UMES Celebrates Founders' Week
PRINCESS ANNE, MD-UMES observes its 123rd birthday on September 13 with a week-long celebration in honor of the school’s founding. Originating as Princess Anne Academy with one faculty member and nine students, the university’s faculty now boasts 186 full-time faculty and enrolls some 4,000 students.
The school was founded in 1886 as part of the nations’ network of historically black land-grant institutions, providing higher education for African Americans on the Lower Eastern Shore. The state of Maryland took the school under its auspices in 1919, renaming it the Eastern Shore Branch of Maryland Agricultural College. It spent time as Princess Anne College and Maryland State College before becoming University of Maryland Eastern Shore in 1970.
Today, UMES offers seven doctoral, 10 master’s and 32 undergraduate degrees. It is the research and doctoral granting institution on the Shore and will commence an accelerated three-year Doctor of Pharmacy program in 2010-one of only six in the nation to offer such a program. Other recently added academic degrees are the Professional Golf Management Program and engineering.
Students come to the university from over 38 states and 41 countries. This fall, approximately 100 Nigerian scholars arrive on campus as the result of a four-year partnership between the Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission (DESOPADEC) of Nigeria and UMES.
Founders’ Week begins with a worship service on Sunday, September 13, at 11 a.m. at Metropolitan United Methodist Church in Princess Anne. Founded just six days apart in 1886, the two institutions have supported each other through the years. The UMES Gospel Choir under the direction of Dr. Della Dameron-Johnson will perform uplifting gospel selections.
The Founders’ Week convocation and summer commencement takes place on Tuesday, September 15, at 10 a.m. in the Ella Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center. The speaker for the event is Dr. Thomas LaVeist, the William C. and Nancy F. Richardson professor in health policy and the director of the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. LaVeist is a 1984 graduate of UMES, he received his doctorate degree in medical sociology from the University of Michigan and a postdoctoral fellowship in public health at the University of Michigan, School of Public Health.
An outdoor concert takes place Wednesday, September 16, at 7:30 p.m. on the lawn by the Ella Fitzgerald Performing Arts Center. UMES’ Concert Choir, Jazz Ensemble and Gospel Choir are scheduled to perform. The event will be held indoors in the event of inclement weather. The concert is free and open to the public.
The Department of Fine Arts Faculty Art Show will be on display at the Mosely Gallery from September 3 through October 8, Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Creative output of faculty artists will be showcased. The display features paintings, photographs, ceramics, experimental media and cutting edge conceptual work. An opening reception takes place on Thursday, September 17, from 4-6 p.m. The Mosely Gallery exhibit is free and open to the public.
A new addition to this year’s activities is an exhibit opening on Tuesday, September 15, in the Frederick Douglass Library. “From Princess Anne to the Pros: A Small College’s Football Legacy” explores the time period of the 1950s and 60s when UMES, then Maryland State College, was regarded as a football powerhouse and many of its players went on to become professional athletes. Located on the library’s second floor, the exhibit is free and open to the public. The Frederick Douglass Library is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.
For more information, contact 410-651-6669.