Pasadena City College was founded in 1924 as
Pasadena Junior College. It originally operated on
Pasadena High School's campus as an extended learning program of the high school. In 1928, PJC and
Pasadena High School formally merged. In 1946, John Muir College was founded due to PJC's enlarged enrollment. Phelps later became leader of the
Westboro Baptist Church. In 1954, John Muir and PCC merged, forming the modern Pasadena City College. Muir and Pasadena High Schools switched from a 11-14 to 9-12 model at this time. In 1960, Pasadena High School left the PCC campus. In 1966, voters approved the creation of the Pasadena Area Junior College District. The name was subsequently changed to the Pasadena Area Community College District. Pasadena City College is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, an institutional accrediting body recognized by the Commission on Recognition of Postsecondary Accreditation and the U.S. Department of Education. The Shatford Library is a direct descendant of the original Pasadena High School library that originally occupied the campus. The $16.5-million Shatford Library opened September 7, 1993, and holds 133,024 volumes in the general book collection, over 300 periodical subscriptions (plus over 2,000 titles in electronic databases) 7,338 audio cassettes, 1,019 paperbacks, 661 CDs and software, 404 volumes in the Special Services collection, and 1,186 videocassettes. Walter T. Shatford II, is the attorney for whom the library was named in recognition of his four decades of service on the school's board and his donations. He was also active in the
Civil Rights Movement. On March 20, 2003, on the day the United States launched
Operation Iraqi Freedom, many students led by the Students for Social Justice, protested on campus against the war. Protesters went through the administration building requesting students to join their cause. Three students were arrested by campus police. That same year, voters approved a bond measure for about $150 million that improved campus facilities. A significant portion of these funds were earmarked for the construction of a new building to house the college's art and music departments. The Alumni Commons, the Aquatic Center, the Boone Sculpture Garden, and the Galloway Plaza have all replaced what were once campus parking lots. A new fourth floor parking structure (Lot 5) and a new bus parking area were completed in 2005. In 2007, many services at the school had to relocate pending demolition of their previous facilities. These included the college bookstore, Student Affairs, Associated Students, the student business services, the campus police and the offices of the school newspaper
The Courier. A groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the new Industrial and Technology building, Campus Center and Bookstore took place in October 2007. The Campus Center and Bookstore opened in August 2009. The school is one of the few community colleges with its own
observatory, planetarium, and
seismograph. Additionally, in 2007 demonstrators from Philadelphia-based
Repent America demonstrated on campus, leading to tensions between demonstrators and some students. PCC students, some who were journalism students and staff members of the campus newspaper,
PCC Courier, were involved in the
May Day melee at MacArthur Park. Later that year, students and faculty held a rally in support of the
Jena Six. Some students were beaten and arrested at the MacArthur Park immigrant rights demonstration on May 1, 2007. During 2012 and 2013, the school became embroiled in conflict between students and faculty and the campus administration. On August 29, 2012, the PCC Board unilaterally cancelled the subsequent six-week winter session. One student was arrested at this board meeting. Organized by a newly formed group called Coalition of Students and Faculty for Student Achievement, a rally during the first week back of the illegitimate new Spring semester kicked off a steady wave of student and faculty activism. Eventually, course sections were cut, student transfers to four-year institutions were delayed, overall full-time student enrollments were reduced, and Proposition 30 monies allotted to the school were jeopardized. According to the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, 2012–2013 had the lowest full-time enrollments in 17 years at 20,219; Spring 2013 had the lowest full-time enrollments in 10 years at 9838 students. The Faculty Association filed an unfair labor practice on the District for canceling winter abruptly and won in November 2013. The district filed an appeal to the ruling, thus prolonging the orders to rescind the trimester calendar and return to the status quo while ratcheting up annual 7% compensation to affected employees. In Spring 2013, in an unprecedented move, the Associated Students unanimously censured the administration and passed a vote of no confidence in the school's president, Mark W. Rocha, and collectively called for his immediate ouster. Separately, a vote among full-time faculty members expressed no confidence in Rocha by a margin of 92 percent to 8 percent. The Academic Faculty Senate also voted, 24–0, no confidence in the president. The board of trustees remained firm in their support of Rocha, extending his contract another year and giving Rocha a raise. In 2014, however, the faculty maintained its disapproval of the college president's performance as revealed in the faculty-wide evaluation of the PCC President. The negative campus climate has also been a concern with the staff and faculty, which prompted a campus-wide town hall sponsored by the faculty senate. Rocha was named one of
Pasadena Weeklys less-than-stellar local "turkey" leaders of 2013. After a failed attempt to find work elsewhere, Rocha announced his retirement on August 7, 2014, but later became the Chancellor of San Francisco City College, where after less than three years he was placed on leave in March 2020, according to the San Francisco Examiner. In 2014, the Oscar-winning screenplay writer
Dustin Lance Black was invited to speak at commencement, but in a controversial move he was subsequently uninvited by PCC Board of Trustees Anthony Fellow, who said, "We just don't want to give PCC a bad name." According to the
Los Angeles Times, "School officials pretended that Black was never approved as commencement speaker, when in fact they approved him. They said that his brush with a sex scandal has 'no place in public discussion,' when in fact they discussed it with reporters, students and each other." The college issued an apology, and later re-extended the invitation. ==Administration and governance==