St. Petersburg College

St. Petersburg College (SPC) is a public college in St. Petersburg, Florida. Part of the Florida College System, SPC offers several associate and baccalaureate degree programs. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
SPC was established in 1927 as St. Petersburg Junior College by Captain George M. Lynch, the city superintendent of schools for St. Petersburg. It was founded as a private, non-profit institution to provide affordable, local access to higher education during the economic downturn preceding the Great Depression. The college began with 102 students and 14 faculty members in a wing of St. Petersburg High School. After one semester, it moved to a former high school near Mirror Lake and later, in 1942, to its current location at the St. Petersburg/Gibbs Campus. The institution became public in 1948.
In 1962, a second campus was established in Clearwater, following a study indicating a need for expanded educational facilities in northern Pinellas County. Over time, SPC expanded to eleven campuses and centers across Pinellas County.
In 1957, Gibbs Junior College, a segregated institution for Black students, was established and later incorporated into SPC in 1965, becoming the "Gibbs Campus."
SPC operates eleven campuses and centers across Pinellas County, including four in St. Petersburg and others in Seminole, Pinellas Park, Largo, Clearwater, and Tarpon Springs. The college does not offer on-campus housing due to the decentralized nature of its campuses. Many campuses specialize in specific fields; for example, the Caruth Health Education Center in Pinellas Park focuses on health care programs, while the Seminole Campus is known for its technology programs.
The Seminole Campus also houses the University Partnership Center, which offers select degree programs through partnerships with 16 accredited institutions. These include universities such as Florida State University, the University of Florida, and the University of Central Florida. SPC offers 60 bachelor's degrees and 39 graduate degrees through these partnerships.
Reconstruction of the Gibbs and Clearwater campuses included LEED Gold Certified buildings, marking the first such certification for higher education facilities in Pinellas County.
SPC has eight campus libraries, including joint-use libraries that serve both the college and the public. These libraries provide access to print and electronic resources, including books, academic journals, streaming media, and research databases. Students can also access digital reference services through AskALibrarian.
The SPC athletic teams, known as the Titans, compete in the National Junior College Athletic Association and are members of the Suncoast Conference. The college offers men's teams in basketball and baseball, and women's teams in basketball, volleyball, tennis, and softball. The Titans softball team participated in the first Women's College World Series in 1969.
Notable SPC alumni include U.S. Representative Gus Bilirakis; Henry Lyons, former president of the National Baptist Convention; Jim King, former president of the Florida Senate; Frank Wren, former general manager of the Atlanta Braves; Bob Carroll Jr., creator of I Love Lucy; astronaut Nicole P. Stott; and musician Jim Morrison, who attended SPC briefly.
SPC collaborates with the Multijurisdictional Counterdrug Task Force Training and the Florida Army National Guard to provide tuition-free training for criminal justice professionals. Additionally, SPC is partnered with the Combating Transnational Organized Crime Center of Excellence, offering training to support U.S. Department of Defense strategies.