Маунт-Сент-Мэри: История скандалов и традиций американского университета.

Catholic liberal arts university in Emmitsburg, Maryland, U. S.

Elizabeth Ann Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity and the first native born United States citizen to be canonized as a saint, came to Emmitsburg in 1809. She lived on the campus of Mount St. Mary's while her own school was being built. For a while, she lived in the same log cabin that had been built for Father DuBois. This school is considered to be the foundation of the entire Catholic parochial school system in the United States. Mother Seton wrote classroom textbooks and trained her Catholic sisters to become teachers, and accepted all students regardless of ability to pay. And, since the campuses of the all female Saint Joseph College and the all male Mount St. Mary's were just a couple of miles apart, the schools historically depended on each other for social life. In 1967, female students at Saint Joseph College began taking some classes at Mount St. Mary's, and men from Mount St. Mary's began taking some classes at Saint Joseph.

During World War II, Mount Saint Mary's College was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V 12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.

In January 2016, The Washington Post reported on plans by university president Simon P. Newman to use a questionnaire administered to freshman students to dismiss 20 to 25 freshmen in the first weeks of school to improve the school's retention statistics. The questionnaire included questions about students' mental health, disabilities, and financial support. The story originally appeared in the university's student newspaper, The Mountain Echo. Newman was quoted as saying, in response to criticism and questions from colleagues, " you think of the students as cuddly bunnies, but you can't. You just have to drown the bunnies put a Glock to their heads." University provost David Rehm also objected to the president's plan and was asked to resign as provost but allowed to keep his faculty position. Over 8,000 scholars digitally signed a petition for them to be reinstated, while organizations such as the American Association of University Professors, Student Press Law Center, issued statements condemning Newman's actions. On February 12, 2016, the Mount St. Mary's faculty issued a resolution asking Newman to resign; on that same day, Newman announced at a faculty meeting that the two fired professors would be reinstated. On February 29, 2016, the university announced Newman's resignation. In a statement, Newman said that he cared deeply about the university, and that the recent publicity regarding his leadership became "too great of a distraction to our mission of educating students."

French missionary Simon Bruté spent two decades as teacher and pastor in the formative years of Mount St. Mary's. He was considered "one of the foremost scholars in America," and he had a great deal of influence on the Catholic Church in America. In 1834, he was appointed the founding bishop of the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana. In 1832, Father Stephen Badin of Indiana purchased 524 acres of land surrounding two lakes near South Bend, Indiana, and when he retired in 1835 he deeded the property to the Diocese of Vincennes. It was Father Badin's dream that a school would be established there. Bruté visited the South Bend property and described it as "a most desirable spot, and one soon I hope to be occupied by some prosperous institution." In 1836, Bruté traveled to France seeking funds and priests for his diocese, and one of the priests he recruited was Father Edward Sorin, the founder of Notre Dame. After Bruté's death in 1839, his successor, Bishop Hailandière, offered the 524 acre South Bend property to Father Sorin for the purpose of starting a college. The school was founded in 1842 as "L'Université de Notre Dame du Lac" (The University of Our Lady of the Lake).

Mount St. Mary's is home to the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, a Catholic pilgrimage site devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary that draws thousands of visitors annually. Emmitsburg. net describes the Grotto as "a place of pastoral beauty and spiritual inspiration situated high on the mountainside where nature displays itself in all its wild and picturesque glory." The sixty acres of grounds include lush gardens, a pond, rosary paths, the Stations of the Cross, devotional areas, a scenic overlook, and St. Mary's Chapel on the Hill (also known as the Glass Chapel). Grotto water flows from taps located around a fountain pool, and chaplains are available to bless the water for visitors. Father John Watterson had the stone Grotto cave built in 1875 as a replica of the miraculous Our Lady of Lourdes in France. The Grotto was first established on St. Mary's Mountain in 1805 by the university's founder, Father John DuBois. According to legend, Father DuBois was attracted to a light on the mountain and found a blessed spot and sat down at the foot of a large oak tree beside a stream. He made a cross of twigs and fixed it to the tree to be the symbol of the holy work he was undertaking. This was the original Grotto. Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton attended Sunday Mass at the Grotto chapel. The 1911 book The Story of the Mountain tells how Mother Seton would sit on her favorite rock at the Grotto and "invoke the divine blessing by reciting the Canticle of the Three Children, and none that heard her could ever forget the tones of that voice and the fervor of that heart, which in the midst of the wild scenery of nature called upon all creatures to bless and magnify their Creator."

The Frederick campus is a satellite campus of The Mount that is located in Frederick, Maryland, about south of the main Emmitsburg campus. All classes are held in the evening to accommodate working adults. Students can study in master's degree and graduate certificate programs. There are four undergraduate degree programs that are designed specifically for working adults: B. S. in business, B. A. in criminal justice, B. S. in elementary education, and B. S. in human services. Most courses are offered in five or eight week sessions, instead of traditional 15 week semesters. Classes meet once each week, from 6 to 9:30 p. m. Sessions run on a year around schedule.

Mount St. Mary's University was named one of the top 25 best regional universities by U. S. News & World Report's Best Colleges 2015. The seminary is well known for its more traditional theology, discipline and secluded rural setting. Around 85% of undergraduates live on campus. The student faculty ratio 13:1, and 46 percent of classes have fewer than 20 students. The most popular majors at Mount St. Mary's include: Business/Commerce, Criminology, Biological Sciences, Elementary/Secondary Education, and Accounting. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student satisfaction, is 80 percent. For students who want to graduate early, the university offers a three year degree option.

Mount St. Mary's ('MSM' or 'The Mount') athletic teams compete as "the Mountaineers" at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Mount is a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) since 2022–2023, having previously held membership in the Northeast Conference (NEC) from 1989–90 to 2021–22, and the Mason–Dixon Conference, at the NCAA Division II level, from 1940–41 to 1977–78 and from 1983–84 to 1987–88. The Mount competes in 22 intercollegiate sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and water polo; while women's sports include basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and water polo.

Jim Phelan, basketball head coach until 2003. Phelan had 830 career wins (currently 18th on the all time list), and coached a college basketball record 49 seasons at the same school. At the time of his retirement, Phelan had coached more NCAA games than any other coach in collegiate history. He was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008.