Bethune-Cookman University
Oct. 3, 1904 – Mary McLeod Bethune opens the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls.
May 24, 1919 – The Daytona Educational and Industrial Institute is changed to Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute.
1923 – Bethune’s school merges with the Cookman Institute of Jacksonville (founded in 1872) and becomes co-ed while also gaining the prestigious United Methodist Church affiliation. Although the merger of Bethune’s school and the Cookman Institute began in 1923, it was not finalized until 1925 when both schools collaborated to become the Daytona-Cookman Collegiate Institute.
1931 – The college earns accreditation by the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States, as a junior college with class B status.
Apr. 27, 1931 – The school’s name is officially changed to Bethune-Cookman College to reflect the leadership of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune.
1936 – Dr. Bethune is appointed administrative assistant for Negro Affairs (her title changed in 1939 to Director of the Division of Negro Affairs) of the National Youth Administration, making her the first African American women to head a federal agency.
1942 – Dr. Bethune retires and James E. Colston becomes president until 1946, when Dr. Bethune resumes the presidency for a year.
1947 – Richard V. Moore, Sr. becomes the college’s third president. During his tenure, which lasts until 1975, Dr. Moore leads a significant expansion of academic programs, creating new majors in Music, Physical Education, Pre-Medicine, Pre-Dental and Pre-Pharmacy during his first year in office.
1960 – B-CC gains full membership into the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
1975 – Dr. Oswald P. Bronson, Sr., an alumnus of the college, begins serving as the institution’s president until 2004, when he is named president emeritus. Commitment to academic excellence is the cornerstone of his presidency. Under his leadership, major fields of study increase from 12 to 37.
2004 – Dr. Trudie Kibbe Reed is appointed to the presidency. She is the first woman to serve as president since Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, and under her leadership the institution launches its first master’s degree program in 2006 and achieves university status in 2007.
October 2013 – After a one-year interim position, Dr. Edison O. Jackson becomes the sixth president of Bethune-Cookman University. During his tenure, he increased philanthropic giving to the university and maintained accreditations with SACS, the Florida State Board of Education and the United Methodist Church Board of Higher Education.
2017 – Judge Hubert L. Grimes (ret.) becomes the university’s interim president.
Daytona State College
1957 – The State Board of Education authorizes establishment of a junior college to serve Volusia and Flagler counties. Daytona Beach Junior College is approved as the state’s first comprehensive community college, offering the first two years of a four-year degree, vocational training and adult education.
1960 – Dr. Roy F. Bergengren begins a 14-year term as the college’s president. During his tenure, many milestones are established, including accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, major capital construction projects, a merger of the institution with Volusia County Community College, and a change in administrative responsibility from the public school system to a District Board of Trustees.
1960 – First graduating class consisted of 57 associate of arts degree students.
1971 – The institution’s name changes from Daytona Beach Junior College to Daytona Beach Community College.
1976 – The Women’s Center opens its doors at DBCC, providing women in crisis the means to learn self-sufficiency through educational and employment opportunities.
1978 – DBCC celebrates its 20th anniversary. By this time, regional campus have been established in DeLand, New Smyrna Beach and, in 1979, Palm Coast in space donated by ITT Community Development Corp.
1988 – DBCC’s TV station, WCEU Channel 15, takes to the airwaves in Central Florida. It becomes certified by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting a year later.
1992 –The Wetherell Student Services Center and Administration Building opens on the Daytona Beach Campus. The Southeast Museum of Photography occupies two stories of the building.
1996 – The college’s first website is created, leading the way to online student services and web-based courses.
2001 – Advanced Technology College opens with a class of 176 dual-enrolled high school students along with over 500 adult students.
2003 – DBCC’s Virtual College is established, allowing students to earn all required general education course credits online, as well as associate of arts and associate of science business degrees.
2005 – The state Board of Education approves DBCC’s application to offer its first baccalaureate degree – the Bachelor of Applied Science in Supervision and Management. Six months later, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools approves DBCC’s application to move from Level I to Level II, officially making the college a four-year institution.
2006 – DBCC reaches an agreement with Florida State University to open a community based medical facility on the Daytona Beach Campus. The arrangement makes DBCC host to approximately 40 FSU students in their third and fourth years of medical school.
2007 – The Mori Hosseini School of Hospitality and Culinary Management, a $26 million, state-of-the-art training facility for Hospitality and Culinary Management programs opens its doors.
2008 – To reflect its stature as a four-year degree granting institution and its expanded mission, the college adopts a new name – Daytona State College.
2009 – The college adds seven new bachelor’s degrees in Elementary Education, Exceptional Student Education, and Secondary Mathematics, Biology, Earth/Space, Chemistry and Physics Education. A year later, the State Board of Education approves the college’s ninth four-year degree – the Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology.
