History of Harry S Truman College

Our History

Truman College began in 1956 as an unnamed "evening college" at Amundsen High School on Foster Avenue. From 1961 to 1976, it was Mayfair College, named for its new neighborhood and building, a former elementary school. In 1976, the college moved to Uptown and was going to be called Northeast Community College until Frank Sullivan, Mayor Richard J. Daley's press secretary, suggested naming it after President Harry S Truman, a lifelong proponent of higher education. Residents, afraid the college would attract outsiders and offer them nothing, painted a mural on the El supports facing the college that included the words, "This college must be for everyone." Those words guide Truman to this day.

Truman is the largest of the City Colleges of Chicago with a yearly enrollment of over 23,000 students, and has the largest English as a Second Language and GED program in Illinois with nearly 13,000 students annually. Truman students come from approximately 144 countries and speak approximately 92 languages. Nearly half are Hispanic. They live all over Chicago, but most come from communities close to the college. Truman College has the oldest and most successful two-year Nursing program in Illinois, as well as the state's only two-year Biotechnology program.

In addition to the main campus, Truman maintains nearly a dozen satellite campuses, the largest and most established being the Lakeview Learning Center on Clark Street in Wrigleyville. In August of 2008, the college undertook construction of a new student services center and parking structure, due to be completed in the fall of 2010. It will be named after the late State Representative Larry McKeon, a longtime friend of the college who was instrumental in bringing the project to fruition.

In all things, Truman College faculty and staff adhere to the core values of integrity and commitment, responsibility and accountability, respect and fairness, and diversity and inclusiveness.