About SMC

Santa Monica College — a diverse and dynamic community of individuals from around the world — is committed to promoting global citizenship among its students, faculty, staff, and community.

To be a global citizen requires:

• Knowing about peoples, customs, and cultures in regions of the world beyond one’s own;
• Understanding the interdependence that holds both promise and peril for the future of the global community; and
• Combining one’s learning with a dedication to foster a livable, sustainable world.

To support its commitment to the development of global citizenship, SMC provides its community with a variety of courses, lectures, special events, and other educational opportunities to explore international and global issues, environmental challenges, and intercultural relationships.

Curricula

Santa Monica College offers four types of curricula for students to choose from, depending on their goals.

The general education curriculum offers a prescribed core of general education courses that provide opportunities for lifelong learning in various fields, including fine and applied arts, literature, foreign languages, science, and many other instructional areas.

Students desiring to transfer to a four-year college or university may take a transfer curriculum consisting of academic courses that meet college and university lower-division major requirements in liberal arts, the sciences, and a variety of pre-professional fields. After completing the transfer curriculum at Santa Monica College, students may apply to transfer to a four-year educational institution to complete their upper-division coursework.

The career preparation curriculum prepares students for immediate employment or occupational upgrading. This can be done in two years or less of full-time training at Santa Monica College. Persons who are already employed may take courses that lead to promotion or salary enhancement.

Santa Monica College also provides the community with many educational, cultural, social, and recreational programs to meet individual needs and personal interests. The programs include seminars, lectures, not-for-credit classes, art and photo gallery exhibits, concerts, theatrical productions, and planetarium shows.

Evening Classes

Santa Monica College offers a comprehensive selection of classes scheduled during evening hours to provide education opportunities to students who are unable or do not wish to attend day classes. Evening classes are considered an integral part of SMC’s education program, and admission and enrollment procedures are the same for day or evening classes. All College policies — including those on admission, probation, and dismissal — apply equally to day or evening students.

Online Classes

Through its Office of Distance Education, Santa Monica College offers a selection of classes online over the Internet, which may be accessed from home, office, or other locations by using a computer with a browser and Internet access. Classes offered online are especially convenient for students who, for a variety of reasons, are unable or prefer not to travel to the SMC campus to attend classes. Online classes, like evening classes, are considered an integral part of SMC’s education program. All SMC policies — including those on admission, probation, and dismissal — apply equally to online students as they do to day or evening students. Online classes cover the same content, award the same credit, and are listed on student transcripts in the same way that on-campus classes are; they differ from on-campus classes only in their delivery method. For details on SMC’s online classes, enrollment procedures, and technical requirements, students should go to smc.edu/OnlineEd or see the Schedule of Classes.

Hybrid classes are a combination of online-delivered coursework and mandatory meetings on the SMC campus. Please see the Schedule of Classes for details about specific on-campus meeting dates, times, and locations for hybrid classes.

While four-year colleges and universities have their roots in medieval Europe, community colleges are a distinctly American contribution to the higher education landscape.

Santa Monica College — located in the Santa Monica Community College District and operated under the principles first defined in School Law of California, 1917 — is a proud part of that rich, storied tradition of community service and public education.

A seven-member Board of Trustees, elected to a four-year term by the residents of Santa Monica and Malibu, governs the Santa Monica Community College District. A student-elected representative with an advisory vote serves on the Board as Student Trustee.

The College opened its doors as “Santa Monica Junior College” in 1929 to 153 students.

Although born on the eve of the Depression and therefore no stranger to financial constraints, SMC has thrived. Today, enrollment is over 25,000 students. The College, which began by holding classes in Santa Monica High School, is now located on a 40-acre campus at 1900 Pico Boulevard and has six satellite campuses, including SMC’s first in Malibu, a gorgeous three-acre campus serving the needs of the Malibu community.

Santa Monica College has been headquartered at three locations since it opened. Classes were moved from the high school to an old elementary school building across the street. When a 1933 earthquake rendered that building unsafe, classes were held in a village of wood-framed tents affectionately nicknamed “Splinterville.” The Technical School was founded in 1937 at 2200 Virginia Avenue, which is now the site of Virginia Avenue Park.

Corsair Stadium, the first permanent structure built on the present campus, was erected in 1948. Groundbreaking ceremonies for the first classroom building were held September 11, 1950. With the completion of the Administration, Art, Music, Library, Little Theatre, and Student Activities buildings in January 1952, all classes except the vocational ones and the science labs were located on the new campus.

