20th century Santa Monica Junior College was established in September 1929 with seven faculty members and 153 students in classes held on the second floor of
Santa Monica High School. Attended primarily by high school students, it was originally part of the
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Despite the ensuing
Wall Street Crash of 1929 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 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 on
Pico Boulevard 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 was passed in 1946 for the construction of
Corsair Stadium, 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 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 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 as
Los Angeles Police Department officers, including
SWAT, cleared the campus. Local law enforcement stated that they did not view the incident as a "
school shooting" because the incident started off-campus. The motive was inconclusive.
2024 shooting On October 14, 2024, a shooting occurred at the Santa Monica College Center for Media and Design, where a custodial operations manager, Felicia Hudson, was critically injured. The incident took place just before 10:00 p.m., leading to her immediate hospitalization. She succumbed to her injuries and died two days later, on October 16. The shooting has been classified as a case of workplace violence, with the suspect identified as Davon Durell Dean, also an SMC employee. The motive was unclear. After an extensive manhunt, Dean was found deceased in his vehicle in Hawthorne, having died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The college closed all campuses for the remainder of the week to prioritize safety and support for the community. Classes resumed and the campus reopened again on Monday, October 21. The motive was unclear. ==Organization and governance==