Opening day found 117 students enrolled on Campus, which was comprised of one building of the James A. Garfield High School plant on East Sixth Street, and another 267 nursing students enrolled to take classes at the General Hospital. On opening day, the college had twelve faculty in place. The college was organized around six major occupational and cultural fields. These were: Business; Industry; Civics, Health, and Welfare; Homemaking and Fine Arts; the Cultural Heritage; and Agriculture. Enrollments increased steadily, and thus the Board of Education purchased a thirty-seven acre (which grew to 82 acres) site at the base of Repetto Hills, on Brooklyn Avenue just west of Atlantic Boulevard. Four movable bungalows were erected, and in February, 1948, East Los Angeles Junior College became firmly established on its present site in the City of Monterey Park. The first Director (President today) of ELAJC was Dr. Rosco C. Ingalls.

Our campus today consists of state-of-the-art facilities, and is the largest community college in California. In a typical semester, we serve over 30,000+ students in all age ranges from traditional college age to senior citizens. We have a 22,000 seat football stadium, and a number of fully equipped theaters, including the Ingalls Auditorium, which is one of the largest in Southern California, and the Vincent Price Art Museum. In 1997, the South Gate Educational Center was established to extend ELAC’s reach to the growing student population in that area. Almost all of the fifty-two states and many foreign nations are represented by the students. The college now offers classes in dozens of locations, including local High Schools and Community Centers in East Los Angeles. The college has developed into an active force in the educational world and in its wealth and variety of services offered to the student. The  college employs over a thousand faculty and staff dedicated to student success and academic excellence.

The East Los Angeles College that everyone dreamed about has finally come into fruition. Our master plan for permanent structures to be erected is finally realized, and our students are graduating and transferring in numbers that dwarf almost every other similarly sized Junior College in the state of California. Our dream that ELAC would one day become a truly great representative institution in American education is now a reality, and we look forward to continuing the great work and the legacy for our future and past students and for our East Los Angeles Community. ELAC will be opening its new South Gate Campus in 2022 and the LEED Certified 105,000 square foot state-of-the-art institution will include a library, lecture hall, classrooms and laboratories for the career technology education, liberal arts and science programs.