General Information
SANTA MONICA COLLEGE CATALOG 2021–2022
12
General Information
The Vision, Mission,
and Goals
Santa Monica College:
Changing Lives in the Global Community
Through Excellence In Education
VISION
Santa Monica College will be a leader and innovator in
learning and achievement. As a community committed to
open dialog and the free exchange of ideas, Santa Monica
College will foster its core values: knowledge, intellectual
inquiry, research-based planning and evaluation, academic
integrity, ethical behavior, democratic processes, com-
munication and collegiality, global awareness, and sustain-
ability.
MISSION
Santa Monica College provides a safe, inclusive, and
dynamic learning environment that encourages personal
and intellectual exploration — one that challenges and sup-
ports students in achieving their education goals. Students
learn to contribute to the local and global community as
they develop an understanding of their relationship to
diverse social, cultural, political, economic, technological,
and natural environments. The College recognizes that
each individual makes a critical contribution to the achieve-
ment of this mission.
Santa Monica College’s academic and career programs and
support services are intended to serve diverse individu-
als from local, national, and global communities who are
seeking high-quality, affordable undergraduate education.
The College offers certificates, Associate degrees, a bac-
calaureate degree, and streamlined pathways for transfer
to university and for career training. The College promotes
commitment to lifelong learning among students and the
communities it serves.
GOALS
To fulfill this mission, Santa Monica College has identified
the following Institutional Learning Outcomes and support-
ing goals.
INSTITUTIONAL LEARNING OUTCOMES
Santa Monica College students will:
• Acquire the self-confidence and self-discipline to
pursue their intellectual curiosities with integrity in
both their personal and professional lives;
• Obtain the knowledge and skills necessary to access,
evaluate, and interpret ideas, images, and information
critically in order to communicate effectively, reach
conclusions, and solve problems;
• Respect the inter-relatedness of the global human
environment, engage with diverse peoples,
acknowledge the significance of their daily actions
relative to broader issues and events;
• Assume responsibility for their own impact on the
earth by living a sustainable and ethical life style; and
• Demonstrate a level of engagement in the subject
matter that enables and motivates the integration of
acquired knowledge and skills beyond the classroom.
SUPPORTING GOALS
Innovative and Responsive Academic Environment
• Continuously develop curricular programs, learning
strategies, and services to meet the evolving needs of
students and the community.
Supportive Learning Environment
• Provide access to comprehensive student learning
resources such as library, tutoring, and technology;
• Provide access to comprehensive and innovative
student support services such as admissions and
records, counseling, assessment, outreach, and
financial aid.
Stable Fiscal Environment
• Respond to dynamic fiscal conditions through ongoing
evaluation and reallocation of existing resources and
the development of new resources.
Sustainable Physical Environment
• Apply sustainable practices to maintain and enhance
the College’s facilities and infrastructure including
grounds, buildings, and technology.
Supportive Collegial Environment
• Employ decision-making and communication
processes that respect the diverse needs of the entire
college community.
About SMC
GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP
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.
SANTA MONICA COLLEGE CATALOG 2021–2022
13
General Information
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
Curricula
Santa Monica College offers four types of curricula for stu-
dents 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 enhance-
ment.
Santa Monica College also provides the community with
many educational, cultural, social, and recreational pro-
grams to meet individual needs and personal interests. The
programs include seminars, lectures, not-for-credit classes,
art and photo gallery exhibits, concerts, theatrical produc-
tions, and planetarium shows.
Evening Classes
Santa Monica College offers a comprehensive selection of
classes scheduled during evening hours to provide educa-
tional opportunities to students who are unable or do not
wish to attend day classes. Evening classes are considered
an integral part of SMC’s educational program, and admis-
sion and enrollment procedures are the same for day or
evening classes. All College policies — including those on
admission, probation, and disqualification — 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 loca-
tions 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 educational program. All SMC policies — including
those on admission, probation, and disqualification — 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.
