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De Anza College is a 112 acre (453,000 m²) community college located in Cupertino, California. It was founded in 1967 on the site of the Beaulieu Winery and is named after the Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza (who passed through the area in 1776). Along with the arrival and growth of Apple Computer, the presence of De Anza College contributed significantly to the growth of Cupertino from a small town to an industrial city and an integral part of Silicon Valley. It consistently ranks
The college is one of the largest, single-campus community colleges in the country with a fall enrollment averaging 25,000 students from over 50 different countries. The college is also the home of the California History Center. The current president of De Anza college is Brian Murphy. The average class size at De Anza is 30, and approximately 2,800 students transfer per year. It also attracts a heavy international student population.
De Anza College is part of Silicon Valley's Foothill-De Anza Community College District, which also administers Foothill College in nearby Los Altos Hills, California. The district serves the cities of Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and San Jose. The district headquarters is on the Foothill campus.
Each year, De Anza invites several celebrities and dignitaries for public speaking engagements at its main theater, the Flint Center, which also is the home of the San Jose Spiders of the NWBL. De Anza once held the second largest pow-wow in the Bay Area, but the pow-wow organizers moved the event in 2005.
De Anza holds a monthly flea market its parking lot, which has become a community tradition as well as major source of income for the De Anza Associated Student Body. (DASB) With a budget of near 1 million dollars, the DASB has one of the biggest student budgets of any community college in California.
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Averted shooting
On January 29, 2001, San Jose police arrested De Anza College student Al DeGuzman who planned a Columbine style school shooting at the school. At his home, police found bags filled with homemade explosives including Molotov cocktails and pipe bombs. They also discovered numerous guns, including a semi-automatic rifle and a cut-down 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. There were also plans for a noon attack at De Anza College.
Kelly Bennett, an employee at a Longs Drugs store in San Jose, developed pictures of DeGuzman posing with his guns and homemade bombs. She and a coworker called police, who arrived at the drugstore and waited for DeGuzman. He was arrested when he returned for his photos.
De Anza evacuated over 10,000 students the next day in fear that DeGuzman may have planted bombs at the college, though no bombs were ever found. In the following weeks, Kelly Bennett was praised and credited with averting a tragedy. She appeared on local news, Good Morning America, and The Today Show.
Some critics believe that DeGuzman had no intention of following through with the plan and that he intentionally photographed himself with his arsenal as a cry for help because of years of depression. He was sentenced to serve time in prison, but shortly after took his own life by hanging himself in his cell. *
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Notable alumni
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Outdoor Artwork on Campus
"La Vita E Una Fontana" or "Life is a Fountain" by Salvatore Pecoraro Dec 1, 1991
"Longevity Turtle" by Elwood Martin Reynolds, donated by Dr. and Mrs. Alvin Rutner
"Time Graffiti" by David Middlebrook, 1997. donated by Mrs. Rena Frabony DeHart in memory of De Anza College Founding President A. Robert DeHart.
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See also
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