Santa Monica College, commonly known as SMC, is a public community college centered on its main campus at 1900 Pico Boulevard, with additional campuses and facilities throughout the area. The college enrolls more than 25,000 students and offers university-transfer programs, career and technical education, performing and visual arts, athletics, and lifelong-learning programs. SMC is particularly well known for its transfer program and has led the nation for more than 35 years in the number of students it sends to the University of California system. Its facilities and programs — including Corsair athletics, the planetarium, BroadStage, and its extensive music, theatre and arts offerings — also make the college an important part of Santa Monica’s cultural life.

The college opened on September 10, 1929 as Santa Monica Junior College, with just 153 students and eight faculty members meeting in three classrooms on the second floor of Santa Monica High School. After the 1933 Long Beach earthquake damaged the high school campus, the college temporarily operated from other locations, including a collection of wood-frame structures, and in 1940 began acquiring land for what became its present Pico Boulevard campus. It was renamed Santa Monica City College in 1945, Corsair Stadium opened in 1948, and the first permanent classroom building on the current campus opened in 1952. In 1971, reflecting its growth beyond the city itself, the school adopted its present name, Santa Monica College.

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