COLLEGE HISTORY
Four-year colleges and universities have their roots in
medieval Europe, but community colleges are a uniquely
American contribution to higher education.
Santa Monica College — located in the Santa Monica
Community College District and operated under the prin-
ciples first defined in School Law of California, 1917 — is
proud to be a part of that rich tradition of community ser-
vice 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 familiar
with financial constraints, SMC has thrived. Today, enroll-
ment is about 30,000 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, with one additional site under
construction, a first-ever Malibu satellite campus.
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 cere-
monies for the first classroom building were held September
11, 1950. With the completion of the Administration, Art,
Music, Library, Little Theatre, and Student Activities build-
ings 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 remain-
ing classes at the Technical School were moved to the main
campus in 1969.
By 1960, several new projects were built on campus: a spa-
cious 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 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
SANTA MONICA COLLEGE CATALOG 2021–2022
14
General Information
1981, followed by two more parking structures in 1991, and
another in April 2002.
In 1988, SMC opened its first satellite campus in the for-
mer Douglas Museum and Library complex at the Santa
Monica Airport. Two years later, the second satellite cam-
pus 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’s completely modernized three-story Science
Complex opened 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 addi-
tional properties: a new four-story office and classroom
building at 1227 Second Street, which became the perma-
nent 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.
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 recent facelift, and now
has a beautiful 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 subsequently received the
upgraded Silver BFU award. Along with the Sustainability
Center and active student clubs, SMC offers a ‘live labora-
tory,’ an organic learning garden, a recycling program for
electronic waste, commercial worm composting, and many
other opportunities for students to become environmental
leaders.
Three other buildings funded by Measures AA and V have
recently opened on the main campus. A 14,000-square-foot
building opened in 2015 to house SMC’s Center for Teaching
Excellence in addition to 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 under-ground 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, class-
rooms, 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 adja-
cent 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 that 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 newly 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 audito-
rium for screening films, a TV studio, and radio broadcast
labs.
The Santa Monica Early Childhood Lab School opens in fall
2021 as an innovative public-private partnership to train
and provide experience to SMC students choosing to be
early childhood educators. The 20,000-square-foot complex
provides care and educational programs for infant, toddler,
and preschool children.
Other current projects in design or construction include a
joint use project with the local school district for a 750-seat
auditorium adjacent to SMC’s main campus, and a new
satellite campus with classrooms, art studio, science lab,
community music hall, emergency operations center, inter-
pretive center, and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s substation
in the Malibu Civic Center area.
Santa Monica College was selected to be one of the first 15
California community colleges to offer bachelor’s degrees,
as part of a historic pilot program. SMC’s Bachelor of
Science Degree in Interaction Design will help prepare stu-
dents for careers as interaction designers and offer a gate-
way to professional and economic advancement for many
students. The first class graduated in June 2018.
To encourage more students into pathways toward careers
and further higher education, SMC expanded dual enroll-
ment opportunities for high school students, creating spe-
cial programs to give first-generation college students a
head start. Also, the SMC Board of Trustees waived enroll-
ment 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.
SANTA MONICA COLLEGE CATALOG 2021–2022
15
General Information
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 educa-
tion classes to meet the needs of the community through
such programs as SMC’s Emeritus program founded in
1975 to offer classes to people aged 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 also presents guest speakers, per-
formers, 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).
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
(for honors students planning to transfer to four-year insti-
tutions), Latino Center, African American Collegian Center,
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, STEM Learning and Leadership Innovation
Center, the DREAM program in support of undocumented
students, and the Guardian Scholars Program for foster
youth.
Santa Monica College’s academic excellence has always
been driven by world-class faculty who are here because
they believe in the power of the student-teacher connec-
tion. In the last decade, SMC has hired more than 120 new
full-time professors with distinguished credentials, repre-
senting the best in their fields. SMC’s Center for Teaching
Excellence — one of just a handful of such centers at com-
munity colleges — serves as a “pedagogical playground”
where instructors can learn how to address the challenges
of teaching in a multicultural and technology-driven world.
