Columbia State Community College is a two-year college located in Columbia, Tennessee. Founded in 1966, it serves nine counties in middle Tennessee through five campuses. Columbia State is notable as the first of Tennessee's community colleges. Columbia State Community College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award the associate degree. On June 22, 1965, the State Board of Education approved Columbia as the site of Tennessee’s first community college. The Maury County Quarterly Court approved a resolution to purchase the 204-acre (83 ha) Hickman farm and pledged $250,000 to aid in the construction of the college. The first students enrolled in 1966 and attended classes in temporary sites throughout the city prior to completion of the administration, gymnasium, library, maintenance, student center, and science buildings in 1967. The new campus was dedicated on March 15, 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson and the first class graduated in June 1968. In January 1988, Columbia State began offering courses in the Yates Vocational Center in Franklin.