Southwestern Michigan College has announced a new scholarship to help it close the gaps left open by state programs that pay tuition to community college for Michigan students.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer last year announced community college tuition would be free starting this fall for graduating high school students. However, SMC President Joe Odenwald tells us that only applies to students who live in the district of a community college.
“What it missed is students would have to remain in their district to take advantage of it,” Odenwald said. “So it would just cover in-district tuition and then there would be a gap. But the reality is we’ve got a lot of students in Michigan that don’t necessarily live in a community college. You’ve got a lot of differences in what community colleges offer in terms of both academic and extracurricular programs.”
The Green Light Guarantee from SMC will cover tuition for two years for students coming in from out of district. Odenwald says this gives also students options in case they don’t want to go to the community college located in their district.
“We just want to say, ‘The light’s green, come on, come to SMC.’ It’s a special place in so many ways.”
About 20% of Michigan residents do not live in a community college district. SMC had to reconfigure its existing financial aid programs to cover the Green Light Guarantee, and the program will go live in the fall of 2025.