Today, Santa Monica College is accredited by the Western
Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and offers
courses in more than 100 fields of study. SMC is the
Westside’s leading job trainer and the nation’s undisputed
leader in transfers to the University of California system,
including UCLA. Additionally, Santa Monica College’s repu-
tation for quality attracts students from more than 100
countries around the world, and currently, more interna-
tional students choose Santa Monica College to begin their
higher education than almost any other community college
in America.
Community Support
SMC ASSOCIATES
The Santa Monica College Associates was established in
1981 by a group of community leaders committed to SMC
and its mission. The community-based support group pro-
motes, fosters, and encourages educational, scientific, liter-
ary, and artistic endeavors at the College. Funds raised by
the Associates are used to bring world-class guest speakers
and special events to SMC to stimulate student excellence
and enrich campus life. Membership in the SMC Associates
is open to the public, and yearly membership contributions
of $100 or more are entirely tax-deductible. For more infor-
mation, please visit the SMC Associates website at smc.
edu/associates or call 310-434-4100.
GENERAL ADVISORY BOARD (GAB)
The Santa Monica College General Advisory Board is a
College support group formed to build a bridge to the
local community, and gather feedback about what the
College does well, and what the College could do better.
The group is composed of diverse representatives from
neighborhoods, businesses, and public and private agen-
cies. GAB members serve at the invitation of the SMC Board
of Trustees, the President of the College, and the Dean of
Community and Academic Relations.
Through regular meetings, the GAB is kept informed
about current offerings, future plans, and special events.
General Advisory Board members also have the opportu-
nity for informative exchanges with College leadership in
an informal setting, as well as in-depth discussions with
key staff in various SMC departments and programs. More
information about the General Advisory Board is available
by visiting smc.edu/GAB or calling 310-434-4100.
SANTA MONICA COLLEGE FOUNDATION
AND ALUMNI RELATIONS
Santa Monica College Foundation attracts and manages
donations and strategic partnerships to invest in the suc-
cess of SMC students who come from diverse local and
global communities. The Foundation connects individual
and corporate donors, philanthropists, and community
supporters with opportunities to effect true change at a
world-class educational institution where equity, access,
and excellence come together.
The Foundation distributes upwards of $1.1 million in
scholarships annually, and manages $33 million in donated
funds to benefit a wide range of SMC academic programs,
named scholarships, and endowments. SMC Foundation is
an IRS-recognized 501c3 organization (ID# 95-6047779).
Donations are tax deductible, and the Foundation wel-
comes investment of many kinds, including bequests and
estate gifts, stocks and securities, vehicles, donor-advised
funds, and corporate sponsorships.
Ways to Invest and Get Involved:
• SMC Alumni. Whether students have taken just one
class or completed an Associate degree, they can
join the remarkable community that is SMC Alumni.
Students who join will receive updates on SMC and
fellow alum — “where are they now” — as well
SANTA MONICA COLLEGE CATALOG 2021–2022
16
General Information
as invitations to special events and donation and
involvement opportunities throughout the year. To
join, visit santamonicacollegefoundation.org or call
310-434-4215.
• SMC Associates brings renowned speakers and
performances as well as unique experiences to SMC
students and our larger community, both online and
in-person, free of charge thanks to donations.
• Scholarships, ranging from $1,000 to $30,000, can
be created and named in honor of a loved one,
favorite professor or to celebrate a special occasion.
Donors will know who they have helped with their
SMC Scholarship through thank you letters from their
student recipients.
• Meal Project provides assistance to students
struggling with food insecurity. 54% of SMC students
are food insecure, according to a recent research
survey in which SMC participated. SMC Foundation’s
Meal Project provides fresh, nutritious meals as well
as groceries through a drive-through campus food
pantry.
More information and ways to support any of these ini-
tiatives can be found at santamonicacollegefoundation.
ing 310-434-4215. Donations to Santa Monica College
Foundation are tax-deductible. SMC Foundation is an IRS-
recognized 501c3 organization, ID# 95-6047779.
