UC Clermont celebrates 50th anniversary

When M.E. Steele-Pierce walked through the doors of UC Clermont’s single campus building in 1980, an overwhelming feeling immediately took hold.

“It felt like home,” said Steele-Pierce. “It was intimate and easy to make friends with classmates and faculty.”

As the college celebrates 50 years in 2022, Steele-Pierce is one of more than 100,000 students who have attended the idyllic University of Cincinnati campus set high on a wooded hilltop in Batavia, Ohio. The institution was born out of a need to serve students just like her.

In the late 1960s, Clermont County community founders and UC leaders envisioned economic growth along the Appalachian corridor — and a college to provide academic and technical training for residents. These early visionaries recognized the need for an educated workforce and partnerships between local business and education. They knew the community-based college needed to be an open-access institution, and that it must take an active role in removing social and financial barriers that would prevent students from enrolling.

On Sept. 25, 1972, Clermont General and Technical College opened its doors with 97 full-time and 184 part-time students. Five decades later, UC Clermont College (the name was officially changed in 1987) boasts more than 2,300 students and 60 academic programs, including associate, bachelor, certificate and transfer pathways. The college currently serves students in 41 states and six countries.

The college’s 50th anniversary festivities will culminate in a celebration event on campus Sept. 22. In addition to alumni and community partners, faculty and staff (former and current) will be on hand to mark the milestone. Many describe the same familial pull to campus, especially in the early days.

“We were pretty much a movement at that time,” laughed psychology Professor Ron Leslie, who joined the college in 1991. “Everyone knew everyone. We have grown over the years into an institution.”

As for Steele-Pierce — like many UC Clermont students who launch from the college — she transferred to Northern Kentucky University, earned her teaching degree and, later, a master’s from Xavier University and a doctorate at Antioch University. But she remained connected to UC Clermont, her first academic “home,” and was named a Distinguished Alumna in 2012. Steele-Pierce even started a scholarship fund for students beginning their journey right where she did, all those years ago.

“I have so many deep friends who have roots at UC Clermont,” said Steele-Pierce. “I stay involved because I have a commitment to this very close community that I care about professionally and personally. The college is literally where my career started.”