May 2005

UMUC’s Mannheim Campus Closes in Style

By Alita Byrd
Special to FYI Online

Members of the Mannheim Campus’s “Omega Class” toss their hats in the air following the 2005 commencement ceremony.

The final commencement ceremony of UMUC’s Mannheim Campus began April 30, 2005, with trumpets and fanfare, as a brass quartet played the 34 graduates up onto the stage. Nearly 300 guests packed Mannheim’s elegant Kunsthalle for the event.

It was a bittersweet evening. After 55 years spent educating the children and spouses of the local military community, UMUC’s Mannheim Campus will close its doors May 31, 2005.

“We all felt a bit sad as the ceremony was drawing to a close,” said Mary Fiedler, dean of the campus. “The faculty and staff had tears in their eyes, as did some of the students. We all knew that we were participating in the final ceremony of a noble experiment in higher education—a state university offering a two-year residential program on a foreign military base. I don’t think there will ever be anything like it in the future.”

The Mannheim Campus, which once boasted an enrollment of almost 700 full-time students, had already downsized and relocated twice in the past 13 years—from its original location in Munich to Augsburg and from Augsburg to Mannheim. As the United States decreased the size of its military presence in Germany, the decision was made to close the campus altogether. But first, current students would be allowed to finish their two-year degrees.

There is no doubt that the campus has made a lasting impact on thousands of dependents of U.S. military personnel stationed overseas. More than 22,000 students have graduated from the residential campus since the program opened in 1950.

Alpha and Omega graduates Claire Schwan, left, with Beau Wolking, valedictorian of the 2005 graduating class.

Claire Schwan, Mannheim’s “founding student” and a 1951 graduate, traveled to Mannheim to speak at the final graduation. She told how she had begged her father’s commanding officer to start an American college for her and other military family members in Germany, just five years after World War II ended.

The college opened and Schwan marched with 33 others in the first graduating class—the Alpha class. Originally, the college was expected to operate for just three years. In 1952, the dormitory fee was just $22.50 per semester and tuition was $10 per credit.

Coincidentally, this year’s graduating class—the Omega class—also had 34 graduates. And the University went all out to bid the Mannheim Campus a fitting farewell in the town’s Kunsthalle, or art gallery.

“It is a magnificent, turn-of-the-century art deco building right in the center of town,” Fiedler said. John Golembe, director of UMUC Europe, spoke, as did Provost Nicholas Allen. Todd Becker, ambassador of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and Peter Bodde, U.S. Consul General to Germany in Frankfurt—both of whom graduated from the campus—also spoke.

“The graduates were impressed that Ambassador Becker and Consul General Bodde were graduates of our program,” Fiedler said. “Both were very enthusiastic about their two-year campus experience and spoke as if they had attended the campus yesterday.”

The guest speakers were treated to a three-hour boat trip down the Neckar River in Heidelberg and a barbecue reception prior to the final ceremony, with faculty, staff and students invited to participate. The sense of community lasted into the graduation program.

“My concern this past year was that we would be able to close the campus with style and dignity,” Fiedler said. “And I think that we did. As our graduates and guests were leaving, the comment I heard most frequently was that the ceremony was a fitting tribute to the campus.”