November 2007

It’s been a year since I was elected as a trustee for Santa Monica College. With Thanksgiving and New Year’s approaching, this seems like a good time for me to thank you for your support, to give you an update on my experience, and to tell you about some of the things we are accomplishing at SMC.

We are in good hands. I have enormous respect for and confidence in our president, Chui Tsang, and I enjoy working with him. My fellow trustees are thoughtful, intelligent, deliberative, and passionate about SMC. We work hard and well together to better serve our students and our community, both immediately and in the future. Our greatest asset is our staff and our faculty. I can’t tell you how many students I have met who tell me they have great teachers and love SMC. And I can also report that our faculty, administrators and classified employees are extremely capable, proud, and dedicated to their work.

SMC’s new buildings speak of our aspirations and expectations for our students. They are first class, beautifully designed, environmentally friendly facilities. These buildings, largely built with funds from community-passed bond measures, demonstrate our belief that our students and our residents deserve the very best.

I was of course aware of SMC’s stature as the #1 community college for transfers to the UCs. That is a very significant distinction and one we are all rightly proud of and committed to continuing. What I didn’t realize was just how many other programs SMC also offers and excels at. It is an institution that provides so many options and opportunities for our community. Please take a few minutes to look over some of the programs I have highlighted on the reverse side of this letter.

This has been an inspiring and humbling year for me. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve you as an SMC trustee and even more grateful to have such a wonderful institution here in our community to serve us all!

Enjoy the holidays.

Thanks, Cheers, and Onward,
Louise

What's Happening at SMC

We're #1
For the 17th consecutive year, Santa Monica College is the #1 community college in California for transfers to the UC system. SMC is also #1 in transferring African American students to a UC, #1 in transferring Latino students to a UC, and #1 in transfers to the UC-California State University systems combined!

Basic Skills Initiative
We’ve created a Basic Skills Task Force and are working hard to provide effective and supportive remedial instruction for students who enter SMC without the basic skills required for college level work.

Expanding Career Tech Opportunities
SMC has more than 30 career tech programs including preschool teacher training, nursing, cosmetology, animation, business, computer information technology, and photography. New this year, we’ve added training in the logistics industry, and automotive hybrid technology. We also have an award winning Small Business Development Center and are working closely with the Convention and Visitors Bureau to offer customer sevice “I Know Santa Monica” training to local hospitality industry employees.

Partnering with SMMUSD
Last year more than 500Santa Monica and Malibu high school students took one or more classes from SMC. High school students can enroll in classes at SMC and receive both high school and college credits. We are working closely with SMMUSD to facilitate enrollment and expand offerings, to offer new collaborative programs for struggling students, and to better articulate math and English skills instruction so that all Santa Monica and Malibu graduating high schools tudents will be ready for collge level course work.

Global Citizens and Environmental Stewards
SMC has a new initiative to ensure that graduates will be informed and knowledgeable global citizens and environmental stewards. We recently approved an Environmental Audit to promote sustainability. We also implemented a new smoke-free campus policy this fall and opened the new Humanities and Social Science building, the first LEED certified community college instructional building in Southern California.

Transportation Management/Big Blue Bus Partnership
SMC has a very exciting new partnership with the Big Blue Bus. In an effort to decrease traffic congestion and parking woes, BBB has developed new routes and schedules that serve the college and SMC pays for students and staff to ride for no charge. The SMC-funded bus lines are a huge success–averaging nearly 3,000 SMC riders per day! This innovative partnership enables the BBB to expand services for residents too in hopes of building a more viable, sustainable, and appealing public transit system that every one will use.

And so much more!
The above is just the tip of the iceberg (but the end of the page.) For more information or to enroll in classes at SMC, please go to www.smc.edu. If you are looking for some exciting performances, lectures, exhibitions, or special events between now and the holidays, be sure to go to http://www.smc.edu/apps/agenda.asp?Q=0&C=agenda