Santa Monica College (SMC) is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

community college A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school (also known as senior se ...

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

. Founded as a junior college in 1929, SMC enrolls over 30,000 students in more than 90 fields of study. Although initially serving primarily pre-college

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

students, the college quickly expanded its enrollment to educate college-age students and

non-traditional students A nontraditional student is a term originating in North America, that refers to a category of students at colleges and universities. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) notes that there are varying definitions of nontraditional s ...

with the primary intention to transfer to a four-year university. It is one of the few schools which has high transfer rates to four-year universities such as the Universities of California or California State Universities. Today, two-thirds of students at Santa Monica College are enrolled part-time. With over 2,000 employees, SMC is a major employer in the

Greater Los Angeles Area Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino Coun ...

and has a significant impact in the region's economy. Occupying the entire Santa Monica Community College District, SMC is the only public institution of

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...

in Santa Monica. The main campus, located on

Pico Boulevard Pico may refer to: Places The Moon * Mons Pico, a lunar mountain in the northern part of the Mare Imbrium basin Portugal * Pico, a civil parish in the municipality of Vila Verde * Pico da Pedra, a civil parish in the municipality of Ribeir ...

, is the college's largest location. The college operates five satellite campuses across Santa Monica. SMC is the leader in California's system of 113 community colleges in transfers to the University of California system. Since 1929, SMC has provided job training, educational opportunities and cultural enrichment through its radio station

KCRW KCRW (89.9 MHz FM) is a National Public Radio member station broadcasting from the campus of Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California, where the station is licensed. KCRW airs original news and music programming in addition to program ...

(89.9 FM), the Broad Stage at the SMC Performing Arts Center, and lifelong learning through distinctive programs such as its Emeritus College for older adults.

History

20th century

Santa Monica Junior College was established in September 1929 with 7 faculty members and 153 students in classes held on the second floor of

Santa Monica High School Santa Monica High School, officially abbreviated to SaMoHi, is located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1891, it changed location several times in its early years before settling into its present campus at 601 Pico Boulevard. It is a part o ...

. Attended primarily by high school students, it was originally part of the

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnigh ...

. Despite the ensuing

Wall Street Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange coll ...

and Great Depression, the school's enrollment increased to 355 in 1930 and 600 in 1931. In 1932, the college moved to the vacant brick Garfield Elementary School building on Michigan Avenue. The building was declared unsafe following the

1933 Long Beach earthquake The 1933 Long Beach earthquake took place on March 10 at south of downtown Los Angeles. The epicenter was offshore, southeast of Long Beach, California, on the Newport–Inglewood Fault. The earthquake had a magnitude estimated at 6.4 , and a ...

and classes moved to tents and bungalows on the Garfield site, which students nicknamed Splinterville. In 1940, following a number of failed attempts to relocate to a larger property, the school purchased 6.18 acres on

for $10,197. In 1945, the junior college changed its name to Santa Monica City College. The Pico Boulevard and 17th Street campus opened on January 18, 1952, to 1,200 students. The college's first

bond measure A municipal bond, commonly known as a muni, is a bond issued by state or local governments, or entities they create such as authorities and special districts. In the United States, interest income received by holders of municipal bonds is often, ...

was passed in 1946 for the construction of

Corsair Stadium Corsair Field is an artificial turf stadium in the main campus of Santa Monica College. Details Corsair Field opened with the expansion of the campus to its current site in the early 1950s. It is the site of Santa Monica College events and many ...

, which began in 1946 and was completed in 1948. In 1969, the college secured its own governing board under the creation of the Santa Monica Junior College District. In 1970, the school changed its name from Santa Monica City College to Santa Monica College.

Financial crisis

Santa Monica College experienced a financial crisis in 1972 when the state of California changed the

age of majority The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the contr ...

from 21 to 18. Since the state paid $40 more per unit of attendance of minors than adults, the change cut SMC's budget in half. Additionally, state funding for community college students in California went to the student's home district and not the college's district. SMC had a contract with the City of Los Angeles to finance students from Los Angeles but since one-third of SMC students were from districts outside of Los Angeles the city would lose even more funding. As a result, Los Angeles planned to cancel its financial compensation contract with SMC. The college consequently sent termination letters to all faculty and staff, effective September 1972. The crisis was halted on March 8, 1972, when the California State Senate passed a bill temporarily exempting community colleges from the financial effects of the change in the age of adulthood. On March 21, 1972, the college renegotiated its contract with the City of Los Angeles and rehired its faculty and staff. In 1980, the college built a new library and transformed the previous library building into the Letters and Science Building.

