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Former name | Belleville Junior College (1946-1967) Belleville Area College (1967-2000) |
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Motto | Think it. Be it. |
Type | Public community college |
Established | 1946 |
President | Nick Mance |
Academic staff | 139 full-time, 700 part-time |
Students | 7,188 (Fall 2022) |
Location | , U.S. |
Campus | Suburban/urban |
Colors | Blue and white |
Nickname | Blue Storm |
Sporting affiliations | NJCAA - Great Rivers Athletic Conference |
Mascot | Kashmir the Snow Leopard [1] |
Website | www |
Southwestern Illinois College is a public community college in Illinois with campuses in Belleville, Granite City, and Red Bud. It also has off-campus sites throughout the district, including Scott Air Force Base and the East St. Louis Community College Center.
The college was founded in 1946 as Belleville Junior College, operating under the jurisdiction of Belleville Township High School District 201. More than 60 percent of the 169 students enrolled for its first semester were World War II veterans who had just returned from service.
In 1965, the Illinois General Assembly passed the Illinois Junior College Act, which created community college districts throughout the state. The following year, area residents voted to establish the Class I Belleville Junior College District 522. Belleville Junior College became Belleville Area College July 1, 1967.
Construction of the Belleville Campus on Carlyle Avenue was completed in 1971. In 1983, the college opened the Granite City Center, followed by the Red Bud Center two years later. Both sites received approval for campus status from the Illinois Community College Board in July 1985. In 1999, a vote to change the name of Belleville Area College was passed. On January 1, 2000, the college name changed to Southwestern Illinois College. [2]
The college has three campuses, on Carlyle Avenue in Belleville, in Granite City and in Red Bud.
The college offers associate degrees and certificates. SWIC also serves the community through Community Education, Programs and Services for Older Persons (PSOP), and Selsius™ Corporate and Career Training. [3]
From 2020 through at least 2022, SWIC has offered one-year long special vocational training in East St. Louis, Illinois using state grants varying in size from $1.2 to $1.4 million. Local residents (in a city with a 97.4% African-American population) are offered training in Welding, Nurse Assistant, Food Service, Forklift Training, and Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, Phlebotomy, Practical Nursing. Since 2019, 130 students have received credentials in this program. [4]
As of December 6, 2021, SWIC is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. [5]
There are no dorms on campus. Southwestern Illinois College has many clubs on all three campuses, including College Democrats and Phi Theta Kappa, as well as other college activities.
Every year the students elect someone to represent them on the Board of Trustees of Southwestern Illinois College.
College athletics teams are called the Blue Storm.
The William and Florence Schmidt Art Center is located on the Belleville campus of the college.
The campuses of Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville and Granite City are both served by public transit. The Belleville campus is served by St. Clair County Transit District. Route 16 provides Metrobus service from the campus to downtown Belleville, downtown Collinsville and other destinations. MetroLink service at College station is also available. [6] At the Granite City campus, Route 4 of Madison County Transit provides service to Madison, Granite City and Edwardsville. [7]
St. Clair County is the ninth most populous county in Illinois. Located directly east of St. Louis, the county is part of the Metro East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area in southern Illinois. As of the 2020 United States census, St. Clair County had a population of 257,400, making it the third most populous county in Illinois outside the Chicago metropolitan area. Belleville is the county’s seat and largest city.
Granite City is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, within the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. The population was 27,549 at the 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Metro East and Southern Illinois regions, behind Belleville and O'Fallon. Officially founded in 1896, Granite City was named by the Niedringhaus brothers, William and Frederick, who established it as a steel making company town for the manufacture of graniteware kitchen utensils.
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Metro East is a region in southern Illinois that contains eastern and northern suburbs and exurbs of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It encompasses five Southern Illinois counties in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area. The region's most populated city is Belleville, with 45,000 residents. The Metro East is the second largest urban area in Illinois after the Chicago metropolitan area and, as of the 2000 census, the population of the Metro East statistical area was 599,845 residents, a figure that had risen to above 700,000 in 2010. The significant growth in the Metro East is mainly due to people in smaller outlying towns in Illinois moving to the area for better economic/job opportunities.
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Stookey Township is a township located in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is an unincorporated part of Belleville, Illinois located just west of downtown Belleville, for that reason it is often referred to by locals as Belleville West. As of the 2010 census, its population was 10,007 and it contained 4,394 housing units.
College station is a St. Louis MetroLink station. This station serves Southwestern Illinois College and the Green Mount Commons shopping center on the eastern edge of Belleville, Illinois. It is also a large commuter station featuring 598 park and ride spaces and 25 long-term spaces.
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