By Dr. David M. Mathews, president, Southwestern Michigan College

If you have the opportunity to drive by the south end of the Dowagiac campus, you will notice the college’s third student-housing facility is well on its way to being fully enclosed.

The roof is on, windows are installed, and the brick exterior is nearing completion. Construction will continue throughout the winter on the interior of the building, which will open to students in the fall of 2013. Downtown Dowagiac on West Railroad Street, the brick exterior of the new museum location in the former Behnke Paint Building is also nearing completion.

What is less visible than these two projects is the renovation  underway in the former museum area, which will be home to the college’s new bookstore, alumni and development offices and a significantly expanded meeting room for community events.

Also behind the scenes, the groundwork is being laid for the transformation of the current bookstore space in the College Services Building into a new one-stop Student Services Center. Once the bookstore moves to its new space, the new one-stop center will be created where students and prospective student will be able to take care of all business related to registration, advising and financial aid – all in one single, service-oriented spot.

Southwestern Michigan College is committed to planning and positioning  the organization for the future. This goes for facilities, programs, services and staffing. You may have read we have restructured the position of chief of staff to also serve as director of campus security, and we are excited that Thomas Atkinson, who is the director of public safety with the city of Dowagiac, will join the college’s leadership team next summer. We are even in the final stages of negotiations to bring yet another bachelor’s degree opportunity to the campus of Southwestern Michigan College. Stay tuned for the coming announcement, more exciting things are happening at SMC.