Its main administration and largest campus sites are in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. In addition, other campuses are located in Chatham and Wallaceburg.[5] In 2007, St. Clair College expanded to downtown Windsor by purchasing the former City of Windsor owned Cleary International Centre, renaming it St. Clair College Centre for the Arts.[6] In 2009, St. Clair College bought the former City of Windsor owned Salvation Army building in downtown Windsor for $1. With a $5 million grant from the federal government, the building was turned into a state of the art journalism school; the first of its kind in Canada. In 2014, St. Clair College built a new sports complex at the main campus, called the SportsPlex.[citation needed][tone]
The college has its roots in the Western Ontario Institute of Technology, founded in 1958 to supplement the then-Ryerson Institute in Toronto, now Toronto Metropolitan University. With the advent of the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology, St. Clair was founded in 1966; the two institutions were merged a year later. Growth of the college has generally paralleled that of Windsor. Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology were established on May 21, 1965. It is an Ontario College of Applied Arts and Technology. The school was founded in 1966 as part of a provincial initiative to create many such institutions to provide career-oriented diploma and certificate courses, as well as continuing education programs to Ontario communities.[7]
In 2021-22 St. Clair College's student headcount of international students exceeded domestic students.[8] The unprecedented growth in international student enrolment has not been met with a corresponding increase in student housing at St. Clair College.[9]
The college has of student regulated governments that handle much of the student related activities at the college. They are the Student Representative Council (SRC), the Student Athletic Association (SAA), and the Thames Students Inc. (TSI).[citation needed]
On Monday, October 16, 2017, the team bargaining on behalf of the province's 24 Colleges and the OPSEU union representing 12,000 full-time faculty, partial load faculty, counsellors and librarians, could not reach an agreement, and all faculty entered a work stoppage.[11] On November 21, the strike was lifted and classes were resumed, however, many initial issues were not resolved.[citation needed]