21st century

In 2012 Santa Monica College received national attention due to a controversial plan to create a two-tier system of education in which more "popular" courses would be offered at higher costs. Protests at a board meeting immediately following the plan's proposal led to several students being pepper sprayed. A report on the event resulted in an officer's dismissal. The report also faulted several members of the protest for provoking officers. Some people exclaimed "We got pepper sprayed! We won" after the incident.

2013 shooting

On June 7, 2013, a

killing spree A spree killer is someone who commits a criminal act that involves two or more murders or homicides in a short time, in multiple locations. The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics defines a spree killing as "killings at two or more locations ...

occurred in Santa Monica that left a total of five people dead, including the gunman and injured five others. The incident started several miles off-campus before the gunman traveled to SMC and entered the college's library, where he was later fatally shot by police. School officials put the campus on

lockdown A lockdown is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks (such as COVID-19) that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison ...

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

officers, including SWAT, cleared the campus. Local law enforcement stated that they did not view the incident as a "

school shooting A school shooting is an attack at an educational institution, such as a primary school, secondary school, high school or university, involving the use of firearms. Many school shootings are also categorized as mass shootings due to multiple c ...

" because the incident started off-campus.

Organization and governance

Santa Monica College is the only college of the Santa Monica Community College District, a constituent community college district of the California Community Colleges System (CCCS). The district is governed by its seven-member board of trustees and its officers including the Superintendent/President. The district territory includes Santa Monica and Malibu. The trustees are elected at-large from registered voters within the district for four years. A student trustee also participates in board meetings as a non-voting member and is elected by the students for one year. The board appoints and supervises the superintendent/president and sets district policy. The Superintendent of the Santa Monica Community College District/President of Santa Monica College has delegated authority to set rules and regulations for the district and Santa Monica College. The superintendent/president is accountable to the board, and all other officers are accountable to the superintendent/president. The board of trustees includes a student trustee in accordance with board policy BP 2015. The student trustee is elected and removed in accordance with the constitution and by-laws of the Associated Students of Santa Monica College.

Campus

SMC's main campus is located at 1900

and is the college's largest location. The college operates five satellite campuses across Santa Monica: * Bundy Campus, 3171 S. Bundy Dr. * SMC Performing Arts Center & Music Academy, Santa Monica Boulevard at 11th Street * Center for Media and Design, 1660 Stewart St. * Emeritus College, 1227 Second St. * Airport Campus, 2800 Airport Ave

Academics

The Santa Monica College Arts Mentor Program provides certain students in the fine and applied arts with graduate-level training by professionals in their specialized fields. Santa Monica College offers a variety of occupational certificate programs, including accounting, fashion design, office information systems, and the Academy of Entertainment Technology (which offers certificates in interactive media and animation). The college also offers logistics and supply chain programs at AAS and certificate level. Santa Monica College is ranked number one among California's junior colleges in transfers to the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

, and

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. It is located on the west side of the city near Playa Vista. LMU is the parent school to Loyola Law School, which is located ...

. SMC is one of few community colleges that has a

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, most commonly known as NMR spectroscopy or magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), is a spectroscopic technique to observe local magnetic fields around atomic nuclei. The sample is placed in a magnetic fie ...

instrument for research purposes.

Accreditation

Santa Monica College is accredited by the

Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) is an accrediting organization in the United States. It accredits private and public colleges that provide students two-year education programs and confer the associate deg ...

(ACCJC).

Athletics

Santa Monica College fields 18 sports, eight men's teams and competes as a member of the

California Community College Athletic Association The California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) is a sports association of community colleges in the U.S. state of California. It oversees 108 athletic programs throughout the state. The organization was formed in 1929 as the Calif ...

(CCCAA) in the

Western State Conference The Western State Conference (WSC) is a college athletic conference that is affiliated with the California Community College Athletic Association. The conference was established in 1950, making it the oldest community college conference in Califo ...

(WSC) for all sports except football, which competes in

Southern California Football Association Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, ...

