Richard Bland College
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Richard Bland College of The College of William and Mary (or Richard Bland College or simply, RBC) is a public junior college with about 1,400 students located near Petersburg, Virginia. Named after Virginia statesman Richard Bland, RBC was established in 1960 by the Virginia General Assembly as a branch of the College of William and Mary, and was once considered part of the "Colleges of William and Mary" umbrella. While self-functioning, RBC is governed by William and Mary's Board of Visitors. Richard Bland College is currently the Commonwealth of Virginia's only public junior college (as the University of Virginia's College at Wise became a four-year college in the early 1970s). At Richard Bland, students have access to a library with over 67,000 books, 53,000 ebooks, 2,000 videos and 2,200 DVDs (largely due to an anonymous donor) and the VIVA Virtual Library.
Richard Bland was established in order to provide the first two years of college education, which would be followed by a transfer to William & Mary, or to another of the state's four-year colleges. To this end, RBC has formal credit transfer agreements with a number of Virginia colleges, including William & Mary and Virginia Tech.
Richard Bland College will soon become a residential college in the Fall of 2008. New things are set to begin taking place for the Fall Semester in 2008, including expansion of the library, and a new Student Affairs building being opened and on-site dorms being built within walking distance to the college.
