely with the college to select and implement strong, proven, and appropriate technologies for successful teaching and learning. Mohave Community College has been selected to participate in the EAI (Enterprise, Application, Integration) Oracle consortium, in which MCC shares resources and interacts with other colleges and universities to support academic pursuits with dependable and appropriate technology.
Coupled with this increasing commitment to technology in education is a commitment on the part of Mohave Community College to strengthen its academic programs and maintain rigorous academic standards across the curriculum. Mohave Community College recently submitted an extensive redesign of its introductory psychology course and was selected by the Center for Academic Transformation’s “Roadmap to Redesign” program to join an academic consortium of prestigious colleges and universities dedicated to sharing effective teaching strategies, methodologies, and educational modalities.
Mohave County, Arizona
The following chart provides additional Quick Facts on Mohave County and Arizona that could be useful in preparing information.
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People QuickFacts
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Mohave Co
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AZ
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Population, 2006 estimate
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193,035
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6,166,318
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Population, percent change, April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2006
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24.5%
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20.2%
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Population, 2000
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155,032
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5,130,632
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Persons under 5 years old, percent, 2006
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6.2%
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7.8%
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Persons under 18 years old, percent, 2006
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22.4%
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26.4%
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Persons 65 years old and over, percent, 2006
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20.6%
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12.8%
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Female persons, percent, 2006
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50.8%
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50.0%
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White persons, percent, 2006 (a)
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93.8%
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87.3%
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Black persons, percent, 2006 (a)
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1.1%
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3.8%
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American Indian and Alaska Native persons, percent, 2006 (a)
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2.3%
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4.8%
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Asian persons, percent, 2006 (a)
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1.0%
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2.4%
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Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, percent, 2006 (a)
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0.1%
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0.2%
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Persons reporting two or more races, percent, 2006
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1.6%
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1.6%
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Persons of Hispanic or Latino origin, percent, 2006 (b)
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13.4%
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29.2%
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White persons not Hispanic, percent, 2006
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81.4%
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59.7%
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Foreign born persons, percent, 2000
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5.9%
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12.8%
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Language other than English spoken at home, pct age 5+, 2000
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10.7%
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25.9%
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High school graduates, percent of persons age 25+, 2000
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77.5%
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81.0%
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Bachelor's degree or higher, pct of persons age 25+, 2000
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9.9%
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23.5%
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Persons with a disability, age 5+, 2000
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37,799
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902,252
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Housing units, 2006
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98,732
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2,605,283
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Homeownership rate, 2000
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73.6%
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68.0%
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Housing units in multi-unit structures, percent, 2000
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10.9%
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22.1%
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Median value of owner-occupied housing units, 2000
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$95,300
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$121,300
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Households, 2000
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62,809
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1,901,327
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Persons per household, 2000
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2.45
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2.64
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Median household income, 2004
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$34,126
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$43,696
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Per capita money income, 1999
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$16,788
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$20,275
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Persons below poverty, percent, 2004
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15.4%
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14.6%
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Business QuickFacts
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Mohave Co.
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AZ
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Private nonfarm establishments, 2005
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4,198
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131,651
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Private nonfarm employment, 2005
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46,737
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2,159,823
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Private nonfarm employment, percent change 2000-2005
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34.1%
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12.5%
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Non-employer establishments, 2005
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10,559
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358,145
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Total number of firms, 2002
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11,642
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381,180
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Black-owned firms, percent, 2002
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F
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1.7%
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American Indian and Alaska Native owned firms, percent, 2002
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1.0%
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1.7%
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Asian-owned firms, percent, 2002
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2.1%
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2.7%
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Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander owned firms, percent, 2002
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F
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0.1%
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Hispanic-owned firms, percent, 2002
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3.6%
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9.2%
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Manufacturers shipments, 2002 ($1000)
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738,682
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41,910,739
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