Nearly a year after taking the wraps off its renovated O’Leary Building, officials with Southwestern Michigan College finally unveiled another great improvement at the building’s sister facility across campus last week.

In conjunction with the Greater Dowagiac Chamber of Commerce, SMC hosted an open house of its newly remodeled Daugherty Building last Tuesday during a special business after hours event. More than 50 business owners and professionals, leaders and others joined SMC administrators, faculty and staff in touring the renovated building, which is now open to students.

Once known as simply “the science building” when SMC first began classes in 1966, the Daugherty Building now features classrooms dedicated to humanities, communication and social sciences, with O’Leary now housing the college’s science courses. Both buildings — which had stood relatively unchanged nearly 50 years as two of the college’s original buildings — underwent $8 million worth of renovation work two years ago to bring them up to date with the college’s new focus on greater student-faculty interaction and collaborative learning.

Seeing the buildings in their new, spruced up state, it is hard to say that money was not a wise investment by the college.

For those who have been keeping up with the community college, witnessing SMC’s continual investment in its Dowagiac and Niles campuses should come as little surprise.

Several years ago, the college spent $3 million to improve its facilities at its Niles campus, making improvements to its student service center and science labs while creating a brand new student commons area, in line with look and atmosphere of the Student Activity Center at its main campus in Dowagiac.

Before that, the college chose to invest in creating several student-housing facilities on the Dowagiac campus in order to bring the traditional four-year college experience to students wishing to attend community college. The college’s three dormitory facilities continue to be a wild success, with students again occupying all available rooms at the start of the fall semester last month.

In spite of these and other continual improvements SMC makes on a regular basis, the college remains an affordable alternative to universities or private schools, providing great education, great facilities and a great atmosphere without breaking the bank for students and their families.

 

Opinions expressed are those of the editorial board consisting of Publisher Michael Caldwell and editors Ambrosia Neldon, Ted Yoakum and Scott Novak.