SMC’s original Science Building was completed in February 1953. Three vocational buildings were added in 1957 for the cosmetology, sewing, and home economics programs, which were moved from the Technical School. The remaining classes at the Technical School were moved to the main campus in 1969.

By 1960, several new projects were built on campus: a spacious gymnasium with men’s and women’s locker rooms, a cafeteria building with classrooms, an enlarged student bookstore, and an addition to the library. Santa Monica College continued to change through the years, with new construction and the relocation of many classes to satellite campuses. Major construction projects throughout the years have included the Concert Hall in 1979; the Library, Learning Resources Center, and Instructional Materials Center in 1980; and the Business and Vocational Education Building in 1981. In 1983, the former library was renovated and renamed the Letters and Science Building. A four-story parking structure was completed in 1981, followed by two more parking structures in 1991, and another in April 2002.

In 1988, SMC opened its first satellite campus in the former Douglas Museum and Library complex at the Santa Monica Airport. Two years later, the second satellite campus opened at the former Madison Elementary School site at 11th Street and Arizona Avenue in Santa Monica, known now as the SMC Performing Arts Center. The College opened its third satellite facility in February 1998, a 3.5-acre campus on Stewart Street in the heart of Santa Monica’s media and entertainment business district and dedicated to instructional programs in entertainment technology and design.

The College opened a completely modernized three-story Science Complex on the main campus in fall 1999, and a major expansion of the SMC Library opened in fall 2003. Both award-winning projects were funded by Proposition T — a bond measure approved by local Santa Monica and Malibu residents in 1992 — and earthquake restoration and other funds from the Federal and State governments.

In recent times, Santa Monica and Malibu residents have approved four safety and modernization bond measures to upgrade and enhance SMC’s facilities. The first of these, Measure U for $160 million, was approved in March 2002. The second, Measure S for $135 million, was approved in November 2004. The third, Measure AA, for $290 million, was approved in November 2008. The fourth, Measure V, for $345 million, was approved in November 2016. With funding from Measure U, the College acquired two additional properties: a new four-story office and classroom building at 1227 Second Street, which became the permanent home for SMC’s Emeritus program in fall 2003, and a 10.4-acre site near the Santa Monica Airport at Bundy Drive and Airport Avenue. The Bundy Campus — SMC’s largest satellite campus — opened in summer 2005 and is home to SMC’s Health Sciences and Education programs.

Most recently, in November 2022, local voters approved Measure SMC allowing for the issuance of $375 million in general obligation bonds. These will make possible much-needed updates to existing SMC career training facilities, create new housing for eligible low-income students, and provide technology upgrades to meet emerging needs in the post-pandemic world.

On SMC’s main campus, a modernized replacement Theater Arts instructional building opened in fall 2007, along with a 64,000-square-foot Humanities and Social Science Building. At the SMC Performing Arts Center, a professional-quality 541-seat performing arts theater (the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage) opened in fall 2008.

SMC’s main campus underwent a facelift, and now has a gorgeous quad with palm trees and environmentally friendly water features. Through its Sustainability Center, the College has embarked on an ambitious, award-winning program to develop and implement campus sustainability initiatives and research.

One of the greenest campuses in the state, SMC became the first community college in California to earn a Bronze-level Bike-Friendly University (BFU) award from the League of American Bicyclists, and has subsequently received the upgraded Silver BFU award, in two consecutive years — SMC remains the only California Community College to earn this certification. Along with the Sustainability Center and active student clubs, SMC offers a ‘live laboratory,’ an organic learning garden, a recycling program for electronic waste, commercial worm composting, and many other opportunities for students to become environmental leaders. The College took yet another step to help fight climate change by planting the first microforest on a U.S. community college campus.

Three other buildings funded by Measures AA and V have opened in the past decade on the main campus. A 14,000-square-foot building opened in 2015 to house SMC’s information technology resources. A 66,000-square-foot three story structure, the Core Performance Center, opened in 2017 and is home to SMC’s dance and athletic programs, with spacious dance studios, men’s and women’s locker rooms, physical fitness labs, and a climbing wall. The building also houses a central cooling system for the campus. A new spacious three-story Student Services Center and underground parking garage opened in summer 2019. Also, a new site has been acquired immediately adjacent to the main campus and a project to house all of SMC’s visual arts programs is underway. Under construction on the main campus is a major new addition to the Science Complex that will house additional labs, classrooms, and study spaces for math and science.

