St. Mary's University College, Calgary
Encyclopedia
St. Mary's University College is a private Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...

 institution in the city of Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

 officially became a university college
University college
The term "university college" is used in a number of countries to denote college institutions that provide tertiary education but do not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university...

 on June 16, 2004, and granted its first degrees on September 25, 2004. The founding Governors were Mr. Justice Frank Quigley, Bishop Paul O'Bryne, Roy Farran, William Dickie and Yolande Gagnon. St. Mary's celebrated its 25th anniversary as a chartered educational institution on September 18, 2011. The enabling legislation is the St. Mary's College Act (1986 Bill Pr 14) and the St. Mary's College Amendment Act (2004 Bill Pr 1).

St. Mary’s is a Catholic university college open to all. It operates in the rich tradition of Catholic scholarship in Canada, a venerable heritage of academic freedom, rigorous intellectual inquiry, respect for diversity of opinion and belief, and social responsibility. As a liberal arts university college, St. Mary’s introduces students to the breadth and depth of human intellectual experience, an unrestrained search for meaning and purpose that enables students to achieve the full measure of their being. It is a place that promotes understanding of and respect for the inherent dignity that defines each one of us, made as we are in the image and likeness of God.

In July 2011, Dr. Gerry Turcotte assumed the position of president of St. Mary's University College, succeeding Dr. Terrence Downey who served for 12 years as president. Currently serving as V.P. Academic and Dean
Dean (education)
In academic administration, a dean is a person with significant authority over a specific academic unit, or over a specific area of concern, or both...

 is Dr. Mark Charlton. Currently serving as Area Chairs
Chair (official)
The chairman is the highest officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office is typically elected or appointed by the members of the group. The chairman presides over meetings of the assembled group and conducts its business in an...

 are Dr. Mary Ann McLean (Chair Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 & Natural Science
Natural science
The natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...

s), Dr. Linda Henderson (Acting Chair Social Sciences), and Dr. Howard Hopkins (Chair Humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....

).

St. Mary's currently offers six degrees: A three-year Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 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, a four-year Bachelor of Arts with a major in English, and a two-year Bachelor of Education after-degree.

In addition to academic expansion, the St. Mary's campus has undergone a major change. The land upon which the campus is situated accommodates several buildings, dating from the early 1900s, designated as provincial heritage buildings
Heritage site
A Heritage Site is a location designated as important to the cultural heritage of a governing body such as a township, county, province, state, or country. It is a non-moveable object such as a historic site or national monument, but it may include several sites grouped together such as...

, including a wooden water tower. As the buildings have heritage status, this legally forbids any alteration of their exterior, with the exception of repair, a prohibition which does not extend to their interior. Thus these buildings have been transformed into new classrooms, a bookstore, common areas and cafeteria. The water tower has been braced to protect it from collapse, and repainted in its original colour, Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...

red, the only colour legally allowed due to its heritage status.
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