Mount St. Mary’s launches public phase of $50 million capital campaign, bolstering healthcare and STEM programs

Dr. Timothy Trainor said Mount St. Mary’s University is drawing on its past to move its educational mission forward as it launches the public phase of an ambitious capital campaign.

As a retired brigadier general and former dean at the United States Military Academy West Point, the Emmitsburg university’s president is no stranger to marching orders, and he said the school received a new mission during the coronavirus pandemic. Trainor said the college wants to address the ever-growing need for more healthcare professionals who hold advanced degrees.

“We’re continuing to adapt to the needs of society and the Catholic Church,” Trainor said. “We’re specifically trying to adapt to the need for more healthcare workers in light of the pandemic.” 

Mount St. Mary’s initiated the public phase of a $50 million capital campaign in February. “Our Mission, Our Moment, Our Mount” was launched privately in June 2021 and has, according to Trainor, already raised $24 million of its goal.

The campaign has three goals – adding advanced degrees in public health; upgrading STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs and facilities; and improving athletic facilities. In addition to the capital campaign, the school also started a campaign last fall to raise an additional $5 million for the Blessed Stanley Rother House of Formation to serve first-year seminary students.

“There is a greater demand for students seeking graduate degrees, and a lot of that is in healthcare,” Trainor said. “This will address some real shortages in Maryland and our area. We also need to improve our STEM facilities and progress to meet changing demands in that field. We need to keep moving forward, and this campaign will play a big part in that.”

Trainor said undergraduate enrollment of more than 2,000 students has increased by more than 12 percent in the past decade and that 37 percent of Mount St. Mary’s students compete in athletics. The school increased its NCAA Division I teams from 16 to 24, nearly doubling the number of student athletes at the university in the past six years.

“Our students want to compete at the highest level, and we need the facilities to do that,” Trainor said. “It’s all part of health and wellness.”

The university currently has about 600 mostly part-time graduate students, along with 150 seminarians in graduate studies. A partnership with the Daughters of Charity could greatly enhance those numbers. 

Through a long-term lease, Mount St. Mary’s will take over and renovate a wing of the Daughters of Charity’s St. Joseph Provincial House for its School of Health Professions. The site will house Mount St. Mary’s studies for a master’s degree for physician assistants as well as applied behavior analysis. The school also plans to add a master’s program in nursing, according to Trainor. 

“It’s really neat that we are continuing this historic connection with the Daughters of Charity,” Trainor said. “It goes all the way back to Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton establishing the order here. The Daughters of Charity have such a legacy in healthcare, and we think our students can continue to benefit from that, especially with mentorships with the sisters.”

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton began the Sisters of Charity of St Joseph’s in Emmitsburg in 1809 as the first religious community of women founded in the United States. The religious community later became affiliated with the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, based in France.

The Daughters of Charity will provide mentorships and scholarships through the Care for America program.

Daughter of Charity Sister Teresa George, provincial councilor and treasurer of the Daughters of Charity, Province of St. Louise, and a member of the Mount’s Board of Trustees, said her order’s history goes back to the founding of the college and she thinks the daughters can have an impact on shaping students’ healthcare missions.

“We hope our ministry can help form students who look at healthcare as a ministry and not just a profession,” Sister Teresa said. “Our sisters can provide spiritual companionship and develop healthcare workers who see the people they minister to through the eyes of Christ.”

She hopes the Care for America program and the scholarships the Daughters of Charity provide will attract students to serve the medical needs of those in impoverished areas, noting that as the number of sisters decreases their ministry needs to be passed on to lay workers.

“The School of Health Professions dramatically changes Mount St. Mary’s in a major way,” said Richard Miller, class of 1974, a member of the Mount St. Mary’s Board of Trustees and the retired president and CEO of Virtua Health. “We will assume a larger role in preparing the next generation of ethical and caring healthcare leaders and help the community by addressing the provider shortage.”

As part of the STEM upgrades, new classroom and lab spaces will be added, featuring spaces that are technology-rich, multi-use, flexible and configurable for a variety of instructional formats and class sizes.

Athletic upgrades will feature the expansion of the Rooney Athletic Performance Center project. The multiphase project was made possible in part by a $6 million gift from John J. (deceased) and Patrick J. Rooney, and their spouses JoAnn and Sandy, respectively.

For more information or to give to the campaign, visit ourmount.msmary.edu.

Email Gerry Jackson at gjackson@CatholicReview.org

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