Rio Salado Community College

Infobox_University
name =Rio Salado College

deletable image-caption
motto =
established =1978
type =Community College
endowment =
staff =
faculty =
president =Linda Thor
students =60,000
undergrad =
postgrad =
doctoral =
profess =
city =Tempe
state =Arizona
country =
campus =
free_label =
free =
colors =
mascot =
nickname =
affiliations =
footnotes =
website = [http://www.riosalado.edu www.riosalado.edu]
coor =
logo =

Rio Salado College, known as "the college within everyone's reach," is the largest of the 10 Maricopa Community Colleges and has never built a traditional campus. Rather, from its Tempe, Arizona administrative headquarters (in the same office complex as the headquarters for the entire Maricopa Community Colleges system), Rio Salado utilizes technology and forges partnerships to deliver educational opportunities to diverse populations throughout Maricopa County and around the world.

Rio Salado College is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

History

Established in 1978, "it was designed to be the college that provided education to the underserved and unserved geographic areas of Maricopa County...Rio Salado has evolved into one of MCCCD’s fastest growing colleges, with a focused mission to create convenient high-quality learning opportunities while specializing in customized unique programs and partnerships, accelerated formats, and distance delivery." [http://www.rio.maricopa.edu/ci/nca-pdf/Part1.pdf]

The college began offering courses over the Internet in 1996.

Rio Salado is the second largest college in the Maricopa County Community College District with a total of 13,314 students. It has "only 33 permanent faculty members, 27 of whom are full time." Today classes are almost entirely virtual, and the college hires close to 1,000 part-time faculty members from across Arizona. [Giroux, H. (2007) "The University in Chains: Confronting the Military-Industrial-Academic Complex. Paradigm. p. 119.]

References

External links

* [http://www.riosalado.edu Rio Salado College] – Official website