Santa Monica College Returns to Malibu after 20-Year Hiatus

• Classes Seen as First Step on Road to a Permanent Facility to Serve District Students

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

After more than 20 years, Santa Monica College has announced a pilot program to once again offer credit classes in Malibu. The program, designed to help the college plan a permanent campus in the Malibu Civic Center, is a requirement from a 2004 bond measure, that included funds for a Malibu satellite campus.
The pilot program will offer six general education classes in art, English, geography, photography and psychology. The classes will be held at Webster Elementary School on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, in the late afternoon and evening.
“We’re very pleased to be returning to Malibu with an offering of credit classes,” SMC President Chui L. Tsang stated in a press release. “This pilot program will help us determine the demand for courses and the best way to serve the Malibu community.”
While this is the first time in 20 years that SMC will offer credit classes in Malibu, the campus has provided dual enrollment classes for students at Malibu High School, and a limited number of noncredit courses through Emeritus College, a program for older adults, which have been described as “disappointing” by some seniors.
Longtime residents still talk about SMC’s community class offerings in the 1970s. The previous program included language, art and history and a one-of-a-kind offering called the Malibu Class, which explored the sociological and natural history of the area.
SMC has been working to reinstitute an educational program in Malibu since 2004, when Santa Monica-Malibu voters approved a $135 million bond measure that included $25 million for an instructional facility in the community.
The college is reportedly working with the City of Malibu and the County of Los Angeles to acquire land for the planned instructional center.
Spring semester classes begin Feb. 16. Information about the Malibu course offerings is now available online at: www.smc.edu.