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Save the dates!

The Presidential Inaugural Committee invites you to the inauguration of Dr. Joseph Urgo. Installation ceremony will be held Saturday, March 26, 2011, at 4 p.m. with inauguration weekend activities March 25 - March 27.

 

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Board of Trustees

Molly Mahoney Matthews was appointed Board of Trustees chair in May, replacing James P. Muldoon, who will remain on the Board. Matthews brings 25 years of experience in marketing and communications including founding and leading two firms, Matthews Media Group (1987-2000), and The Starfish Group. Matthews is also chairperson of The Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health. Benjamin Bradlee, vice presidentat-large for The Washington Post and longtime member of the Board was appointed vice chair; John Wobensmith ’93 now serves as treasurer, and Lawrence Leak ’76 as Secretary.

 

 

New DVD and Walking Tour

A new DVD entitled “Beginnings, a Photo Essay 1840-1970” is available for purchase at the campus store or at www.smcmbooks.com. “Beginnings” is a short DVD produced by St. Mary’s Press which weaves over 100 photos from the College Archives with music and text to illustrate student life from our early years as St. Mary’s Female Seminary to our fledgling years as a four-year college.

And there is also a new walking tour available for download as printed material or podcast at www.smcm.edu/publications. Experience the history of buildings and sites across campus with the melodious voice of local singer and songwriter David Norris accompanying you on the landscape

 

 

 

The Gulf Disaster

Biology professor Walter Hatch and aquatic toxicologist Carys Mitchelmore, associate professor at nearby UMCES Chesapeake Biological laboratory and adjunct professor at St. Mary’s, were among the experts CNN contacted in the aftermath of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, and they appeared in Dan Rather’s documentary, “A Gulf in Understanding.” Hatch and Mitchelmore have collaborated for years, studying tropical invertebrates in the Schaefer Hall wet lab, receiving NOAA funding for their work on oil and dispersant effects on corals. Mitchelmore has recently testified before Congress five times about the effects of the oil dispersant Corexit and dispersed oil on organisms. Dispersants break down a surface-oil slick into small droplets which corals can come in contact with or ingest with toxic effects. Hatch observed the negative effects of the dispersant and dispersed oil in the laboratory using environmentally relevant concentrations and exposure times.

Mark Twain

To kick off the centennial celebration of Mark Twain, an audience of 1,200 jammed the Michael P. O’Brien Athletics and Recreation Center in April to hear humorists, including NPR’s Peter Sagal, Mo Rocca, and CNN analyst Amy Holmes, analyze Twain’s relevance today. First-year students this fall read Huckleberry Finn, and there will be more Twain lectures and events throughout the rest of the school year.

 

 

 

 

 

Archaeology Update – Anne Arundel Hall Complex

Archaeologists from Historic St. Mary’s City continue testing around Anne Arundel Hall in preparation for construction of the new building complex which has been designed to avoid much of the known archaeological deposits. Limited excavations in previous years have identified evidence relating to sites ranging from the prehistoric period to the 17th and 18th centuries. This summer, additional areas containing well-preserved deposits were located. These efforts may uncover additional data pertaining to the 18th-century Hicks-Mackall plantation which once occupied this hillside. This is the first stage in a comprehensive archaeological project designed to assess, mitigate, and record cultural resources in areas to be impacted by construction. Visit aahallarchaeology.com

 

 

 

 

New Campus Community Farm

Dozens of volunteers have cultivated the new Campus Community Farm on Rosecroft Road in St. Mary’s City with plans to supply food to the school dining hall. The plots established for the farm’s first spring and summer seasons total a half acre in size, but Historic St. Mary’s City has graciously preserved up to five acres of land for community agriculture projects in the coming years. The project is a collaboration of the Sustainability Committee, Community Garden Club and Environmental Studies Program.

New Vice President for Advancement

Maureen Silva has replaced Torre Meringolo as vice president for advancement and executive director of the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Foundation. Silva comes to St. Mary’s from the University of Denver where she was associate vice chancellor and campaign director of their $600 million comprehensive campaign. Prior to that, Silva served at the Colorado School of Mines for 10 years. Silva received her doctorate in higher education, organization and governance this August from the University of Denver; an M.A. in nonprofit management from Regis University in 2004; and a B.S. in business communication from the Florida Institute of Technology in 1986.

 

 

 

 

Firsts for the Governor’s Cup Yacht Race

For the first time in the Governor’s Cup Yacht race, Special Olympics sailors and their partners commanded their own boat Voyageur, one of 123 yachts that raced in excellent weather from Annapolis to St. Mary’s City August 6-7. Also in the 37th-running of the race, the oldest and longest continuously run overnight race on the Chesapeake Bay, sailors, friends, and family could track individual boats through the night live by GPS.

In Politics

Three of the six Maryland Student Legislature members elected for the 2010-2011 term in Annapolis are St. Mary’s students. Andrew Horn ’11, of Silver Spring, was elected to serve as the student governor; David Chase ’12, of Murstons Mills, Massachusetts, will serve as attorney general; and Kevin Baier ’12, of Baltimore, will serve as secretary of state. “It is no small honor to note that three of the six elected officers are St. Mary’s College students,” says Todd Eberly, assistant professor of political science and interim director of the Center for the Study of Democracy.

Books

Christine Adams, professor of history, published Poverty, Charity, and Motherhood: Maternal Societies in Nineteenth-Century France (2010, Univ. of Illinois Press). Adams’ book explores how motherhood shaped the development of social welfare.

 

 

 

 

 

Assistant Professor of Philosophy Sybol Anderson’s latest book, Hegel’s Theory of Recognition: From Oppression to Ethical Liberal Modernity (2010, Continuum International Publishers) exposes the limits of liberal toleration as a response to contemporary modes of oppression. Anderson draws upon the work of G.W.F. Hegel to argue instead for recognition as the social practice that will guide liberal democracies toward the achievement of social equality.

 

 

 

Jennifer Cognard-Black’s “The Feminist Food Revolution” made the cover of the Summer 2010 Ms. magazine. Cognard-Black is associate professor of English and coordinator of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.

 

 

 

 

 

Björn Krondorfer, professor of religious studies, published his monograph Male Confessions: Intimate Revelations and the Religious Imagination (2010, Stanford University Press). It examines the confessional writings of St. Augustine, a Jewish ghetto policeman, a Nazi perpetrator, and American gay theologians. The book analyzes empathetically and critically the attempts of these men to reveal their innermost parts through their writings, and asks whether religion helps or hinders that process.