In response to Sen. Dyson

[silentrequiem]

weirdtab posted a Washington Post article yesterday which mentioned that MD State Senator Dyson wants to introduce legislation to the state legislature to put St. Mary's under the purview of the University System of Maryland. As anyone who has gone to SMCM knows, THIS IS A BAD IDEA to the Nth degree

Comments

[nekedgurl]

The emphasis on "research" brings in a lot of money, both State and Federal grants, which helps keep tuition costs lower. As for the attention on students, in my experience that varies on the department/major.

After St. Mary's I went to grad school at UMUC, a USM school, and it was and still is very much student oriented. College Park, UMBC and other large campuses are a very different environment from any smaller school. A large campus needs the extra funding brought in by research funding. This research funding is especially helpful to doctoral and post doctoral students who depend on grant funding to pay their salaries.

The amount of attention students get is corelational to the department they are enrolled under. Also, at larger schools students, especially at the graduate level, have more expectations upon them. Especially an expectation to be leaders and accept the responsibility that comes with advanced learning. UMUC there is too much attention and "hand holding" given to graduate students.

UMBI (Biotechnology Institute), Shady Grove,and UMCES (Center for Environmental Science) are all smaller institutions and are all run completely differently from each other. Each USM institution is different. Decisions should not be based on a lack of understanding of these differences. I would urge any St. Mary's student to research the organizational culture at an institution before deciding to go there. Certainly before deciding to from an opinion based on the experience at one of the schools and not as a whole. I know people who have attended a majority of the USM institutions and the culture and experienced at each is unique to that institution.

In order to survive St. Mary's will have to change to reflect it's environment. The school as secluded as it is has a lot of issues coping with the increased attendance, supporting student needs, and developing a graduate program. If changes aren't made the school will not grow or adapt to the external environment around it. The end result is a stagnation in antiquated policies and and inability to deal with the environment that exists outside of St. Mary's county.