Megan McIlroy, The Examiner
2007-07-09 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. -

Jane Margaret O’Brien became president of St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 1996. She started her career as a member of the chemistry and biochemistry department at Middlebury College in Vermont, where she taught for 13 years.

She was president of Hollins University in Virginia for five years before taking the helm at St. Mary’s.

Raised in Annapolis, O’Brien earned a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College in 1975 and a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Delaware in 1981.

St. Mary’s is in the Chesapeake Bay region of Southern Maryland, about 100 miles from Baltimore.

Q What distinguishes St. Mary’s College from other liberal arts schools in the state?

A The emphasis on our international experience. All students need to study abroad. All students need to have a second language. And every student completes the equivalent of a thesis here. It’s called the St. Mary’s Project.

Q St. Mary’s is the state’s public honors college. What does that mean?

A It’s really a marriage between academic excellence and public access. So we have the opportunity for students to be in the most rigorous and talented pool of students in classrooms with comparable faculty, yet they come from a very diverse background.

Q Is there a hallmark of a St. Mary’s education?

A I would say a passion for more education. In five years, over half of our students either have a graduate degree or are enrolled in a graduate program. That’s twice the number of our peer liberal arts colleges.

Q The college recently announced it will rely on “green electricity” paid for with student fees. What does that say about the student body at St. Mary’s?

A The student body is extraordinarily activist in the environment. They’ve stepped up with contributions to assure the greenness of our next building [the River Center], and that has spawned a sense of personal responsibility.

It’s one thing to say that we support environmental causes. It’s another thing to say that, as part of our students fees, we are putting our money where our mouth is. And that’s what they are doing.

Q How does St. Mary’s location along the St. Mary’s River impact student life?

A About a quarter of our students in their first year will get out on the water and take sailing or kayaking classes. The water is a very big part of who we are. We are just finishing a new $6 million River Center. A third of it is devoted to the St. Mary’s River Project — one of the most progressive, intensive studies of an estuary of the Chesapeake.

Q Many liberal arts college presidents have been critical of the college rankings by news magazines. What’s your take?

A The criticism is that they are wealth indicators. And they are. But that’s the reality. Expenditures for instruction mean something. I am not one who fights the rankings. I watch them.

I think there is a difference between a school like Middlebury, where I taught for 13 years, and a school like St. Mary’s. They have an abundance of opportunities in the classroom that we can’t offer quite to the same level.

What we try to do is be very strategic. So we use Washington, D.C. very selectively as a place where we create internship programs for students.

It’s a way for us strategically to make up that difference. So I watch [the rankings] competitively because they tell me something.

FAST FACTS

» Founded: 1849

» Enrollment: 1,823

» Students from Maryland: 75 percent

» Faculty with doctorates: 94 percent

» Student-faculty ratio: 12-1

» Tuition, fees: $11,418, residents; $21,260, non-residents.

Source: St. Mary’s College of Maryland

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI

» Michael Morrissette, deputy public defender, State of Maryland

» The Honorable Althea Handy, judge, Circuit Court, Baltimore City

» Eric Daniels, vice president, BP Solar

» Cindy Broyles, vice president, Booz Allen Hamilton (international consulting firm)

» Anna Kenney, clinical researcher and faculty, Sloan-Kettering Institute on cancer biology and genetics

» Ann Hohenhaus, chair, Department of Medicine, Animal Medical Center of New York City

» Robert Reif, chief resident, Department of Neurology, University of Maryland School of Medicine

» Garner D. “Butch” Morgan, president-elect, Maryland State Dental Association

Source: St. Mary’s College of Maryland

mmcilroy@baltimoreexaminer.com

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