At its Bundy Campus, SMC acquired an additional three acres adjacent to the campus for use for additional overflow parking and for future program expansion.

At the Performing Arts Campus, SMC has acquired a 26,000-square-foot three-story commercial building adjacent to the campus as offices for the theater staff and presenting company. A new 21,000-square-foot three-story wing for the Center opened in 2017 and provides a large Music Hall for rehearsals, performances, and special events; a piano teaching lab; and a classroom for voice and choir instruction.

SMC’s rebranded SMC Center for Media and Design — formerly the Academy of Entertainment and Technology — reopened in fall 2017 and features an expansion and remodeling of the original campus to accommodate design and media-related programs. The bachelor’s program in Interaction Design is also housed there, along with SMC’s NPR radio station KCRW. The campus features an auditorium for screening films, a TV studio, and radio broadcast labs.

The Santa Monica Early Childhood Lab School opened in fall 2021 as an innovative public-private partnership to train and provide practical experience to SMC students choosing to be early childhood educators. The 20,000-square-foot complex provides care and education programs for infant, toddler, and preschool children from the community.

In fall 2021, SMC celebrated with the local school district the opening of a new joint-use 750-seat auditorium adjacent to SMC’s main campus, and in spring 2023 SMC opened a new Malibu satellite campus with classrooms, art studio, science lab, community music hall, emergency operations center, interpretive center, and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s substation in the Malibu Civic Center area.

As part of a historic pilot program, Santa Monica College was selected to be one of the first 15 California community colleges to offer Bachelor’s degrees. SMC’s Bachelor of Science Degree in Interaction Design will help prepare students for careers as interaction designers and offers a gateway to professional and economic advancement for many students. The first cohort graduated in June 2018. The College continues to pioneer groundbreaking programs that meet local industry and environmental needs, while training students for transformative careers — a few recent examples include biotechnology, aquaculture, and homeless service work.

To encourage more students into pathways toward careers and further higher education, SMC expanded dual enrollment opportunities for high school students, creating special programs to give first-generation college students a head start. Also, the SMC Board of Trustees waived enrollment fees for high school students, and those who qualify can now take classes at SMC for free. SMC has also launched the “Santa Monica College Promise,” which offers free tuition and up to $1,200 in textbook vouchers to incoming full-time freshmen who qualify.

The coming of the first commuter train to Santa Monica in more than 60 years also led to a significant move that spelled out SMC’s importance in the community: the Expo Light Rail station at 17th and Colorado includes “Santa Monica College” in its name.

Over the years, the College has offered continuing education classes to meet the needs of the community through such programs as SMC Emeritus, founded in 1975 to offer classes to people age 55 and older, and SMC’s Community Education program, which provides a broad range of classes and workshops to individuals who wish to explore their personal interests or enhance their careers. The College has also been welcomed into the Age-Friendly University Global Network, a growing network of colleges and universities around the globe committed to becoming more age-inclusive in their programs and policies. SMC also presents guest speakers, performers, films, and other special events to the community, and brings the best of public radio to Southern California through its award-winning NPR station KCRW (89.9 FM), as well as arts and cultural programming from presenting company BroadStage at one of the region’s finest performing arts venues, The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage at the SMC Performing Arts Center.

Santa Monica College has responded to the needs of its increasingly diverse student body through such academic and counseling support programs as the Scholars program, Latino Center, Black Collegians Umoja Community, Center for Students with Disabilities, and International Education Center. The College boasts the largest student support system among all California Community Colleges, and the cornucopia of special programs has grown with the inclusion of programs like the Veterans Success Center, Young Collegians, Maximizing Achievement in STEM (MÁS) Program, the DREAM program in support of undocumented students, the Guardian Scholars Program for foster youth, and the RISING program, which serves students impacted by the justice system. Santa Monica College’s academic excellence has always been driven by world-class faculty who teach here because they believe in the power of the student-teacher connection and in the transformative possibility of an equitable, accessible education. The College has consistently hired professors and staff who are the best in their fields, and who have a demonstrated commitment to the community college mission. 

Today, Santa Monica College is accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and offers courses in more than 100 fields of study. SMC is the Westside’s leading job trainer and the nation’s leader in transfers to the University of California system, including UCLA. Additionally, Santa Monica College’s reputation for quality attracts students from more than 100 countries around the world, and the College ranks third in the nation for international students. SMC is now one of the most vibrant, diverse campuses in the nation.