State officials could be gearing up for a constitutional fight over segregation within Maryland’s higher education institutions, as delegates in Annapolis consider a bill aimed at empowering colleges and universities to more effectively challenge state education policymakers.
The bill, introduced in response to a tiff over a master’s of business administration program once offered nearly exclusively by historically black Morgan State University in Baltimore, is constructed to allow schools that view their programs are being duplicated at other schools to request judicial review.
Historically black colleges and universities have contended in court filings that schools duplicating their programs unfairly draw students away, harming enrollment.
State lawmakers’ concern stems from a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the desegregation of state schools in Mississippi that bars state institutions from running new programs that compete with existing ones at historically black institutions.
But because review on whether programs are duplicative in this state takes place at the policy-making Maryland Higher Education Commission, lawmakers say institutions should be allowed to request review from state courts if they believe the commission is in error.
“The bottom line of the Supreme Court decision was that if given the opportunity, white kids would go to white schools,” said John J. Oliver, Jr., the publisher of the Baltimore-based Afro-American newspaper and a well-known activist on issues affecting historically black colleges and universities. “Duplication was recognized as something that was promoting segregation.”
Although some programs are duplicative at all schools, the commission reviews programs that are unnecessarily so – such as the case raised by Morgan State. That conflict arose when a controversial 2005 decision by the commission approved the creation of a joint master’s of business administration program at Towson University and the University of Baltimore, despite the fact that Morgan State University, a historically black institution, offered the same program in the same city for over two decades.
Morgan State officials appealed the commission’s decision, arguing the duplicate program in such close proximity violated the 1992 Supreme Court ruling and would negatively affect its enrollment and encourage racial segregation among the institutions. The commission upheld its ruling, citing an increased demand for qualified business professionals in Baltimore – not race – as justification for its decision.
“The basic issue here was the fact that there was a need for more MBA students,” said David Sumler, assistant secretary for planning and academic affairs. “Towson had the largest number of undergraduate business majors in the state besides College Park. They were poised and ready to meet the demand.”
Sumler also noted Morgan State’s rate of graduating business students had declined over the years, dropping from about 200 per year in the 1980s to about 30 last year.
But the Afro’s Oliver said the commission’s reasoning for allowing the program at Towson was unfounded.
“To compare the graduation rate as a justification for duplicating programs at a white institution is, in my opinion, just another racist ploy,” Oliver said. “I believe that what the commission did was not only unfair, it was illegal.”
Legislators such as Del. Joanne Benson (D-Prince George’s), one of the bill’s sponsors, have high hopes the bill makes it back to the governor’s desk. A similar bill passed last year, but was vetoed by then-Gov. Robert Ehrlich (R).
“This is a Maryland legislative black caucus priority bill,” Benson said. “We’re working it hard up here. We think it has a good chance of passing.”
Some commission officials said in interviews the bill could be problematic, however, if it passes without amendments that would narrow its scope.
“To go through a judicial proceeding on every program would slow down the process considerably,” Sumler said. “That would be a bad disservice to all of higher education.”
Sumler went on to defend the commission’s record in following federal mandates to integrate schools, saying the state made a series of agreements with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. In 1999, the commission laid out nine commitments that the commission would meet in order to prove that the state had made a goodwill effort to desegregate its schools.
“We went through a year-long process and submitted a report showing that we had met the requirements,” Sumler said. “That was in 2006 and we still have heard no response from the Office of Civil Rights.”
Helen Szablya, the commission’s spokeswoman, said that historically black schools also have a role in desegregating, noting that in the past, Morgan State produced white graduate business students. Last year, all of the graduating students in the school’s master’s of business administration program were black, Szablya said.
“The issue of desegregation goes both ways,” Szablya said. “It’s not just traditionally white schools who are supposed to be integrating.”
Contact reporter Christina Cobb at newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu.
