By Kenneth C. Rossignol

ST. MARY’S TODAY

ST. MARY’S CITY — While St. Mary’s College of Maryland has the highest tuition of any state college or university there may be a reason; it also has one of the highest paid college presidents in the country.

St. Mary’s College of Maryland Foundation, which raises money from the alumni, the community and corporate sponsors of events to enhance the college and fund scholarships for students saves it biggest bucks for the president of the college.

A lot of the funds raised by the Foundation go to enhance the financial largess given to the longtime college President Jane "Maggie" O’Brien.

In addition to O’Brien’s cushy salary funded by the taxpayers of Maryland, an ample $329,930, is another $329,753 from the Foundation, along with another $41,282 paid by the Foundation to her retirement plan. With her salary, her "compensation package" provided by the Foundation and another $120,000 in travel expenses provided for her, O’Brien is one of the most handsomely rewarded small college presidents in America. With a student population of just under 1,900, the college has fewer students than the average high school in Maryland.

With a disclosed pay, benefits and travel of approaching $800,000, it is not hard to imagine that Maggie has perhaps another $200,000 in hidden compensation and benefits, making her likely the million dollar momma of Maryland.
Charles W. Steger, college president at Virginia Tech was paid $720,000 and University of Maryland President C.D. Mote Jr. earned $462,313 last year, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education report released last year. Both institutions have far more students than are educated at the lazy little campus on the St. Mary’s River, where the largest assembly students takes place each year for the nude bicycle ride through the campus on May 1st.

Truly, Maggie has busted the glass ceiling of pay parity as she has guided the college forward on a building expansion program, making sure that new buildings are named for the Governor in office at the time the construction funds are approved.

While new buildings have been named for William Donald Schaefer and Parris Glendening, it won’t be likely that one will be named for Martin O’Malley any time soon.

Maggie’s sudden announcement in January that she was going to be winding down her gold rush days at St. Mary’s while she sets up a new castle in England, all the while maintaining a cash laden scholarly connection with St. Mary’s followed by a few weeks a public lashing she suffered at the hands of the Governor.

Gov. O’Malley called O’Brien on the carpet for her arrogance in dealing with St. Mary’s County residents as she has gone about the construction of the infamous boathouse and Maggie’s Erection, a three story yacht club, both planted on the beach of St. Mary’s River. The college’s trusteeship of environmental protection of the St. Mary’s River proved to be about as dutiful as local developers when the Maryland Department of the Environment cited the college for violations of river protections in the construction and ordered remedial actions.

O’Brien is used to massaging Maryland’s governors since 1995 and after being called down on her deportment in association with the residents of the area who had been dogging her over the boathouse, Maggie figured out she had about mined most of the gold that she was going to and to exit on her terms, rather than being shown the door.

Maggie went bonkers after an article appeared in ST. MARY’S TODAY noting the uproar of the community and that loose remarks from irate members of the public about someone torching the boathouse carried with it a reminder that arson was never a good idea.

That report set off Maggie’s torch and she called the riot squad to come to her non-existent threat of fire. A tall fence went up around the boathouse, complete with lighting and cameras and guards. A community meeting to discuss legal ways to get rid of the boat house was held at the Ridge firehouse and acting at Maggie’s insistence, Maryland fire marshals attended the meeting to monitor any possible arsonist planning by the group of mostly elderly citizens who were furious over the boathouse blocking the historic vista of the St. Mary’s City shoreline.

Clearly, Maggie made a fool of herself and her continued use of theatrics and staging of a community focus group just made the situation worse. Her plans for a $2 million footbridge for the helpless and street-crossing challenged students of the college to cross from one side of Rt. 5 to the other made a further impression on residents, who with the support of Senator Roy Dyson began to demand accountability on construction plans at the college.

In addition to Maggie, Salvatore M. Meringolo, the Executive Director of St. Mary’s College, gets a fat paycheck from the Foundation. He received $196,159 along with another $40,443 contributed to his benefit plan in 2007, according to tax records of the college foundation.

The college trustees are a different group of folks from the Foundation Trustees.

The college trustees include Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post, Federal Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. That group determines Maggie’s regular paycheck. The Foundation trustees are composed of James D. Stone, John Roberts, Bonnie Green, Susan Messitte, Robert Waldschmitt (who sits on both sets of trustees) Meringolo (who gets the nearly $240,000 from this panel…likely votes with his eyes closed) Maggie O’Brien (who surely does the same thing when its time to discuss her compensation), Bluford Putnam, Harry Weitzel and David Burdette.

The Foundation did manage to set aside about $900,000 for scholarships as it went about spending $485,694 on boats for the college. Another $343,418 was spent on an art collection as if donated art for the college’s many buildings isn’t enough.

The college’s River Concert series is one of the chief activities of the foundation when they aren’t buying art or doling out money to Maggie. The director of the series does a masterful job of conducting the music program and is compensated $241,364 in addition to his college salary.

In spite of the donations, sponsorships and even a $10,000 donation made to the River Concert by the St. Mary’s Commissioners, who take the money from the taxpayers of the county who have no choice in how the money is spent; the college managed to lose $100,516 on the Governor’s Cup and Concert Series. The gross receipts were $433,152 and the expenses were $533,668 in 2007. Maybe they need to raise the prices on the drinking at the Governor’s Cup where every problem drinker in the State of Maryland shows up for the one price, all inclusive day-long binge as sailboats race to St. Mary’s City from Annapolis.