Museum Studies Week at St. Mary’s College
“Museums and Politics” is the theme for Museum Studies Week 2014 at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Events, all starting at 4:30 p.m., kick off Sept.16 with “Fighting for Museums in Congress,” a talk by Ben Kershaw, of the American Alliance of Museums, in Cole Cinema, Campus Center. On Sept. 17 Cristin Cash, director of the St. Mary’s Boyden Gallery, will host a hands-on, how-to workshop on museum curating in the Montgomery Hall Fine Arts Center. Sharyl Pahe and Clare Cuddy, of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, will conclude Museum Studies Week with the talk “Best Practices for Fighting Stereotypes in Museum Education” on Sept. 18 in Cole Cinema. All events are free and open to the public. St. Mary’s College is located at 18952 E. Fisher Road, St. Mary's City, MD 20686. For more information, contact Kenneth Cohen at kcohen [at] smcm.edu.
Board of Trustees General Session Meeting, Sept. 20
The next quarterly meeting of the St. Mary’s College of Maryland Board of Trustees will be held on Saturday, Sept. 20. The general session is open to the public and will start at 11:00 a.m. in the St. Mary’s College Glendenning Annex building (18952 E. Fisher Road St. Mary’s City, MD 20686). For more information, contact Kathy Grimes at 240-895-4382.
U.S. News Ranks St. Mary’s One of Nation’s Top Public Liberal Arts Colleges
U.S. News & World Report has once again recognized St. Mary’s College of Maryland as a top 100 national liberal arts college. In the publication’s “Best Colleges” 2015 edition, St. Mary’s is also ranked in the top six public liberal arts colleges in the nation and is one of only two non-military institutions in the top six.
St. Mary’s College also ranks third on the publication’s 2015 “Best Colleges for Veterans” list in the national liberal arts colleges category. The list is a compilation of top-ranked schools that participate in federal initiatives helping veterans and active service members apply, pay for and complete their degrees.
In other recent rankings:
The Princeton Review recently recognized St. Mary’s in the 2015 edition of its annual college guide, "The Best 379 Colleges." On a scale of 60 to 99, St. Mary’s is scored 92 for both quality of life and professor accessibility.
In Washington Monthly’s 2014 college guide and rankings, St. Mary’s is named among the nation’s top liberal arts colleges and among the top 10 Maryland colleges in Money magazine’s inaugural “Best Colleges for Your Money” list.
St. Mary’s is also named one of America’s “Top Colleges" by Forbes (2014), and has been named a 2014-15 public college of distinction by the Colleges of Distinction publication.
St. Mary’s is also included in the 2015 “Fiske Guide to Colleges” based on the college’s excellence in a broad range of topics of interest to students and their families. Among categories, Fiske scored St. Mary’s four out of five stars for academics and quality of life.
College guide rankings are based on several key measures of quality that include academic reputation, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, career outcomes, affordability, and student selectivity.
Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers in Person to Discuss Their Works at St. Mary’s College Film Series, Sept. 22, Oct. 20 & Nov. 10
“Where does documentary end and fiction begin?” This is the central question that unifies St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s eighth annual film series, “Hybrid Documentary: Enacting Actuality.” The series kicks off with Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Act of Killing” (2012) on Monday, Sept. 22, at 8:15 p.m. in the college’s Cole Cinema, Campus Center. The film series, presented by the Department of Theater, Film and Media Studies, is free and open to the public. Award-winning documentary filmmakers will be featured each Monday on Oct. 20 and Nov. 10. For more information, contact Mark Rhoda at marhoda [at] smcm.edu or 240-895-4231, or visit the TFMS website at http://www.smcm.edu/tfms.
VOICES Reading Series Starts New Season
For the first installment of the 2014-15 VOICES Reading Series at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, poet, essayist, and novelist John Lane will read from his works on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 8:15 p.m. in the college’s Daugherty-Palmer Commons (18952 E. Fisher Road, St. Mary's City, MD 20686). After the reading, Lane will talk with the audience during a brief question and answer period, followed by a reception and book signing. The VOICES Reading Series, presented in part by the college’s English Department, is free and open to the public. New writers will be featured each Thursday on Oct. 16, Nov. 20, and Dec. 11. For more information about the event, contact Jennifer Cognard-Black at 240-895-4233 or jcognard [at] smcm.edu.
Things Get Chilly for St. Mary’s College’s New President
Dr. Tuajuanda Jordan demonstrated Wednesday that she does not back down from a challenge. After being nominated by alumnus Stephon Dingle to do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, St. Mary’s College of Maryland’s new president readily accepted the icy dare that is attached to a good cause. “This is an incredibly important opportunity to get the word out about this disease,” she said.
View the video by clicking on this link: http://youtu.be/dJ_k3L2tBGY
Jordan assumed the role of president of St. Mary’s College on July 1. Her inauguration ceremony will be held Oct.18 on the college’s Townhouse Green.