Leader to Leave School With High Marks

"In terms of student life, the college was absolutely turned upside down," said Torre Meringolo, the school's vice president of development. "We went from having very modest facilities to now having a campus to die for."

O'Brien sought students in the District, in part to add racial and economic diversity to the rural campus. In 2001, she gave three D.C. public school students full scholarships after learning that they had been promised a free college education by a Bethesda-based foundation that had gone out of business. She said she often visited inner-city high schools in search of "unusual scholars" who might not meet traditional admissions standards but have great potential.

"Our success rates with those students are one of the things I am most proud of," she said.

Today, students of color make up about 20 percent of the student body. About 70 percent of students receive financial aid, and one-fourth are the first in their families to attend college.

O'Brien's presidency has not been without controversy. In 1998, five gunmen took over a bus carrying 16 St. Mary's students and teachers on a college-sponsored trip in Guatemala. The men robbed the passengers and raped five women during a two-hour ordeal.

The quiet campus was immediately bombarded with TV cameras and reporters. At the time, O'Brien said that the college had carefully reviewed consular reports before the trip and that organizers had done all they could to protect the students. In 2002, the college paid three of the victims a combined $195,000 to settle a lawsuit.

Terry Hartle, an official with the American Council on Education, said O'Brien handled the crisis "with grace and enormous leadership. It was obviously a tragic incident in the college's history, but it didn't define the institution."

Locally, O'Brien was criticized by some residents about the college's expansion plans. Beginning in 2007, neighbors of the college protested the construction of two buildings on the banks of the St. Mary's River and asked why they were not included in the planning process. A few people accused the college of being elitist and operating above the law.

Staff writer Susan Kinzie contributed to this report.