On-Campus Technology Overview

Southwestern Michigan College is committed to providing its students with state of the art network infrastructure and computer technology. The Computing Services Department at SMC is located in the Information Technology Center of the Barbara Wood Building and its staff support over 400 PC’s and 22 Macintosh workstations across 24 computer labs conveniently located at both the Dowagiac and Niles Area Campuses for student use. In addition, there are 45 internet café and kiosk workstations which are available whenever the college is open.

Campus Wide Security

Alertify is SMC’s emergency notification service provided free to students, faculty, and staff. This system is used to send safety alerts and advisory messages immediately to all phone numbers provided by SMC students, faculty and staff. Employees should contact the Human Resources department to provide contact information while students should contact the Academic Support office to designate their contact information. Multiple phones numbers may be designated.

Computer Labs

The computer labs support instruction and have a variety of applications pre-loaded such as Microsoft Office, WordPerfect and Adobe Creative Suite. Other applications that are used for specific curriculums like Spanish, computer-aided drafting and design, electrical systems technology, computer-aided machining, graphic design, math, science and nursing are also available. Many of these labs are equipped with supporting hardware such as black-and-white and color laser printers, scanners, and full support for USB flash drives.

The Teaching and Learning Centers located at both campuses provide access to the largest variety of software and have convenient open lab hours for students and community members with lab assistant on hand to provide help if needed. Individual tutoring sessions are also available. A detailed listing of open lab hours, software and hardware is available online by following the link to Open Computer Labs provided on this page.

Use of SMC equipment is governed by our Acceptable Use Policy. Please follow the link provided on this page to read and become familiar with the terms and conditions of this policy.

Computer Security

All SMC PC’s have anti-virus software with automatic updating of virus definition files and security patches. In addition, SMC scans all incoming and outgoing email for viruses and subscribes to anti-spam software used to verify the validity of incoming email by identifying characteristics typically used in unsolicited email.

Educational Pricing

Faculty, stuff and student of Southwestern Michigan College are eligible for discounts on computer hardware and software. Follow the Related Link for Educational Pricing to the Bookstore page for more details on hardware and software discounts.

SMC Wired

Each student automatically receives access credentials to the SMC portal named “SMC Wired” when they are accepted for admission to SMC. These credentials are included on the letter of acceptance mailed to each student. In addition, all Alumni keep their account to SMC Wired for life. SMC Wired is the communication tool that you can use to stay in touch with your instructor and other class member, gives all students and staff the ability to check e-mail, view online course material and announcements, access personal and course calendars, register online, access financial aid and registration fee information, statement/payment history, detailed student schedules and final grades.

Student Employment Opportunities

At the beginning of each semester, the Computing Services Department will hire student employees as computer lab assistants, administrative computing clerks, and office clerical support staff and for special projects and assignments. If you are interested in becoming a student employee with Computing Services, please read the instructions found under Student Employment linked on this page.

Wireless Access

WI-FI “hot spots” are available at both campuses and are setup to support Internet access using 802.11a/b/g wireless Ethernet. Look for the WI-FI Zone signs. Students can access the internet, library catalog and the campus portal, SMC Wired. Follow the link on this page for more details on wireless access locations.