General Catalog for 2007-2009
GENERAL INFORMATION

Visit the Hill College website at
www.hillcollege.edu
and/or contact individual departments
for changes and updates.

PHILOSOPHY OF HILL COLLEGE

The Board of Regents, administrators, and faculty at Hill College are committed to the

concept that our college be an open door to learning. With this goal in mind, we extend an educational opportunity to students of all ages who can profit from instruction. Every effort is made to provide equal access to the educational opportunities offered at Hill College without regard to race, creed, color, age, sex, national origin, or disability.

In keeping with this philosophy, Hill College recognizes and accepts the responsibility for providing curricula for university-bound students, for students seeking career opportunities in a variety of occupations, and for persons of the community seeking cultural enrichment, short-term skill training, or personal improvement opportunities. The college will seek to achieve these goals within the limits of its legal responsibilities and available fiscal resources.

MISSION STATEMENT

Hill College, a comprehensive community college, accepts as its mission the task of providing high quality comprehensive educational programs and services to the citizens of our service area which includes Hill, Johnson, Bosque, Somervell, and Hood Counties. Through comprehensive educational programs and services, which include technical, occupational, general education, and college transfer curricula, the college strives to enhance the educational, cultural, and economic development of our service area and to assist both individuals and groups to prepare themselves for a more responsible and productive life.

PURPOSES OF HILL COLLEGE

The purposes of Hill College are defined in the Texas Education Code, Section 130.003, and shall be to provide:

1. technical programs up to two years in length leading to associate degrees or certificates;
2. occupational programs leading directly to employment in semi-skilled and skilled occupations;
3. freshman and sophomore courses in arts and sciences;
4. continuing adult education programs for occupational or cultural upgrading;
5. compensatory education programs designed to fulfill the commitment of an admissions policy allowing the enrollment of disadvantaged students;
6. a continuing program of counseling and guidance designed to assist students in achieving their individual educational goals;
7. workforce development programs designed to meet local and statewide needs;
8. adult literacy programs and other basic skills programs; and
9. such other purposes as may be prescribed by the Coordinating Board, Texas College and University System, or local governing boards, in the best interest of post-secondary education.

HISTORY OF HILL COLLEGE

The authorization to establish Hill College was issued in 1921 by the Attorney General of the State of Texas under the name of Hillsboro Junior College. The college first enrolled students in September of 1923. At that time, there were only two public junior colleges in the state, and Hillsboro Junior College became the first municipal junior college to be chartered in Texas.

Hillsboro Junior College operated continuously until July of 1950 when it closed after an attempt to establish a county-wide college system failed. The college lay dormant for eleven years during which time the charter was protected from forfeiture through the efforts of the late Senator Crawford Martin of Hillsboro.

On March 3, 1962, through the efforts of the media, local civic groups, and many others, a bond issue was passed for the purpose of building a new campus. The college opened for business in September of 1962 under a new name, Hill Junior College. The new college district was expanded by the voluntary annexation of five Hill County school districts other than the original Hillsboro school district. The district now included Hillsboro, Abbott, Bynum, Covington, Itasca, and Whitney.

In 1974, the college opened an extension center in Cleburne, Texas, located in Johnson County. The Johnson County Campus now includes six buildings on 32 acres of land and has more than 1,000 students enrolled in both day and night classes. In 1997 and 1998, the citizens of Alvarado, Cleburne, Godley, Grandview, Joshua, Keene, Rio Vista, and Venus approved a local maintenance and operation tax for the purpose of supporting the campus of Hill College in Johnson County.

The college dropped “junior” from its name in 1985 and became Hill College.

FACILITIES AND SERVICES

Hill College - Hill County Physical Plant

Hill College campus area includes 73.8 acres of land located just east of the City of Hillsboro on a hill overlooking I-35 and the 35-acre Hill College Reunion Grounds. Following its relocation to this site in 1962, the student population has continued to grow, and the college has expanded its facilities in order to meet the needs of the community and its students. Twenty permanent buildings have been erected on the main campus with over 250,000 square feet of space.

In the summer of 1985, the State of Texas deeded Hill College the Jefferson Davis State Park which is now called the Hill College Reunion Grounds Park. The park consists of thirty-five acres of land located one mile south of Hill College. Five acres of the park houses the college agriculture department and rodeo arena. Persons or groups wanting to use the park facilities may do so by contacting the president's office.

