News

SMC Board of Trustees Adopts Budgets

Following a public hearing, the Southwestern Michigan College Board of Trustees June 12 adopted balanced 2024-25 fiscal-year budgets. The $27,384,000 general fund budget for July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025, anticipates $10.976 million from tuition and fees, $7.782 million from property taxes on 2.3864 mills, $8.167 million in state appropriation and $459,000 from other revenue.

Staying Close to Home is Sometimes the Perfect Choice

At 45, Jayna (Peterson) Sobecki has been teaching Cassopolis children half her life. After her 23rd year at Sam Adams Elementary School, it’s been 26 years since her selection to speak at Southwestern Michigan College’s 1998 commencement. She had been Brandywine High School valedictorian, so the full-ride scholarship she received made it any easy decision to follow her parents to SMC, just as two younger brothers followed her.

SMC Wins 2023-2024 MCCAA All-Sports Trophy

For the first time in school history, Southwestern Michigan College Athletics has earned the Michigan Community College Athletic Association's most prestigious honor. The Charlie Chanter All-Sports Trophy, named after a former coach and professor at Grand Rapids Community College, is presented annually to the college with the most overall success in its programs.

‘I’m in Music for the Long Haul’

Wyatt Marshall Noack, Elkhart’s Texan, planned to move to Buchanan in March when the versatile musician got his first look at 1st Source Bank Fieldhouse Feb. 5. Noack, 24, graduated from Southwestern Michigan College in 2021 with honors and an associate degree in music, transferring to Indiana University South Bend (IUSB) to complete a year toward a bachelor’s degree in music technology. “Wyatt Marshall,” as he’s known professionally, is set to release his first rock album this summer as Y@.

SMC Goes for the Gold in Veterans Service

Melanie McGee traces her affinity for serving veterans to her grandfather, Louis Richmond. McGee’s diligence as Southwestern Michigan College student records specialist and SCO, or veteran school certifying officer, last summer clinched SMC gold-level status as a VFS, or Veteran-Friendly School, by the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency.

SMC’s First Professor Visits Campus

Robert Guntle was not only a charter member of Southwestern Michigan College’s faculty, he was SMC’s first instructional hire. Guntle, 90, joined the college in 1965 from Brandywine, the year before classes began, and stayed nine years as a biology professor, so it’s not surprising that whenever he’s in the area visiting family and friends, he stops by campus to see how things are growing.

SMC Hosts 202 from Area High Schools for Junior Day

Southwestern Michigan College hosted 202 high school 11th graders from Lawton (38), South Bend Career Academy (20), Decatur (35), Cassopolis Ross Beatty (27), Berrien Springs (22), Watervliet (four), Covert (16) and Kalamazoo Central (40) May 17 for Junior Day. Participants visited SMC’s Dowagiac campus for nuts-and-bolts advice on the college admission process.

SMC Celebrates Half a Century of Steve's Run

A lot has happened in the half-century spanning the Original Road and Trail Race to Steve’s Run, with the 50th running taking place on Friday, July 19, at 6 p.m. in downtown Dowagiac, in conjunction with the Summer Festival and BBQ Competition. Known as Steve’s Run since 1992, it left downtown in 2015 for Southwestern Michigan College’s campus, where it began in front of the David C. Briegel Building, named for SMC’s fifth president from 1981-98.

Boeing Engineer Shoots for the Stars with Satellites

Jenny Hinton came to Southwestern Michigan College from Monticello, Ill., for three semesters, graduating early in December 2018 with a straight-A average. In January 2019, she transferred to Utah State University for her baccalaureate degree in electrical engineering.

Cass County Bar Presents Law Day Liberty Bell to Dr. Mary Young-Marcks

Cass County Bar Association packed Chief Judge Carol Bealor’s courtroom May 10 to hear Law Day Liberty Bell recipient Dr. Mary D. Young-Marcks. Young-Marcks just retired after a record 40 ½ years on Southwestern Michigan College’s faculty teaching government, criminal justice, social work, cultural anthropology and history as a professor of social science.