In 2018 the new Solano Community College (SCC) Vallejo campus opened its doors, promising higher education without having to leave the city. The Fairfield campus currently offers over 200 courses, Vacaville offers 98 courses, despite the 122,000 population of the city of Vallejo, they are currently only given 48 courses since its opening. The answer is in the almost 70 year history of the Solano Community College.
Solano Community College was originally named Vallejo Junior College, and was first established in 1945. The college was first held in the same building as Vallejo High School, but then moved in 1957 to a new building that was originally built for a junior high.
This unsurprisingly was not a good fit for the college either.
In 1967, Solano County voted to move the entire college to Fairfield and left Vallejo. While the campus definitely needed to be moved, it was a pausing choice to move it to Fairfield, because Vallejo was a larger city (and still is now). In the 1970’s census it was reported that Vallejo had roughly 22,000 more people than Fairfield.
In 1985 SCC rented the basement of the JFK Library in downtown Vallejo to act as the Vallejo Center of the college, which sparked concern from residents who felt unsafe in the area the library was located. Even if the area wasn’t unsafe, the classes were originally being held in the basement of the building.
In the 60’s tensions were high in America and Vallejo. The civil rights movement, the Vietnam war with its counter protests from anti-war activists, counterculture, and specifically for the Bay Area, the Black Panther Party. People in power were starting to get uncomfortable, which resulted in Solano College moving their campus out of one of the most diverse cities in the country.
In 1968 a peaceful protest was held on campus by the Black Student Union (BSU) for equal rights of all SCC students. The idea for the protest came from other colleges in the Bay Area also protesting, including San Francisco State and UC Berkeley.
The founding members of the BSU didn’t think it would be a problem, since it was a peaceful sit-in. As a student that was apart of the protest reflected, “We were never rowdy, we were always respectful, but we were enthusiastic, and so when we were asked to leave even though we were doing what we were supposed to do, so when they brought the police in that’s when we knew this was serious.”
At the end of the day there were 21 students suspended and 2 expelled for a law-abiding and constitutional protest. Even though this injustice happened, changes that the students wanted did start being made after the protest. More black teachers were being hired, and black students were being treated more fairly.
In 2019 the college formally apologized to the students from that protest and expunged all suspensions and expulsions.
Today there is a high quality and established Vallejo campus, but there still is only a fraction of classes being held there. Many Vallejo students still have to drive 20-30 minutes to Fairfield to get their education, which many cannot afford due to the lack of accessible transportation.
With not just the area improving on its relationship to black and brown individuals, Solano College still has a long way to progress for an accessible academic environment. The college is currently in a process to try encouraging more diversity, with its mission statement saying, “Solano Community College District’s mission is to educate a culturally and academically diverse student population drawn from our local communities and beyond.”
