State officials are calling on Maryland’s top administrators to consider combining this university with another state institution to create a powerhouse for research and education.
On March 21, state Senate President Mike Miller proposed that the University System of Maryland study and develop a plan for a possible merger between this university and the University of Maryland, Baltimore — an institution in Baltimore City made up of seven graduate programs, including the university system’s medical and law schools.
System Chancellor Brit Kirwan, Gov. Martin O’Malley and university President Wallace Loh expressed support last week for Miller’s bill to examine a merger, though some stopped short of endorsing the concept.
If the proposal to study merging is approved by the state General Assembly, the Board of Regents, the system’s 17-member governing body, will conduct the study and submit a final report by Dec. 15.
While Miller’s proposal marks the first formal measure in bringing the two institutions together, officials said the idea of combining the College Park and Baltimore universities has been on the minds of state legislators and administrators since the state system was first formed in the 1980s.
Kirwan noted that he called for deeper collaborations between the two universities in his final speech as this university’s president in 1998. And the relationship between the schools has greatly increased over the years: Faculty members at the two universities collaborate on biomedical engineering research, and some have joint appointments between the institutions.
State Sen. Jim Rosapepe (D-Prince George’s and Anne Arundel), who represents College Park and also said he supported the idea of a study, said administrators should be careful to avoid creating a merged institution that becomes too large to succeed.
“That’s what happened on Wall Street — some businesses got so big they lost control of their management,” Rosapepe said. “So the question becomes, is bigger necessarily better?”
If merged, the resulting combined institution would boast a total enrollment of more than 40,000 students with $1.1 billion in research funds, and officials estimate the merged university would rank 10th in the nation in research spending and fifth in the number of awarded doctoral degrees. Officials noted such an institution would likely attract more research grants and better faculty and make the university competitive among the best institutions in the country.
However, Loh said in an interview Thursday that the numbers and statistics are not the key factors. What matters is how a merger will enhance this university’s alliance with UMB to advance research and education.
He also noted that while a merger would follow a trend seen among institutions in states such as Illinois, California and Wisconsin, that does not necessarily mean it is best thing for this state, which boasts a different academic culture.
“I completely agree with the ends. Whether a merger is the best way, I don’t know. That’s why we need the study,” Loh said. “What I do know is that if we’re going to be a better institution, we need to be collaborating even more than we are collaborating now.”
UMB President Jay Perman wrote in a letter to his school’s faculty about differences between the two universities — particularly in their distinct academic cultures — that Loh also acknowledged may present an issue. While this university chiefly caters to undergraduates and features programs in liberal arts and athletics, UMB is comprised of graduate and professional programs that focus on health and medicine.
Loh said while it is those distinctions that make collaborations between the two institutions so effective, they also would make it more difficult to bring the two cultures together cohesively. Difficult, he added, but not impossible.
“Jay Perman is committed to building bridges, and I’m committed to building bridges,” Loh said. “The question is, what should be the nature of that bridge? It may be a merger, or it could be something else. There could be no single way.”
And Miller said a successful union of those differences would only serve a merged institution in the long run.
“The campuses will continue to be diverse, but we need to get strength from the diversity,” Miller said in an interview. “The president of UMB talks about nuances in energy, and it can only succeed when two major institutions are fully connected and working together seamlessly.”
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