Southern Michigan University

Southern Michigan University was a relatively recent (fictional) college in 2004. It was located in Hawthorne, Michigan on the campus of a former small religious school, Hawthorne College. Its founding was to follow a philosophy and a "plan on de-emphasizing the liberal arts and concentrating more on science and technology education, along with doing a few other innovative things that would be harder to do against a traditional atmosphere."^SU15 "It really was more of a tech school than a liberal arts school, but the courses seemed very practical and career-oriented."^SU19 While program selection might be limited, they also offered extension courses from several other colleges, including Notre Dame.^SU19

Dr. Mark Thompson was President and Chancellor of SMU.

Susan McMahon and Mizuki Takashita were enrolled there in May 2007.^SL2

In 2007 it consisted of a mixture of old and new buildings, the majority of them red brick in a style a century or more old, but some buildings were ugly modern masonry that seemed out of place. The university admissions office was an older building toward the center of campus. It did not have much of an endowment fund and offered almost no scholarships. It also had little campus housing. On the plus side, they were flexible, focused more on academics than on athletics, and had no requirement for dormitory residence for freshmen.^SK32

No dorm requirement for freshmen was attractive to Susan, and later to Cody Archer and Janice Archer in 2008, and Jack Erikson, Vixen Hvalchek, Alan Jahnke and Summer Trevetheck in 2011. No intercollegiate athletics, particularly football, was attractive to students who had suffered from arrogant jocks in high school.

Parking space was extremely limited so the University leased a parking lot a couple of miles away and ran shuttle buses to and from the campus.

Buildings

• Tottenhaven Hall, also known as T-Hall or Old Main housed the administration.
• Wyndam Science Center built with a huge grant from California software company Wyndam Systems was centered on the fifty yard line of the football field to emphasise that sport was not part of education.
• Charlie, Echo and Foxtrot halls, dormitories remaining from the Hawthorne College period.
• Community Services Center later named the Archer Community Services Center^SLH38
• SMU Auditorium the former chapel, from which all religious symbols had been removed.
• The Student Union housing the cafeteria and snack bar.

Real World Note

There is no "Southern Michigan University", however the University of Michigan has multiple campuses, including Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint.