Staff Spotlight: Malcom Morgan

You know the scene: Elle Woods approaches the registration table during her first day at Harvard Law. “Woods comma Elle?” She receives her class schedule, but is dismayed. “My social events calendar is missing—you know, mixers, formals, clambakes, trips to the Cape?” There is no such social events calendar to be found.

Had Malcom Morgan been working at Harvard Law, this never would have been a problem. A whiteboard calendar taking up an entire wall of his fishbowl office is already almost full of activities for every weekend this year. In his first year as Student Activities Coordinator he’s focused on providing opportunities for students to get “off-campus, out of the classroom, and in their community element.”

Not that he doesn’t comprehend the enormity of the program and that the center of the community is regularly around the seminar table. “I one hundred percent have respect for the academics,” he says, but he understands that it’s only possible to succeed in your work with a good “work-life balance.” This is not a problem unique to our time at St. John’s. “You’re never going to be able to do everything. But that’s life.” He smiles. “It’s a fun challenge.”

Malcom received his BFA in Musical Theater from Santa Fe University of Art and Design, and worked for the university until its closing in 2018. As a member of the university’s lead-out team, it was important for Malcom to retain a sense of fun and normalcy for the final graduating class. He moved back to his home state of Texas for a year afterwards to work at a men’s counseling and support center, transplanting again to Santa Fe when he was offered his position at St. John’s.

Malcom has a MS degree in Higher Education College Teaching and Learning and is finishing his doctorate in Higher Education Leadership and Management from Walden University. He has a crown to go along with his credentials; Malcom was Miss Santa Fe Pride in 2017. He is still involved in the Santa Fe drag community as an MC and performer. He has also performed in, produced, or directed a production at every local theater in town, and hopes to bring performers to St. John’s from off-campus and link students up with theaters in town.

His connections to the Santa Fe community don’t hurt. He was able to rent out a theater at Violet Crown Cinemas for a Johnnie-community-only screening of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, compliments of the college, and he plans to do the same with another movie this semester. There’s also a silent-disco party in the works, as well as a greater variety of intramural competitions. The Student Activities Coordinator now oversees all campus activities, including those at the Student Activities Center, in order to make a more cohesive, “collaborative” community schedule.

Malcom heartily recommends Dinner for Two, a restaurant near the plaza, particularly the chili-cheese deep fried chicken and the peach flambé, which the chef himself will light on fire for you.