St. Mary's University College, Calgary

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St. Mary's University College


Motto	In Lumine Tuo Videbimus Lumen (In Your Light I See Light)
Established	September 18th, 1986
Type	Catholic & Open To All Faiths
President	Dr. Terrence Downey
Students	~600
Location	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
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. 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 dean is Dr. Mark Charlton. Serving as associate deans are Dr. Tara Hyland-Russell (Associate Dean of Students), and Dr. Norman Knowles (Associate Dean of Faculty). Currently serving as Department Chairs are Dr. Glen Chilton (Chair Mathematics & Natural Science's), The Rev. Dr. Peter Doherty OMI (Chair Social Science's), and Dr. Patrick Finn (Chair Humanities).

It was during during Dr. Downey's presidency that St. Mary's successfully achieved 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; a three-year Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in History; a three year Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in Psychology and a four-year Bachelor of Arts with a major in English. There are also active plans for three-year Bachelor of Arts degrees with concentration's in Social Justice, Catholic Studies, Canadian Studies, and Family Studies, and for a Bachelor of Education degree 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 accommodates 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.