Morgan State's objection to joint Towson Univ./U of Baltimore

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), May 25, 2007 by Dori Berman

On the surface, it appeared to be just one university trying to protect its turf.

But as the debate over the new joint Towson University/ University of Baltimore MBA program, and Morgan State's objection to it, gathered steam in the latest legislative session, it became clear the issues went deeper than geography and enrollment competition.

Towson's program was proposed in 2005 and approved by the Maryland Higher Education Commission despite complaints that it unnecessarily duplicated an MBA program already offered by Morgan State University, a little more than five miles away.

Other institutions in the Baltimore region also objected to the program's approval, arguing that their offerings already fulfilled the region's demand for MBA degrees, but Morgan was the only historically black institution to do so. That is especially important because Maryland is legally obligated, under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, to desegregate its higher education system.

Legislation that would have allowed Morgan to appeal the program approval to the courts failed in the legislature's final days last month, leaving the Towson/UB program, which began accepting students last fall, intact for now.

But questions linger about whether the state is violating its legal responsibilities by allowing the program to continue.

The Fordice case

James E. Lyons Sr., Maryland's secretary of higher education, was not in Maryland when the UB/Towson program was approved. He does, however, have significant experience on the subject of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, and the integration of higher education systems.

In 1992 Lyons was the president of Bowie State University, an HBCU in Prince George's County, and had been tapped to lead Jackson State University in Mississippi, also an HBCU, when the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision regarding segregation in state university systems. In what is known as the Fordice decision, the court found that Mississippi had failed to meet its obligation to dismantle its segregated higher education system.

The decision noted that simply adopting race-neutral enrollment policies was not enough to satisfy the state's obligation to desegregate the system.

"The Fordice case was brought by Jackson State alumni and others who argued that Mississippi still had vestiges of a dual system, that black and white students were still going to separate schools and the schools were separate but equal, and the court agreed," Lyons recalled during a recent interview. "The point is the state needs to do all that it can. So when you have a situation where you have nearby schools, you don't want a situation where all the black students go to the black school and all the white students go to the white school, and they're making those choices because the white school is perceived to be of superior quality."

State Sen. Joan Carter Conway, D-Baltimore City, sponsored the legislation that would have allowed the case to be appealed to the courts. She argued her intentions were not aimed strictly at the Towson MBA, but rather at the state's legal obligations.

"It's all about compliance. Everybody says it's a Morgan/Towson thing. It's not about Towson, and it's not about Morgan," Conway said. "If you have a historically black institution, and you continue to duplicate its programs, you do very little to promote diversity."

Maryland's fulfillment of its desegregation obligations is being evaluated by the U.S. Office for Civil Rights.

The need for MBA programs

Meanwhile, the Towson/UB program is continuing with rolling admissions. Since the joint program began last fall, 247 students have enrolled. That's in addition to about 250 still matriculating in the UB MBA program that already existed.

Representatives of the program said it benefits the entire region.

"There's apparently a demand for it if we've seen this increase in interest in the joint program. We've doubled the number of people who are coming to our open houses," said Louise Laurence, the associate dean of the Towson University business school.

The region's demand for MBA program capacity and the future need for MBA graduates in the work force were two of the primary reasons given for the program's approval in 2005.

From 1996 to 2006, statewide enrollment in MBA programs increased from 4,481 to 6,544.

The duplication issue

Federal law states that new programs at traditionally white colleges duplicating those at HBCUs within a 35-mile radius should be avoided unless there is sound educational justification for the duplication.

In a March 15, 2005, letter to Towson and the University of Baltimore informing those institutions of the approval of the joint program, former higher education secretary Calvin Burnett argued that there was educational justification for the new joint MBA program.

"In light of steady growth in the number of both undergraduate and graduate enrollments in business, there should be no negative impacts on other MBA programs. - However, within an environment of growing enrollments, Towson University and the University of Baltimore will offer access to graduate instruction for more Maryland residents, including African Americans," Burnett wrote in his letter.