Mark Stern
Vice President of Academic Affairs

Welcome to the Shepherd College Academic Affairs web page. Academic Affairs supports college academic life and related areas to ensure academic quality. It is an honor and a great pleasure for me to serve in this position at Shepherd College.

I arrived at Shepherd College at the beginning of the 1994-1995 academic year, after having spent 23 years at the University of Central Florida. During my career at Central Florida, after having risen to the rank of Professor in the Department of Political Science, I was chosen to serve as the Director of the University Honors Program. The Honors program emphasized small classes, a strong general studies component, interdisciplinary learning and an environment of individualized faculty-student interaction. This experience led me to seek out a position at a college that emphasized student learning, small classes, and faculty-student interaction with a strong liberal arts curriculum. I thus came to Shepherd College.

Shepherd is a remarkable institution. It carries on a long-standing tradition that emphasizes student learning and teaching as the core mission of the college. It makes use of nearby Washington, D.C. and Baltimore as part of its academic and cultural offerings. It attracts a significant diversity of students including minority students, non-traditional students and students from almost every state in the Union as well as students from over twenty other countries. Shepherd remains essentially an undergraduate institution, and the undergraduate academic program is at the heart of the institution. With a vision toward the future and serving community needs, graduate program offerings are being expanded. Academic Affairs works closely with twenty-four (24) baccalaureate degree programs. The recent addition of degree programs in Computer and Information Science and Environmental Studies, as well as the addition of a concentration in Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management within Business Administration reflects the college's commitment to meeting the changing needs of education and the demands of society. Learning communities, interdisciplinary team teaching, and the Honors Program also reflect the College's continuing commitment to innovative undergraduate programs.

The last sentence of the College Mission Statement states the core values of the college: "The faculty, staff and administration of Shepherd College are dedicated to remaining in the forefront of advances in contemporary education and professional degree programs as we serve our students, community and region in the twenty-first century." As Vice-President for Academic Affairs I believe in this commitment. It serves as the guide to my office and my work at the college.

-- Mark Stern