I woke up from a nap in my office the other day with the vivid memory of the dream I was having. My entire staff was working on old-timey Smith Corona typewriters when all of a sudden, out the window, I saw a massive tornado heading straight for us. I began shouting for everyone to get down into the basement...

When SMCPD’s Captain Raymond Bottenfield got the call that a shooter was loose on the Santa Monica College campus, he was off duty. He didn’t have time to change into his uniform or equip body armor. He reacted the only way he knew how — he grabbed his gun and headed to the scene. He and two Santa Monica Police...

Los Angeles is known for a lot of amazing things. Sunshine, celebrities, sandy beaches — the list goes on with so many things that, when added up, show what a great city LA is. One of the best aspects of the city is the car scene. Some of the most unique and expensive cars in the world are all right...

The bustle of the SMC Main Campus library is a familiar one. The sound of zippers closing and opening backpacks every few seconds. A student takes out an intellectual sandwich — two textbooks with a MacBook stuffed between them. Another student notices the time on his dimly lit computer screen and throws everything into his backpack, zips it abruptly and...

AS makes large contribution to bond measure campaign At the Monday morning Associated Students (AS) meeting, the AS Board of Directors approved funding totaling $125,000 for the Campaign for Safety and Modernization at SMC Committee to promote a potential major bond measure in upcoming fall elections. Don Girard, SMC’s Senior Director of Government Relations and Institutional Communications, presented the request...

Dressed in a scarf patterned with stars, pants covered with planets and hair adorned with pencils and plastic stars, guest lecturer and astronomical historian Shelley Bonus took over the John Drescher Planetarium on Friday night. To a crowd of nearly 30 attendees, she spoke about what we know about our solar system’s largest and possibly oldest planet Jupiter and its...

People attend SMC with the intention of leaving SMC. Most come to transfer, and many others try to get in and out with an Associate's in order to get into the job market as quickly as possible. This temporary nature doesn't necessarily foster a sense of community or school pride — a common trait of community colleges. Hosted by the...

In a sea of disagreement and contradicting points of view, one topic that has loudly come to the surface is that of gender equality. In what should be changed in the Declaration of Independence: All men and women are created equal. The most obvious advancement in the equality of genders is the very existence of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton,...

The 2016 Santa Monica College Corsairs men’s volleyball season reads like a film script. After reaching the state championship the past two years — losing in 2014 and winning the title last year — the team had to band together under a new coach to carry on the legacy of blood and thunder they inherited, and defend the team's title....

At only 17 years old, Alejandro Diaz de la Torre decided to move from his home in Madrid, Spain, to the U. S. As the son of a diplomat, he has lived in many different countries in his life, but decided that Los Angeles is where he would be pursuing his education. After spending one year at Kaplan, an English...