Merritt College

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Merritt College


Established	1954
Type	Community college
President	Evelyn C. Wesley
Students	6,000
Location	Oakland, California, United States
Campus	Suburban: 125 acres (0.5 km²)
Colors	Royal Blue, Gold and White
Nickname	Thunderbirds
Affiliations	California Community Colleges and Peralta Community College District
Website	http://merritt.peralta.edu

Merritt College is a two-year community college located in the hills of Oakland in Alameda County, California. Current enrollment is 6,000 students.

The college is part of the Peralta Community College District and was opened as a general campus in 1954 (it had been known as the Merritt School of Business, and along with what is now Laney College, operated by the Oakland Unified School District as Oakland Junior College, which became the nucleus of the Peralta Colleges). In 1966, two Merritt College students, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party.

The present campus was opened in 1971, the result of a 1965 bond issue which also established a new downtown Oakland campus building for Laney College and the founding of the College of Alameda.

Merritt College's occupational programs include nursing and health professions, community social services/substance abuse counseling, environmental hazardous materials technology, computer information systems, landscape horticulture and environmental management, paralegal studies, and restoration technology.