The Office of Community Outreach and Engagement, in partnership with the St. Mary’s County Human Relations Commission and the Nonprofit Institute of the College of Southern Maryland, held a successful Volunteerism Day event on Saturday, Sept. 7 in the Dodge Performing Arts Center. Nearly 30 local nonprofits participated, providing students and the entire campus community an opportunity to learn about the missions of these organizations and how SMCM can contribute to their important work. Several organizations had over 20 students sign up to volunteer.

The Commemorative to Enslaved Peoples of Southern Maryland at St. Mary's College of Maryland is one of four St. Mary's County sites included in the latest edition of the new statewide guide, Finding Freedom, Faith & Family on Maryland's Underground Railroad (PDF download) published by the Maryland Office of Tourism.

Associate Professor of Photography Tristan Cai opened a solo exhibition, "Imagined Spectres," at the Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture, Kefalonia, Greece. The exhibition showcases the imagined landscapes of primordial earth and the much-hyped sightings of pink snow in alpine environments. Cai presents these wondrous phenomena with large-scale photographs as well as an immersive video installation of the microscopic world of red algae cells obtained from a single drop of melted snow.