| John C. Calhoun Community College | |
| Established: | 1946 |
| Students: | 8,480 |
| Endowment: | $9.06M (2021) |
| President: | Jimmy Hodges |
| Website: | http://www.calhoun.edu/ |
Calhoun Community College is a public community college in Decatur, Alabama. It is the largest of the 24 two-year institutions that make up the Alabama Community College System.
The college was founded in 1946 and named after John C. Calhoun, the 7th Vice President of the United States. He was a War Hawk of 1812, hence the Calhoun athletic teams names.
The Huntsville Campus opened in 2006. The Sparkman Building was originally a Chrysler electronics factory. The building was purchased by Calhoun Community College for $4.5 million, which included $2 million for a 5-year cleanup of the site.[1]
Construction of the Math, Science, and CIS building began in 2014, and was opened in 2016.[2]
In addition to its main 110acres campus in Tanner, the college has sites at Huntsville/Cummings Research Park, the Alabama Center for the Arts in downtown Decatur, and at the Limestone Correctional Facility. The campus sits adjacent to Pryor Field Regional Airport along Highway 31.
Calhoun serves just over 8,000 students. It offers 49 associate degree programs and 52 career and certificate programs. Of Calhoun's 302 full-time employees, 133 serve on the college faculty. Over 80% of the full-time faculty possess at least a master's degree and approximately 15 percent hold a doctorate.
The Decatur campus serves as home for the Warhawks athletic teams. Both baseball fields, and the Carlton Kelly Gymnasium, are housed on the campus.[3] Calhoun participates in baseball and softball in the Alabama Community College Conference.
Due to the small size of both Decatur and Austin High School's gymnasiums, the rivalry basketball game is held each year at the 3,000-seat Carlton Kelly Gymnasium to accommodate the large crowds. However, this gym is still not the correct size for the event as crowds up to 4,000 in size attempt to attend the event and upwards of 1,000 can be turned away at each rivalry game.