(SCFA). The mascot for SMC is Pico the Corsair. Pico the Corsair derives his name from Pico Boulevard, one of the four main streets which form the exterior perimeter of the campus. He sails on the ship the Lady Sixteen with his pet Pearl the Parrot while carrying his Sword of Silberkraus. The Lady Sixteen and Pearl are named after 16th street and Pearl Street respectively. SMC fields both men's and women's teams in

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, cross country, soccer,

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

, and

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

. SMC fields men's teams in football, and women's beach volleyball,

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

, and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

teams. Santa Monica College football played undefeated seasons in 1958, 1966, 1980, and 2015. Santa Monica College won the Junior Rose Bowl, the unofficial National Championship, in 1958 against

Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (NEO) is a public community college in Miami, Oklahoma. Established as the Miami School of Mines in 1919, NEO has an enrollment of approximately two thousand students. The Golden Norsemen is the school mascot. ...

on December 13, 1958. Santa Monica College Football is the defending two-time conference champion, for the years 2011 and 2012. Corsair Field (4,850) built in 1948, is home to football and track and field. The field was the starting point for both the men's and women's marathon events for the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the sec ...

held in neighboring

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Corsair Pavilion (1,600) is home to men's and women's basketball and volleyball teams, as well as the Hollywood Fame of the American Basketball Association The Santa Monica College men's volleyball team won the national intercollegiate volleyball championship each year from 1961 to 1966, except for 1965, when it lost the title to UCLA.

Student life

In the fall of 2015, there were 33,964 students enrolled at SMC. Of these students: * 37.4% are full-time. * 62.6% are part-time. * 52.8% are women. * 47.2% are men. The average age is 24.1 years. * 19 and younger: 30.7% * 20 to 24: 41.2% * 25 to 29: 12.8% * 30 to 39: 8.7% * 40 to 49: 3.5% * 50 and older: 3.1% Santa Monica College is the home of

(89.9 FM), a public radio station, broadcasting throughout the Los Angeles and Orange County area with an estimated 450,000 listeners. The station is the broadcast home of ''

Morning Becomes Eclectic ''Morning Becomes Eclectic'' (MBE) is a three-hour adult album alternative radio program first aired in 1977 and broadcast live every weekday from KCRW in Santa Monica, California. The show's name is a play on the Eugene O'Neill trilogy of plays, ...

''. As part of its hands-on media curriculum, the college produces its own weekly, student-run newspaper (both in print, and online) called ''

The Corsair ''The Corsair'' (1814) is a long tale in verse written by Lord Byron (see 1814 in poetry) and published by John Murray in London. It was extremely popular, selling ten thousand copies on its first day of sale, and was influential throughout the ...

''. The newspaper began as ''The SaMoJaC'' and was published every two weeks before being renamed ''The Corsair'' in 1945. Big Blue Bus 4811

SMC students have established a student body association named Associated Students of Santa Monica College (ASSMC). The association is required by law to "encourage students to participate in the governance of the college". ASSMC periodically participates in meetings sponsored by a statewide community college student organization named

Student Senate for California Community Colleges Student Senate for the California Community Colleges (SSCCC) was a task force established in 1988 by the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. SSCCC was originally known as the "Council of Student Body Governments" and then la ...

. The statewide Student Senate is authorized by law "to advocate before the Legislature and other state and local governmental entities".Section 76060.5
of the California Education Code. Retrieved 2018-5-10. SMC students who pay the $19.50 Associated Students fee at registration have unlimited access to the

Big Blue Bus Big Blue Bus (stylized, big blue bus) is a municipal bus service serving the city of Santa Monica and the greater Westside region of Los Angeles County. The service, operated by the city of Santa Monica, was founded on April 14, 1928 and thro ...

lines across Santa Monica and its adjacent neighborhoods, including a line on Lincoln Boulevard that accesses Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).

Notable alumni

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References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Venues of the 1984 Summer Olympics Buildings and structures in Santa Monica, California California Community Colleges Educational institutions established in 1929 Olympic athletics venues Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Universities and colleges in Los Angeles County, California Organizations based in Santa Monica, California 1929 establishments in California

History

20th century

Financial crisis

21st century

2013 shooting

Organization and governance

Campus

Academics

Accreditation

Athletics

Student life

Notable alumni

See also

References

External links