By feeding community, Hytche nourished UMES - University of Maryland- Eastern Shore chancellor William P. Hytche

Black Issues in Higher Education, April 3, 1997 by Ronald Roach

As a young mathematics

instructor in 1963 at the college

that is now the University of

Maryland-Eastern Shore, Dr.

William P. Hytche took a stand

for better conditions for his

students and the community

surrounding the school.

Treated to poor service at a segregated

diner while on a local outing with a student

group, Hytche vowed to find an alternative to

the segregated restaurants in surrounding

Somerset County. That alternative was the

Hawk's Nest, a campus diner opened by

Hytche and his wife that soon became

popular with students and local townspeople,

both Black and white, in Princess Anne, Md.

"If you spent money in my restaurant, I

treated you right," Hytche said.

In 1975, Hytche became acting chancellor

of the school and in 1976 the position became

permanent. He had already witnessed

attempts by the state of Maryland to convert

the historically Black institution into a

community college, a poultry farm and a

prison. Recognizing that the school would

have to expand to ensure its long-term

survival as a historically Black school, he

again found a solution that proved beneficial

to both the university and the community.

Nearly twenty-two years later,

Hytche, who retired as UMES president

on January 13, 1997, now enjoys the

legacy of having led the school's greatest

expansion. Since 1975, UMES has added

fourteen undergraduate degree programs,

eight master's programs, and two doctoral

programs to its overall curriculum. Total

student enrollment has gone from 800

students in 1975 to more than 3,000,

according to Hytche. The campus has

added eleven buildings, has renovated

fourteen existing buildings, and has plans

to build two additional edifices by 1998.

University supporters and faculty

members credit Hytche for having the political

savvy and the vision to grow the student

enrollment nearly four times over during

the twenty-one years he headed the school.

Observers say his early outreach efforts

in Princess Anne, Somerset County, and the

surrounding Eastern Shore cities and counties

proved decisive when the school was

challenged by the Maryland state legislature

and when it needed support for expansion.

"He had the political skills to work with

the legislature and the ability to get things

done without alienating the officials in

Annapolis," said Dr. Jodellano Statom, chair

of the Department of Education at UMES.

Creates Advisory Council

Hytche said that immediately upon

becoming UMES chancellor he saw the need

to reach out to the local community, so he

began forging new relationships with

community leaders. Having served as a

UMES faculty member since 1960, when the

institution was known as Maryland State

College, he knew as well as anyone the

uneasy relationship that existed between

the school and the community.

Since its founding in 1886, UMES, had

struggled to survive in the remote, largely

rural region of Maryland east of the

Chesapeake Bay. The school suffered some

hostility from the surrounding communities,

where segregation had been practiced for a

long time.

"In a rural community setting, the idea of

university was not really a high priority to

many people. It wasn't viewed as a great asset

to the community," said Somerset County

administrator Charles Massey, who would

become one of UMES's allies in the 1970s.

Through his establishment of the Hawk's

Nest in the 1960s, Hytche had earned a

reputation locally as a pragmatic and

committed individual. Daniel Ulm, a banker

from Salisbury, Maryland, said he came to

know Hytche while visiting the restaurant

to sample its barbecued spareribs.

"We would have lunch in the back," Ulm

said. "I saw him as a truly dedicated person

who really wanted the very best for the

school."

On his first day as acting chancellor,

Hytche sent invitations to twenty-eight

people, many of whom were local officials,

asking them to:serve on what became known

as the Chancellor's Advisory Council. To his

surprise, all twenty-eight accepted his offer

and the council became a part of the new

chancellor's coalition to build community

support for UMES. Massey and Ulm were

among the individuals who accepted Hytche's

request.

"I thought there was a real interest on

his part to build the school as well as the

community," Massey said.

Roy Beauchamp, a former poultry

industry executive based in Salisbury, Md.,

also accepted Dr. Hytche's invitation to join

the advisory council.

"I knew he was a hard worker, and he was

very personable. If he asked you for help, it

was very hard to turn him down," said

Beauchamp, who was a member of the

Maryland Agriculture Commission in 1975.

Alliances Begin Paying Off

Hytche says his first major test came

during the 1977-78 school year when

members of Maryland state legislature

proposed that UMES merge with the

predominantly white Salisbury State

University in Salisbury, Maryland. When the

legislature authorized a study of the merger

proposal, members of the Chancellor's

Advisory Council and other local leaders

testified on behalf of maintaining UMES

as a distinct institution. The proposal

was eventually defeated.

"I think what Dr. Hytche skillfully did

was to convince people that UMES was a