Southwestern Illinois College

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Southwestern Illinois College is a community college and the sixth largest in Illinois, with campuses located in Belleville, Granite City, and Red Bud, plus 26 off-campus sites located throughout the district. With more than 100 diverse programs and over 1,000 classes that lead directly to degrees or employment, Southwestern's mission is to serve the diverse needs of citizens and businesses in the region.

Started as Belleville Junior College in 1946 and previously known as Belleville Area College, Southwestern Illinois College changed to its current name in 2000.

[edit] Transportation

Southwestern Illinois College's Belleville Campus is one of only two college campuses in the Bi-State region to offer direct MetroLink service from College Station. The only other college to currently offer direct MetroLink service is Washington University in Saint Louis, MO. The Red Bud Campuses and the Granite City Campus (now called Sam Wolf Granite City Campus as of 2006) can only be reached by road. The Sam Wolf Granite City Campus, however does have a MetroBus which passes through the Campus. The Belleville Campus also has a MetroBus connection as well as its MetroLink station.

Presently the Southwestern Illinois Belleville campus offers student IDs which also come with a semester-long MetroBus and MetroLink pass in which the student can use when riding on any Metro vehicle. The passes are only offered to Southwestern Illinois College Students that are either enrolled in classes for that semester, or are currently employed to work on campus. Because of this program, the college has recently received high remarks on its use of green transportation, in which a certain percentage number of students are using the train or bus to commute to the college.