Mel Powell, Ph. D., Executive Director, Southern Maryland Higher Education Center

HOW COMMUNITY LEADERS IMPLEMENTED A VISION FOR THE CREATION OF A CENTER FOR GRADUATE EDUCATION IN SOUTHERN MARYLAND

Since 1995 Southern Maryland’s citizens have been able to enjoy and benefit from the presence in Southern Maryland of distinguished universities and colleges delivering on-site a comprehensive array of graduate academic programs.

The credit for this unprecedented higher education opportunity belongs to the visionary and futuristic thinking of local Southern Maryland leaders in the Region’s business community, local elected county officials from all three counties, and state delegates and senators representing the region. These visionaries understood the historical relationship between the presence in a community of knowledge-based graduate technology education and successful economic growth, and had the fortitude and resilience to pursue a dream despite the advice and discouragement of higher education’s establishment that sought to dismiss and disparage their hopes and aspirations.

Over several years of planning and lobbying, these local leaders actively engaged in a campaign of information directed to the political leadership in the State’s capital. The effort convinced Governor Donald Schaeffer to facilitate a State grant to construct the Center’s first 14-classroom facility, a 22,000 square foot building built on a 25-acre campus donated for the purpose by Joseph Waldschmitt, developer of the Wildewood Technology Park.

What the local visionaries who campaigned for the creation of the Center realized in the early 1990’s was that the new thrust of technology knowledge being generated by the expanding Patuxent River Naval Base would serve as the catalyst for a significant expansion of the Region’s economic wealth. The creation of a graduate education institution focusing on professional fields of study would thus support a large-scale attempt to expand the social and physical infrastructure of the region that would in turn provide a new and expanded economic base. Their vision has become a reality.

The Center was legally created as a State higher education institution by legislation in 1994, and the completed classroom building opened its doors for academic instruction in the fall 1995 semester. Reflecting the Center’s success in recruiting academic programs, a second 21-classroom building was authorized and constructed by the State, and opened for classes in January 2003.

Today, some 83 academic programs are offered at the Center by 11 universities and colleges, including 45 master’s degrees, three doctorates, and 16 bachelor completion programs. An additional 19 graduate certificates and education certification programs are also offered. Included in SMHEC’s growing inventory of academic programs are 30 degrees in engineering and technology, from doctorates to bachelor completion programs. Also available are 20 graduate education programs including a doctorate, as well as academic programs in business administration, community and clinical counseling, law enforcement, nursing, and social services.

During the 2005-2006 school year, 242 classes were offered at SMHEC, with 2,762 class enrollments. During the 11-year period from 1995-1996 school year to the 2005-2006 school year, a total of 18,027 class enrollments have been taken by 17,465 individuals.

As an independent state higher education institution, SMHEC has a Board of Governors appointed by the Governor of Maryland. Thirteen individuals serve staggered four-year terms, representing the three counties in the region.

In addition to the incentives for personal professional growth now available with the presence in the Region of graduate professional programs, the need to travel from 120 to 200 mile round trips to attend evening classes after a day of work, for 15 weeks, has been eliminated. During the 11 years of SMHEC’s existence, the Region’s citizens have not had to make 261,000 trips to far off campuses, and have not had to drive 52,296,000 miles to attend the classes they can attended at SMHEC.

With five meeting rooms seating 50 to 500, and 30 classrooms that can be used as either breakout rooms or training rooms, and four computer laboratories, SMHEC has also become a venue for training and conference programs and special events such as the Annual Showcase for the St. Mary’s County Chamber of Commerce. The nearby Naval Air Station at Patuxent River has held thousands of training programs at SMHEC and conferences drawing a national audience.

In FY 2006, SMHEC hosted 356 training/conference programs serving 29,710 individuals over 43,234 training-days. An additional 178 meetings were held by governmental and non-profit organization, serving 3,786 citizens over 4,218 days of community activities.

Winston Churchill once postulated that “It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.” But the local leaders who lobbied for the creation of an independent Center had a vision that effectively looked a decade into a future of expanded economic and social growth for the Region, with local graduate education opportunities an indispensable and crucial element in the complex and sometimes mysterious weave of elements that constitute a high quality of community life. Like Winston Churchill in his finest hour, the Center’s founders had a vision that looked far into the future.

August 28, 2006