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CommunityGrandiose plans at St. Mary’s College
Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008
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Much attention has come to St. Mary’s College of Maryland for building its ‘‘yacht club” and boathouse not 25 feet off the St. Mary’s River on wetlands, fill dirt and on top of what was the likely point of first landing at St. Mary’s City. However, the real scandal is the hundreds of millions of dollars for new construction under President Maggie O’Brien’s tenure. The spending reminds me of a drunken sailor on liberty. Only difference is the sailor has to wait for his next paycheck. The college seems to have a never-ending supply of federal and state taxpayers’ dollars. They treat these grants, earmarks, etc. like they are Monopoly money. No, the dollars are not free.
They are taxpayers’ dollars and go to fund grandiose projects when the economy is in a downturn and governments are running deficits. Sadly, many of the dollars for new construction projects at St. Mary’s College would have been better used to build new schools in our community and update aging and deteriorating public school facilities.
St. Mary’s College is not subject to overview and spending of the Maryland Board of Regents like all other Maryland state schools (the other exception is Morgan State). A group of elitist, wealthy and politically connected board of trustees control spending.
It is my opinion, (I hear a lot of parents who can’t get their children into St. Mary’s College on a full-time basis) that the college is rapidly becoming an institution for the wealthy.
President O’Brien has become the queen of pork (aka, earmarks⁄grants). They provide the bacon for projects like the bridge over Route 5 built to satisfy O’Brien’s dream. It has been sold as a safety measure for the fourth-graders touring Historic St. Mary’s City and the college. Strange, all parents I’ve talked to say they have ridden the bus from Historic St. Mary’s City over to the college. Better yet, all field trips have chaperones so why not use school crossing guards like other schools and use the colorful tennis paddles to stop the traffic? No, O’Brien wants an overpass that will further desecrate the beauty of St. Mary’s City. From one who goes to the St. Mary’s City Post Office daily, I can tell you many of the students do not use the crosswalks in existence now and the location of the boathouse has made the situation worse.
So, how many more hundreds of millions of dollars are going to be spent at St. Mary’s College at the expense of our aging and deteriorating St. Mary’s County public schools. Time for a taxpayers’ Boston Tea Party. We need to tell our politicians at all levels (starting with Steny Hoyer, who sits on the St. Mary’s College Board of Trustees and decides how the funds are to be dispensed). Enough is enough! We don’t want our tax dollars going to fund ‘‘gold-plated,” frivolous, grandiose and unnecessary buildings at St. Mary’s College. Put our hard-earned taxpayers’ dollars to build, remodel and upgrade our aging public school systems here in Southern Maryland. It is the right thing to do in an area we all love so much.
Donald Beck, St. Mary’s County
The writer is a member of Citizens for the Preservation of Historic St. Mary’s City.
