Chemeketa Community College

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Chemeketa Community College (CCC) is a public community college in Salem, Oregon. It also has a campus in McMinnville and education centers in Dallas, Brooks, and Woodburn, plus a Center for Business and Industry in downtown Salem that helps small businesses.

The college employs about 1,112 people and serves roughly 30,000 students each year. Its district covers about 2,600 square miles in Marion and Polk counties, most of Yamhill County, and part of Linn County.

History in brief: The school began in 1952 as Salem Technical-Vocational School to train unemployed workers. In 1969, a Chemeketa district formed, and the name Chemeketa—meaning “a peaceful gathering place” in the Kalapuya language—was chosen. The college opened on July 1, 1970. The Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service started on campus in 1974. In the 1990s, Chemeketa participated in the Beacon Colleges Initiative. In 2005, the Grand Ronde and Siletz Tribes approved keeping the name Chemeketa.

Programs and campus life: Chemeketa offers more than 90 career-technical programs and many transfer degrees, including Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer Degrees (AAOT), Associate of Applied Science (AAS), and other transfer paths. The Salem campus hosts the Gretchen Schuette Art Gallery and houses the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service offices. The college’s sports teams are called the Chemeketa Storm, and the Salem campus has a baseball field used by local teams.

Northwest Wine Studies Center: Opened in 2003 on the Eola campus near West Salem, it runs winemaking and vineyard management programs and includes a working vineyard. It sits in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA, part of the Willamette Valley wine region.

Presidents: The school has had several presidents over the years. The current president is Jessica Howard, who has led the college since July 2019.