Union County College (previously known as Union County Junior College, Union Junior College and Union College) traces its founding to the opening of Union County Junior College on October 16, 1933 in Abraham Clark High School, Roselle, N.J., with an enrollment of 243 evening students.  It was the first of six Emergency Relief Administration projects in New Jersey. When federal aid was terminated in 1936, the College became an independent, nonprofit institution governed by a Board of Trustees composed of educational, professional, and business leaders in the community. A day session was added in 1942 and the College moved into its own building in Cranford a year later. Following a Silver Anniversary Development Fund Campaign, the College in 1959 moved to its 48acre Campus in Cranford.

Union County College was established on August 17, 1982, through a consolidation of Union College, Cranford, N.J., a twoyear, independentlygoverned college, and Union County Technical Institute, Scotch Plains, N.J., a publiclygoverned institution.  From 1969 to 1982, Union College and Union County Technical Institute had provided collegelevel programs for Union County in lieu of a county college under contracts with the Union County Coordinating Agency for Higher Education.  In 1970, Union College opened two urban campuses in Elizabeth and Plainfield, Union County's major urban centers. In 1971, Union College entered into contracts with Elizabeth General Medical Center (now Trinitas Hospital) in Elizabeth and Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield to jointly conduct a Cooperative Program in Professional Nursing. In 1975 the College opened an Institute for Intensive English in Elizabeth, providing intensive English instruction for speakers of other languages. The Institute is now the largest provider of ESL instruction in the State of New Jersey.

Major branch campuses were opened in newlyrenovated facilities in 1992 in Elizabeth, N.J., utilizing the eightstory headquarters of the Elizabethtown Gas Company, and in Plainfield, N.J., utilizing the threelevel CourierNews Building.  In 1999, the Plainfield campus was expanded to include an annex that houses instructional space for Emergency Medical Technician/Paramedic training and a state-of-the-art laboratory for American Sign Languages and Deaf Studies.

The Cranford Campus was enhanced in 1991 with the opening of The Commons, a student life building; in 1994 with the development of the Center for Visual Arts and Communications in the lower level of the MacKay Library; and in 1995 with an addition to the Campus Center known as the Pavilion, providing a Fitness Center, Executive Education (teleconferencing) Center and other facilities.

Union County College and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey opened the Regional Health Education Center in the Health Technologies Building at the Scotch Plains Campus in 1994 to jointly offer programs in the health professions. In 1999, UMDNJ designated the jointly operated site as its fifth campus in the state.