2012 – The college dedicates its new Veterans Center on the Daytona Beach Campus. Comprehensive services for veterans are established on all campuses. The college would later be designated a Military Friendly School by veteran-owned Victory Media for three straight years.
2013 – U.S. News & World Report ranks Daytona State No. 2 for Best Online Bachelor’s Programs. The college would remain among the nation’s best for five years running.
2013 – State Board of Education approves Daytona State’s bid to offer the bachelor’s degree in Information Technology.
2014 – DSC celebrates 50 years as one of nation’s top photography schools.
2015 – Dr. Thomas LoBasso is named DSC president by the District Board of Trustees in June, after serving as interim president since January. Daytona State joins the DirectConnect to UCF partnership, opening the door for DSC AA graduates to make a smooth transition to UCF to earn their bachelor’s degrees. In its continuing push to make college more affordable, Daytona State becomes first in Florida, and among only a few in the nation, to reduce tuition.
2016 – The national Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology formally grants accreditation to DSC’s Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology (BSET) program through 2022. The accreditation extends retroactively from October 2013, benefitting prior program graduates.
2017 – May’s commencement marks over 100,000 certificates and degrees awarded by the college.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Dec. 17, 1925 – T. Higbee Embry and John Paul Riddle form a company in their names at Lunken Field in Cincinnati, Ohio, with Embry as president and Riddle as general manager. The Embry-Riddle Flying School begins operating in spring 1926.
October 1939 – John Paul Riddle partners with attorney John McKay to form the Embry-Riddle Company’s seaplane base in Miami. Riddle enters into agreement with the University of Miami to train college students to fly under the 1939 Civilian Pilot Training Program; he leases a hangar at Municipal Airport and expands the training fleet to 15 aircraft.
Mar. 22, 1941 – Embry-Riddle opens the new Carlstrom Field, the first of five fields established for training pilots (1941-45) for the U.S. Army Air Corps/Army Air Forces and British Royal Air Force.
November 1943 – Embry-Riddle establishes the Escola Técnica de Aviação in São Paulo, Brazil, to train Brazilian cadets in basic aircraft construction and maintenance.
October 1944 – Embry-Riddle becomes one of the first aviation schools to train veterans under the GI Bill.
October 1958 – The Engineer’s Council for Professional Development accredits Embry-Riddle’s Aeronautical Engineering Technology program.
1959 – Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute (ERAI) is established as a nonprofit corporation.
1962 – U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jack Hunt becomes Embry-Riddle’s first university president.
Apr. 23-25, 1965 – Embry-Riddle moves from Miami to Daytona Beach in what was termed “Operation Bootstrap,” with assistance and support from members of the Daytona Beach community.
1968-69 – The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accredits Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute as a “special purpose institution.”
Jun. 9, 1970 – Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Institute becomes Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. It touts a two-college structure: Aeronautical Studies and Aviation Technology.
1973 – The university’s College of Continuing Education begins offering its first graduate level program, an M.S. in Aviation Management, through a partnership with the Miami Education Consortium and Biscayne College.
1979 – Time magazine calls Embry-Riddle the “Harvard of the Sky.”
1987 – The Daytona Beach Campus offers its first graduate programs: M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering, MBA – Aviation, M.S. in Aviation Management and Master of Aeronautical Science. The Prescott Campus launches the M.S. in Business Administration, M.S. in Aviation Management and the Master of Aeronautical Science.
2000 – U.S. News & World Report ranks Embry-Riddle’s Aerospace Engineering program No. 1 among the nation’s undergraduate aerospace engineering programs without a Ph.D. The program has been ranked No. 1 each year since, through 2015.
2010 – Embry-Riddle launches its first Ph.D. programs: The Ph.D. in Engineering Physics and the Ph.D. in Aviation, which is the first of its kind in the nation.
2011 – The university’s Worldwide Campus establishes its first Asian center in collaboration with Singapore Aviation Academy, the training division of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, offering a Master in Business Administration – Aviation degree.
2013 – The university creates the world’s first bachelor’s degree in commercial space operations.
2014 – Embry-Riddle opens the largest university research telescope in the state of Florida at its Daytona Beach Campus; and the Prescott Campus launches the nation’s first College of Security and Intelligence.
Dec. 17, 2015 – The university celebrates the 90th anniversary of its founding.
February 2017 – The Advanced Aerodynamics Lab opens at the Embry-Riddle Research & Technology Park at the Daytona Beach Campus.
March 2017 – Dr. P. Barry Butler, Ph.D. becomes the university’s sixth president.
Stetson University
Nov. 5, 1883 – Henry A. DeLand and Dr. John H. Griffith inaugurate DeLand Academy in a lecture room of the First Baptist Church in DeLand.
Oct. 13, 1884 – DeLand Hall opens. The original cost of the building was $4,000. The first academic building at the DeLand campus, DeLand Hall today is the oldest building in Florida in continuous use for higher education.
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