In 1986, the Vara Martin Daniel Performing Arts Center was completed. The Bob Bullock Sports Center was completed in 1988. The former home of the Runnin’ Rebels was converted to an activity center. In 1990, a new women's dormitory was completed. Also during 1990, a new classroom building was completed and opened. Another new women's dorm and a new science classroom/laboratory building were completed in 1992. The Governor Bill Daniel Student Center was completed in 1993. The Automotive Training Center and the Occupational-Technical Training Center were completed in 1994. These centers provide classroom and laboratory facilities for the Automotive Technology Program, the Welding Program, and the Criminal Justice Program. One of the latest additions to the campus was the construction of a new library which was completed in the fall of 1996. The library is a full learning resource center. On the top floor is a spacious library, and on the bottom floor is a teaching auditorium and computer lab. In the fall of 1997, Hill College opened a new classroom and faculty office building, in the summer of 1999, Hill College opened a new student cafeteria and bookstore complex, and in the summer of 2005, HC opened a new nursing/cosmetology building. Through these building projects and through continuous maintenance and beautification projects, the college has created an attractive campus conducive to teaching and learning.

Hill College - Johnson County Campus

In 1974, Hill College opened the Cleburne Extension Center. Since this time, Cleburne and Johnson County have experienced steady growth and so has the college. The campus was initially located on West Henderson Street in Cleburne at the site of the old Johnson County fair grounds. In 1987, over 75,000 square feet of warehouse space on Westhill Street was converted into a much needed occupational center. That space is still being used as the automotive technology, welding, and air conditioning/ refrigeration center.

In 1997, the college was approached by concerned citizens requesting better facilities in Johnson County. A five-cent maintenance tax was passed by eight of the nine independent school districts in Johnson County. The ISD’s consisted of Alvarado, Cleburne, Godley, Grandview, Joshua, Keene, Rio Vista, and Venus. The maintenance tax enabled the college to free student tuition to be used for revenue bonds.

In 1999, the college issued student revenue bonds to build new facilities on a permanent site overlooking Lake Cleburne on U.S. Hwy. 67, west of the City of Cleburne. The new campus consists of thirty-two acres of land donated by Tolbert and Margaret Mayfield. The City of Cleburne entered into a long-term lease with the college for an additional fifteen acres of adjoining land. The initial buildings that have been built on the new site consist of a classroom building, a library, and the Tolbert F. Mayfield Administration Building. A Student Center and the Margie Faye Wheat Kennon Health/Science Building was completed in 2001. A Technology Building was completed in the Summer of 2003. Additional buildings are planned as student enrollment grows.

Texas Heritage Museum

The Texas Heritage Museum has three divisions: Galleries & Collection, the Historical Research Center, and the Hill College Press.

Mission Statement

The Texas Heritage Museum’s mission is to explore Texas and Texans during wartime and how those experiences affect us today.

The Texas Heritage Museum Galleries & Collection
The historical artifacts within the museum galleries and collections serve as tangible evidence of historical events while the accompanying text provides context to Texas history. Considerable thought and research goes into the galleries before they are displayed, and exhibits will continue to change to present fresh topics and perspectives. Whether in conjunction with classes or standing alone, students and visitors are able to learn Texas history from touring the facilities. The Texas Heritage Museum currently has four major exhibits: a Civil War gallery entitled “The Blue and Gray Gallery”; a WWII gallery entitled “Texas at War 1939-1945”; “The Vietnam War and Texans’ Involvement”; and a fourth gallery on weapons from all wars that affect Texas. The museum houses over 16,000 artifacts from the 1830s to the present. The museum averages around 3,000 – 4,000 visitors a year and provides a hands-on experience to visitors and students on Texas military history.

On the front grounds of the THM is the “Memorial To Native Born Texas Medal of Honor Recipients.” This memorial is to honor 56 native-born Texans who received the Medal of Honor. The memorial was designed to enhance the Texas Heritage Museum’s mission statement, “To explore Texas and Texans in wartime and how those experiences affect us today.” The memorial’s center features two WWII Texas Medal of Honor recipients: Audie Murphy, the most decorated solider, and Samuel Dealey, the most decorated sailor. The memorial enhances the Texas Heritage Museum’s Medal of Honor collections. The museum has an extensive collection of Audie Murphy’s personal artifacts from WWII along with James Harris’ Medal of Honor from WWII. The memorial also compliments an extensive archive collection of photographs and documents of other Texan Medal of Honor recipients in the Historical Research Center.

The Historical Research Center

The Historical Research Center (HRC) aspires to be widely acknowledged—by the community, by the people of Texas, by scholars world-wide, and by our professional peers—as one of the nation’s finest Civil War collections repositories, bringing international distinction to Hill College by advancing scholarly research and education at the college and beyond. The HRC has grown in the last 42 years to over 10,000 volumes and is one of the largest collections of books on the Civil War west of the Mississippi River. Included in the HRC is an extensive collection of maps, photographic collections, microfilm, and an archival depository that contains numerous files of soldiers’ letters, diaries, and unpublished manuscripts from all wars. Also featured in the HRC are original art, art prints, and sculptures depicting the War Between the States, and personal items belonging to Hill College graduate Bob Bullock during his term as Lieutenant Governor of Texas.

