At his final meeting as SMC president this week, Dr. Joe Odenwald left the Southwestern Michigan College Board of Trustees with some advice.
“The future is focused on the students and the culture they bring,” he said. “Leadership has a three-year plan to position the college for continued student enrollment growth. The Room to Grow campaign, launching today, means it will be hardhat-wearing season through 2028.”
Twin construction projects will expand the Charles O. Zollar Building to add a wrestling room and upgrade the Dale A. Lyons Building vocal and instrumental music facilities and to relocate the admissions office from the David C. Briegel Building.
“We owe much to Tony Leininger and the Carmi Design team” of Niles “for designing a plan to make these investments within our economic abilities,” Odenwald said. “The future Dowagiac campus has four strong anchors — our academic quad, fully updated in the past decade and a half; our expanded residential quad, which will soon include 426 spaces for on-campus living; the Student Activity Center, which in 10 months will be 11,000+ square feet larger and serving additional student athletes; and the Lyons Building, with a new choir room, an expanded band room, refreshed common areas and a new admissions suite over the next three years.”
SMC “has adapted time and again, as I spoke to in my first speech as president,” Odenwald said. “Students vote with their feet and they go where they can be themselves. These investments will insure our sustainability as a quality choice for students.”
“My advice is to keep listening to students,” he added, “not pundits or politicians. Higher education isn’t going anywhere. Graduates still make better wages. And if we give students room to grow, they’ll also become good people. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you for the past 7 ½ years, the past five as your president.”
Odenwald is leaving SMC to become president of Alma College on June 1.
Odenwald also reported 285 incoming students have already signed up for new-student orientation, which begins May 1.
