Democracy center director, political pundit to leave SMCM

Friday, July 6, 2007

Messitte has been hired as the William J. Crowe chair in geopolitics and a vice provost for international programs at the University of Oklahoma. He will succeed Edward J. Perkins, a former U.S. ambassador to Australia under the Clinton administration, who is retiring.

The university’s Board of Regents approved Messitte’s appointment June 29. He is set to earn $170,000 annually and is slated to start his new job Aug. 16. Messitte’s wife, Julia, will work for the university’s Office of Legal Counsel.

The decision to leave St. Mary’s was tough for Messitte, who spent nearly five years building the center as an important venue on the statewide political circuit.

‘‘I am a Marylander. This is where I am from,” the Chevy Chase native said. ‘‘It’s very difficult to leave my home, but opportunities like this don’t come around too often.”

In making the leap from a small honors college with fewer than 2,000 students to a statewide public university with an undergraduate enrollment of about 30,000, Messitte will enter a far different academic environment than the one he has experienced at St. Mary’s.

He’ll also have new responsibilities, overseeing Oklahoma’s International Programs Center and Center for Peace Studies, while organizing an annual foreign policy symposium. It will also be his first job as an academic administrator.

But the focus on international relations is not foreign territory for Messitte, 39, a former press secretary for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a former United Nations speechwriter. At Oklahoma, he’ll be reunited with university President David L. Boren, a former U.S. senator who chaired the intelligence committee during Messitte’s stint on Capitol Hill.

The Center for the Study of Democracy has evolved significantly under Messitte’s direction. State politicians made frequent visits to the remote campus during last year’s campaign to address government classes or attend center activities. Several national political and media luminaries have also appeared on campus.

The college also for the first time last year hosted a series of candidate debates for county and state legislative races.

‘‘It became a must place for all candidates to stop in Southern Maryland last year ... because it provided a venue for candidates to talk about their policies,” said Michael J.G. Cain, also a political science professor who served on the search panel that hired Messitte.

J. Frank Raley Jr., a former state senator from St. Mary’s County, said Messitte helped develop a focus on Maryland politics for the center during his five years. He’s also secured federal grant money to fund center programs and brought some publicity to the small school.

Raley, a member of the center’s advisory board, said Messitte has also become a knowledgeable statewide political pundit, appearing on a number of radio and television political talk shows. His written work has been published in The (Baltimore) Sun, Slate and other periodicals. He recently co-authored an essay titled ‘‘Spiro Agnew and the Golden Age of Corruption in Maryland Politics.”

Additionally, Messitte took part in a legislative initiative this year aimed at increasing student and faculty involvement at the polls. The bill would have required Maryland’s public colleges and universities to close on general election day in hopes of spurring more students and faculty members to volunteer as election judges or poll workers. The measure failed.

But Cain believes Messitte’s largest contribution was fostering students’ interest in politics, a mark that will long outlast him. ‘‘He’s introduced a new generation of students to politics in Maryland,” Cain said.

Cain, a potential successor to Messitte, expects the center will continue to play an important role in the political fabric of St. Mary’s County by promoting Democratic understanding.

Hired in September 2002, Messitte won the admiration of students. In 2006, the college student government association gave him the Faculty-Student Life Award, which honors outstanding service to student life and teaching excellence. During his tenure at St. Mary’s, Messitte also taught introductory Italian, led a student trip to Italy in 2006 and served as the school newspaper’s faculty adviser.

E-mail Alan Brody at abrody@somdnews.com.