Union County College history

By 1936, the College became Union Junior College as an independent, non-profit, degree-offering institution governed by a Board of Trustees.

The merger was presided over by college alumnus Doctor Saul Orkin, who had been president since 1974; Doctor Orkin died the following year of a heart attack at age sixty.

The college's structure was established by state statute on August 17, 1982.

The college was to have four distinct homes from its founding until 1983.

In 1992, there were 4,000 full and part-time students in Elizabeth, and 6,500 students in Cranford and Plainfield.

In the latter years of the first decade of the twenty-first century, an economic downturn caused admissions to swell, as students unable to afford pricier colleges descended on cost-effective alternatives such as community colleges; enrollment at Union County College was up 17% in 2010.

The Plainfield Campus doubled its footprint in 2013 with the purchase of property that was once an automotive parts facility.

In fall 2015, the Health Sciences building opened with state-of-the-art labs for the Practical Nursing, Emergency Health Science, and Paramedic Programs.

In August 2016, the Annex at the Plainfield campus finally re-opened after being shuttered for four years by a fire.