Hill College Press

The Hill College Press, established in 1964, publishes works of original and interpretative history that complement both the mission of the THM and the geographical setting of Central and North Texas. To date, the press has published thirty-seven full-length books and six monographs, several of which have won literary and historical awards. The press publishes at least one book per year on one of the following subjects: Texas and Texans in conflict and war; social, multicultural, and historical subjects of importance to North and Central Texas; biographies of prominent Texans; and anthologies and documentary collections from the Historical Research Center. It also provides support with exhibits and programming development through tracts or pamphlets.

The Hill College Library System

The library system of Hill College is a combination of staff, materials, and services existing to serve the students, faculty, and administration of the college in their educational pursuits. Housing an up-to-date collection of 60,000 items including 45,000 books, 200 periodical subscriptions, and 2,000 rolls of microfilm, the library system provides the necessary research material for students to successfully complete their class assignments.

The primary access points to these resources are the two libraries, one on the Hill County Campus and one on the Johnson County Campus. The libraries provide access to the collections by means of a state-of-the-art computerized library management system which includes online public catalogs, computerized periodical indexes, and an automated circulation module. In addition, the library maintains a database network containing 96 databases in various subject areas, most of which are full-text. The libraries supplement these in-house collections with a high-speed connection to the Internet bringing to students the ever expanding information of that resource. In order to provide convenient access to the collections, the Hill County Campus library is open 75.5 hours per week including Sunday afternoons and nights. The Johnson County Campus library is open 75 hours per week including Saturday hours. The library also offers its card catalog and access to over 50 databases through the Internet so that students can access library information remotely from their home or other locations, 24 hours a day. As a member of the statewide TEXSHARE library initiative, students of Hill College are also eligible for a library card which allows full student privileges at the vast majority of academic libraries in the state.

In addition to the collection, the staff of the library provides a full range of library services including reference help, instruction in the use of the library and interlibrary loan. The library also makes available a computer lab where students can do research, access the Internet, type research papers, and complete computer science course projects. Also available are areas providing audio-visual equipment and course tutorials and supplemental material for group or individual study.

Distance Learning

The goals for the Hill College distance learning programs go hand in hand with the stated mission and purpose for the institution. Hill College recognizes distance learning as a delivery system for educational instruction. The delivery system may be Internet, twoway interactive video, video courses that are either broadcast through the cable channel or leased to the student for the particular course, or a combination of these in conjunction with some regular on campus class meetings.

The goals of the distance learning courses are as follow:

1. To help meet the unique needs of students whose busy lifestyles make scheduling regular on campus college courses difficult,
2. To help achieve the mission of Hill College in providing high quality, comprehensive educational programs and services to the citizens of our service area which includes Hill, Johnson, Bosque, Somervell, and Hood Counties,
3. To enhance the educational, cultural, and economic development of our service area, and
4. To assist both individuals and groups to prepare themselves for a more responsible and productive life.

It is through technology and the variety of instructional modes and learning systems that goals of the distance education programs of Hill College will truly be able to assist in the mission of the college to provide comprehensive educational programs for all citizens.

Through comprehensive educational programs and services which include technical, occupational, general education, and college transfer curricula, the Hill College distance learning courses are designed for students who are unable to travel to one of the main campus sites for traditional classroom instruction or who need to work in an independent mode to pursue academic goals. Distance education courses require strong commitment and dedication from both the student and the instructor.

Computing Services

Current faculty, staff, and students have access to various types of microcomputers, IBM, DEC (VMS) computing systems, and UNIX computing systems for use in their education, research, and administrative activities. In addition, Internet access and e-mail are available for use by computing account holders. For additional information on systems and software supported by the college, please contact the Office of Computer Services.

The Hill College Bookstore

The Hill College Bookstore is operated for the convenience of the students and faculty. New textbooks are sold at moderate prices, and used texts will be sold, when available, at reasonable costs. At the end of each semester the College Store will repurchase or buy back limited number of textbooks remaining in adoption at prices based on the period of use and the condition of the book. School supplies are available to students and faculty at moderate prices.

Transcript Services

Copies of a student’s transcript, a student’s permanent record of classes taken at Hill College, are available upon written request from the Office of Enrollment Management. Adequate advance notice is required for a transcript. Contact the Office of Enrollment Management, Hill College, 112 Lamar Drive, Hillsboro, TX 76645.

Official transcripts may be withheld if a student has an administrative hold on his or her record or if a student has an outstanding financial obligation with the institution. Official transcripts will be released after all administrative holds have been released and all financial obligations to the institution have been discharged.

Motor Vehicle, Traffic, and Parking Regulations

Students who operate motor vehicles on campus are required to register the vehicles and to be familiar with and comply with the Traffic and Parking Regulations which are found in the Student Handbook. This handbook and vehicle registration forms are available during registration or from the Office of Student Services