St. Mary's University (Calgary)
Motto | In Lumine Tuo Videbimus Lumen (In Your Light I See Light) |
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Type | Catholic & Open To All Faiths |
Established | September 18th, 1986 |
President | Dr. Terrence Downey |
Students | ~600 |
Location | , , |
Campus | Urban, Enclosed Hilltop |
Website | http://www.stmu.ab.ca |
St. Mary's University College is a private Catholic liberal arts institution in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. As of the 2004/2005 school year there were approxiamately 550 students enrolled in courses at the college. The college officially became a university college on June 16, 2004, and granted its first degrees on September 25, 2004. St. Mary's celebrated it's 20th anniversary as a chartered educational institution on September 18, 2006.
St. Mary's cherishes dearly its Catholic roots, but also prides itself greatly on encouraging people of all faiths, and those searching for faith, to enroll and actively participate in all aspects of student life, academic and social. A major part of St. Mary's mission is to live in the ecumenical spirit of the Church, and bring together in love and dialogue, and through academic fervour, all faiths and peoples to create greater understanding and co-operation between what can often be deeply divided groups. The faculty and staff reflects the great diversity St. Mary's treasures. This is the basic character of St. Mary's, fundamentally Catholic but a haven for, and crossroads of, peoples, ideas, and faiths.
Serving as president of St. Mary's for the past 6 years has been Dr. Terrence Downey. As well, currently serving as deans are Dr. Tara Hyland-Russell (Dean of Students), and Dr. Norman Knowles (Dean of Faculty). Currently serving as Department Chairs are Dr. Glen Chilton (Chair Mathematics & Natural Science's), The Rev. Dr. Peter Doherty (Chair Social Science's), Dr. Michael Duggan (Chair Theology & Religious Studies), and Dr. Patrick Finn (Chair Humanities).
It was during during Dr. Downey's presidency that St. Mary's successfully acheived degree-granting status, thus elevating it from the status of simple college, and being primarily a transfer school, to being a university college and the third degree granting institution in the city of Calgary. (The first and second being The University of Calgary and Mount Royal College, respectively.)
St. Mary's currently offers three degrees: A three-year Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in General Studies; a three-year Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in English; and a four-year Bachelor of Arts with a major in English. There are also active plans for history and education degrees in the near future.
In addition to academic expansion, as of early 2006 the St. Mary's campus has been, and at time of the authoring is still, undergoing major change. The land upon which the campus is situated accomodates several buildings, dating from the early 1900's, designated as Heritage Building, as well as a wooden water tower also dating from the early 1900's, itself also a heritage huidling. As the buildings have heritage status, this legally forbids any alteration of their exterior, with the exception of repair, but this does not extend to their interior. Thus these building, are to be transformed into new classrooms, a bookstore, common areas and cafeteria. The watertower, meanwhile, has been braced, to protect it from collapse, and repainted in its original colour, Canadian Pacific Railway red, the only colour legally allowed, due to its heritage status.
St. Mary's Athletes and teams proudly sport the name Lightning and their team colours are blue and silver.
The 2006/2007 student council:
- President - Joshua Plumb
- V.P. Finance - James Walker
- V.P. External - Stacey Robins
- V.P. Internal - Richard Dur
- V.P. Events - Jenny Kondrat
- Student Rep. - Devin Cassidy
- Student Rep. - Mike Funke
- Student Rep. - Kristina Engel
- Student Rep. - Chantelle Murphy