Triton College is a two-year community college located in River Grove, Illinois, a suburb 14 miles (23 km) northwest of downtown Chicago. Triton College offers an education as well as career-oriented learning opportunities. Triton College’s campus covers 100 acres (400,000 m²) and features electronic classrooms, labs, sports facilities, a library and bookstore, an art gallery and performing arts center, and the Cernan Earth and Space Center, which is a public planetarium. The campus is the home of Triton Troupers Circus. Over 17,000 students enroll at Triton College each semester. Triton College's athletic teams go by the name of "Trojans". Alumni include baseball Hall of Famer Kirby Puckett and one-time Chicago White Sox outfielder Lance Johnson.
History
Illinois Community College District 504 was voted into existence in a referendum on March 21, 1964. On March 27, 1965, a second referendum was passed approving the purchase of an 86-acre campus site at Fifth Ave. and Palmer St. in River Grove. The school was named Triton College in recognition of the three high school districts that it originally served - Elmwood Park, Leyden Township, and Proviso Township. Triton College opened in 1965 and held classes at West Leyden High School. In September 1965, 1,243 freshmen were enrolled. Construction on the permanent campus proceeded in phases. With the opening of the Learning Resource Center in 1974, the original campus plan was essentially complete, except for some athletic facilities and the Performing Arts Center, a large auditorium planned for the area now occupied by the soccer field, but never built. The original Cernan Space Center building, located north of the Learning Resource Center, was plagued by latent construction defects, and, after being used for several years, was demolished and replaced by the present building located nearby. By 1975, enrollment had grown to nearly 20,000, in-district tuition had increased to $11 per semester hour, and Triton had become the largest single-campus community college in Illinois. The campus was expanded by the acquisition of the North Avenue drive-in theater, which closed in 1973. This area, designated the "east campus" and located across 5th Ave. from the original ("west") campus, was cleared and used mainly for the construction of athletic facilities, as well as a small auditorium as part of the Collins Center.
