[6] The local ratio of area high school graduates attending college in Cass county changed from one of the lowest in the state to one of the highest.
[7] The college is located three miles (5 km) outside of Dowagiac, Michigan city limits.
[16][17] Because of the dispute, the board had to award the contact to the second lowest bid of $739,600 from Cosnick Construction Company of Benton Harbor, Michigan.
[16][17] The state assistant superintended Ferris Crawford issued a quote saying that "Cass County Community College District has an inadequate tax bases and is in financial trouble."
[29] Although then-president David Mathews and the board of trustees filed a lawsuit against the state attempting to challenge the "constitutional authority" of the state office to audit community colleges, the Michigan Court of Claims dismissed the case.
[29] The Michigan Office of Retirement Services started its own investigation and found the college could owe up to $10.4 million for improperly/intentionally excluding up to 500 part-time students from the system.
[29] The Office of the Audit General alleged that emails from 2015 "unequivocally demonstrated that current administrators communicated the college's noncompliance to the president," who signed the certification forms, the report said.
[29] The state legislature issued a fix in Public Act 328 of 2018 which ended the dispute.
Under Public Act 512 clarified that $257,569 is what was due to the state from the college, only $210,000 in past retirement contributions, the rest was late fees and interest.
SMC also offers bachelor's degrees on the Dowagiac campus through a partnership with Ferris State University, allowing students to take three years of classes at SMC's low tuition and pay only one year of the university's tuition.
Additionally, the college has partnered with Michigan State University to help students earn an MSU certificate while also working toward an associate degree.
Students take at least 21 credits from SMC, which are recognized by MSU toward completion of a certificate.
In the early 1970s SMC had a strong intercollegiate athletics program, gaining national recognition for cross-country.
The main campus houses 10 buildings: The Student Activity Center (SAC) in the Charles O. Zollar Building houses a fitness center, rock climbing wall, café, student theatre, and game room complete with pool, foosball, ping pong, arcade games, and video games.