St. Mary's College of Maryland President Is Stepping Down After Era of Growth
By Jenna Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Jane Margaret "Maggie" O'Brien is planning to step down as president of St. Mary's College of Maryland, but students will still be able to find her on campus, maybe even in their classrooms.
O'Brien, who announced last week her plans to resign by 2010 or sooner, if a successor is found, is credited with intensifying the school's curriculum and elevating its national standing, landing it on several magazine lists of top public colleges. She has also been seen as an approachable administrator who jokes with students. Many call her Maggie.
O'Brien, 55, said she plans to continue her fundraising work for the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Oxford, England, and will teach at the college in St. Mary's City.
"It will be an extension of what I have done already," she said. "We've been talking about it for a while . . . and I am very excited about it."
In coming weeks, the board of trustees will begin the search for a new president. O'Brien said she estimated that the process will take about eight months.
O'Brien became president of the college in 1996 and continued the work of her predecessor, Edward T. Lewis, to step up the school's academic rigor. In the mid-1980s, Lewis successfully fought to keep the school independent of the University of Maryland system and filled its board of trustees with affluent people who helped its endowment balloon.
The school was designated a public honors college by the Maryland legislature in 1992 because of its honors-level curriculum, small class size and independent study opportunities.
Under O'Brien's leadership, the college raised millions of dollars for construction, scholarships, professorships, lecture and learning series, and arts, athletic and community programs, such as free summer concerts. The college's international study abroad program was expanded and flourished.
"Maggie O'Brien has done an exceptional job as president of St. Mary's College, positioning the college as one of the premier liberal arts institutions in the country," U.S. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said in a statement last week.
"Her tenure is marked by a period of progress and increasing recognition for the academic quality of the college and its students," he said.
In 2002, the college established the Center for the Study of Democracy, which organizes public lectures and offers scholarships. O'Brien also formed a partnership to help preserve Historic St. Mary's City, Maryland's first capital, while providing learning opportunities for students.
During O'Brien's tenure, the college has grown from 1,600 students to 2,000, and the percentage of full-time students who live on campus has increased from 60 to 85 percent.
"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.
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