The College of Technology is celebrating and commemorating its growth over the past seven decades by launching their Celebrating 70th Anniversary Campaign. The campaign not only seeks to raise money for the college but to celebrate the past while equipping future students with the best facilities and equipment available.
Through the years, the college has continued its commitment to educating and equipping America's workforce, first as a training facility to Navy personnel during World War II and now to training to students in 18 technology-related degree programs. The College of Technology is celebrating and commemorating its growth over the past seven decades through its Celebrating 70th Anniversary Campaign.
In 1961, University of Houston President Philip G. Hoffman announced that only programs for training engineering technicians, accredited by the Engineers' Council for Professional Development would be taught in the College of Technology. As a result six vocational programs (auto mechanics, auto upholstery and trim, furniture upholstery, machine shop, radio and television service, and welding) were discontinued. In 1962, the college offered 16 programs located in four permanent and nine temporary buildings; nine vocational offerings in the Industrial-Mechanical Division and seven engineering technology programs in the Technical Institute Division.
The university's status changed from a private to a state institution in 1963. The new state funding and lower tuition led to a university-wide boost in enrollment—which more than doubled between 1961 and 1971—and laid the ground work for a major demographic shift in the gender and ethnicity of students and faculty. As women and minorities began to enter the college, the once predominantly white, male student body began a slow but steady transformation.
The administration of Dean H.E. McCallick, the longest-serving dean in the COT's history, began in 1964. Four six-week summer programs for Polytechnic faculty in India began under the partnership of the Agency for International Development and the Ministry of Education in India.
In 1968, the coordinating board, Texas College and University System authorized the granting of the Bachelor of Science in Technology Degree. The first notice appeared in the 1968-1969 UH catalogs.