College of Southern Maryland (CSM) President Dr. Maureen Murphy announced on April 21 that she will retire from CSM at the end of the year. She also took some time to share the story of her own educational journey as well as some thoughts about her 35-year career drawing to an end as the fifth president of Southern Maryland’s nationally recognized community college – time she describes as “the best part of her career.”
Murphy’s own educational journey was neither direct nor traditional. “You come to education when you’re ready,” she shared. “Once I got going in college, I kept going and became a lifetime student.”
Murphy “got going” in academia after high school, but she labels that decision as “a non-decision.”
“I went to college because you were expected to do something after high school,” she explained. “I had an option to work as a bank teller, but back then there were actual bars on the teller windows, and I couldn’t imagine a work environment with metal bars between me and my customers.”
As a declared theater major, Murphy said she “did not do well” during her first attempt at college. “In fact, I was invited not to return. I really thought I was going to do great, but there were theater students who were so much better than me, and they weren’t getting jobs. Frankly, I was tired of going to school and realized I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. I wanted to experience some things in life – much like our students want too today.”
Murphy married Joe McArdle and became a new mom to their infant. It was then she realized her thirst for more challenges and change. Thirteen years after her first attempt at college and weeks away from delivering her second son, Murphy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Louisville. She developed a deep love for writing and reading literature and became a lover of all things English. Soon after, she earned her master’s degree in English from the University of Missouri—Columbia and almost 10 years later, she earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from Saint Louis University (SLU). She authored her dissertation, entitled “Daughters of Same Spade,” on American female private eyes in fiction. It was during her master’s program that her university offered her a teaching job with a stipend and tuition assistance. She said that offer is when she almost immediately understood her calling: “Turns out, I really liked teaching and was good at it.”
But it wasn’t until an expensive home improvement project required extra finances in the Murphy/McArdle home that Murphy discovered her true passion. She picked up a couple of teaching sections at her local community college and “it was akin to St. Paul being knocked off his horse on the road to Damascus,” she laughed. “It was my conversion. There were so many students from so many backgrounds. I fell in love with the notion and mission of community college on the spot.”
So, Murphy applied for a full-time English professor opening at St. Louis Community College and was selected for the position by more than 400 other applicants. She calls her time there transformational.
“I was the first English professor hired there in seven years and I had this amazing cadre of experienced professors who wanted to mentor me,” she shared. “I am forever indebted to them. I learned how to be a coach and received phenomenal personal and professional development.”
After numerous faculty experiences, she rose to the administration at the St. Louis Community College District as the dean of Mathematics and Communications. From there she was promoted to vice president of Instruction and Student Development at Wytheville Community College, then to vice president of Instruction and Student Development in the Virginia Community College System. Her first college presidency was at San Jacinto College district in Texas. Before coming to CSM, she spent five years as president of Brookdale Community College in New Jersey.
“For my first presidency, I was the fourth woman to hold the position,” she explained. “When I was at Brookdale, I was the first woman to ever hold the position. It was an interesting paradigm shift for me to go from ‘one of many’ to ‘the first,’ and it was a stark reminder about how far we’ve come as women in the workforce. I learned important lessons along the way that allowed me to be even better prepared to take the helm at CSM.”
Reflections on Changes in Community Colleges
From where Murphy sits today, she said the biggest shift in community college education over the years has been watching its mission shift from focusing solely on access, to focusing on student success and measuring outcomes.
“It has absolutely flipped how we do work and what we see as valuable,” she said. “Examining data has elevated our equity work in a way that is palpable. It is irresponsible not to do something with the data, but when I first started, we would have looked at the numbers and said, ‘Oh, that’s just the way it is.’
“Another change is when I started in community colleges, we were truly anti-establishment and revolutionary, and that really appealed to me,” she shared. “Honestly, we thought we were saving the world. We were fighting for people who would not have otherwise had an education. But today, we’re the main show! Today there are doctorates being offered in community college administration and leadership. How amazing is that?”
And the president said she is still surprised that some people don’t realize the inherent value of CSM.
“This college is excellent,” she said. “It has a great reputation although it was one that wasn’t widely known. Now we are getting national attention as being among the best.”
Murphy cites geographical isolation as CSM’s challenge.
“CSM has little competition,” she pointed out. “Our competition is students not going to college, and unfortunately right now that is fierce competition. We are not competing with the four-year institutions for our students. We’re fighting with the job market for our students. That’s why it is so important for community colleges to retool themselves to further support our businesses – large and small. We must recognize ourselves as economic drivers.”
Roads Less Traveled
As for her time in Southern Maryland, she said she and her husband have enjoyed their wanders.
“Southern Maryland is truly beautiful,” she shared. “There are a lot of roads less traveled around here, and we have loved seeing the countryside, waterways, and end of the roads. I am going to miss everything and everyone. This is a great place to live and work.”
Murphy’s retirement plans – to date – involve spending extended time with family, adding more rescued fur babies to her home, reading, wandering, cheering for the Green Bay Packers of which she is a proud fan-owner, and of course, learning.
“Until December, I’ll be here working alongside my team to continue the important work of CSM. I promise I won’t get ‘short-timer’s syndrome,’” she offered. “There’s always lots of work to do!”
To facilitate the leadership transition, CSM’s Board of Trustees has selected RH Perry and Associates to coordinate a national search. The company’s presidential search work will begin later this spring. The new president is expected to begin on Jan. 1, 2023.