Founded in 1972, Five Towns College holds an Absolute Charter issued by the New York State Board of Regents.
[2] The college's name comes from the original proposed campus, which was to be in Lawrence in southwestern Nassau County, New York, an area known as "The Five Towns".
[3] The college offers associate, bachelor, master's and doctoral degree programs through eight academic divisions.
[11] Five Towns' Lorraine Kleinman and Stanley G. Cohen Memorial Library/Learning Resource Center offers digital and bound collections of material to support its academic programs.
The library also includes an Educational Technology Center for the training and development of online learning skills for students and faculty.
The college also includes a smaller performance studio, costume shop, and set design and construction workshop.
The college operates a broadcast transmission facility for its FCC-licensed radio station at Riverhead, NY under the call sign WFTU.