The Board of Trustees of the State University of New York voted on 9 April 1953 to create a two-year college under the auspices of the Auburn City School District. Auburn Community College was the first community college to be established by the SUNY system of colleges and universities.
Auburn Community College opened in September 1953 in the handsome building that had been James Street School. Sixty-nine students comprised the inaugural freshman class. Charles G. Hetherington, Ph.D., the superintendent of schools, was the first president of the college, succeeded in 1958 by Albert T. Skinner, who served until 1977. In 1959, the college relocated to a spacious new campus on Franklin Street.
The name of the institution was changed to Cayuga County Community College in 1975 when the county government became its sponsor. (For information about the college after Cayuga County assumed sponsorship, see Cayuga Community College.)
