Throughout 2025, Mesa Community College celebrated its 60th anniversary, marking six decades of student success, academic growth, and positive community impact with a new website featuring historical information, and special events for students, staff, faculty, and the community.
Commemorating the end of its anniversary year, MCC is hosting 60th Anniversary Finales simultaneously on both of its campuses from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 3. The event at the Southern and Dobson Campus, located at 1833 W. Southern Ave., will be held between the MCC Theatre and the Art Gallery; and the coinciding event at the Red Mountain Campus will be held at 7110 E. McKellips Road, on the Saguaro Building patio.
Free and open to the public, the events will feature interactive art; an Alumni Zone and Memory Wall; complimentary food, and celebration treats. The Red Mountain Campus finale will include a car show. Planned to reflect, celebrate, and ignite the future, the events will recall MCC’s growth and achievements over six decades.
A most notable comparison – the first graduating class in 1968 totaled just 253 students, while the 2025 graduation celebrated 3,734 students. Other significant milestones include:
- 1960s: MCC opened in 1963 as an extension campus of Phoenix College. Construction for the new, 120-acre campus at Dobson and Southern roads started in 1965 and opened in 1966 with 2,053 students.
- 1970s: MCC athletic teams earned 13 national championships between 1970 and 1977.
- 1980s: Construction was completed on the Health Improvement Center, built by MCC coaches and employees on evenings and weekends and without tax or government dollars.
- 1990s: The 60-foot-high Alumni Clock Tower, a campus landmark, is designed, built, and dedicated.
- 2000s: Red Mountain Campus Phase I construction began. The cienega in the center of campus was completed in 2015 and serves as a learning laboratory and home to endangered species.
- 2010s: An Arizona General Education Curriculum Z Degree, a lower cost alternative to student education embracing online education and no-cost online textbooks, was introduced.
- 2020s: Mesa College Promise, providing two years of fully funded tuition and fees to MCC, begins accepting applications from Mesa residents graduating high school, later expanding to include adult learners 24 years and older.
Learn about MCC’s most recent accomplishments at mesacc.edu/report and recent announcements and upcoming events at mesacc.edu/news.