Dakota County Technical College

Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) is a public, two-year technical college in Rosemount, Minnesota, United States. It is located in Dakota County inside the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. DCTC belongs to the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System and is one of five stand-alone technical colleges in the state. Approved by the 1969 Minnesota State Legislature, Dakota County Technical College started in 1970 with 50 students in three programs. The college's permanent site was a research farm formerly owned and operated by the University of Minnesota. The main building opened in 1973, offering 30 academic programs to nearly 700 students. At the state level, the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System Board of Trustees serves as the college's governing authority. In 2011, the school received a 10-year re-accreditation without conditions from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Institutions of Higher Education (NCA-CIHE). The college has had four presidents in its history. David L. Schroeder served from 1970 to 1999. Ronald E. Thomas, Ph.D., was DCTC's president from 1999 to 2013. Tim Wynes, J.D., who also served as president at Inver Hills Community College, led from 2013 to 2018. Starting July 2, 2018, Michael Berndt served as interim president of the two colleges and was confirmed as permanent president of both institutions in March 2020. The DCTC main campus is located on the outskirts of Rosemount, Minnesota, a city of 25,650 about south of St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota. The Rosemount campus houses the majority of the college's instructional programs, which are separated into seven academic departments (see below). The college is going forward with a prairie grass and wildflower restoration project on the Rosemount campus that is designed and maintained by faculty and students in the Landscape Horticulture program. DCTC also delivers 10 programs of study in the Business and Management department at the Partners in Higher Education building in Apple Valley Minn.