Tom Moore
2007-03-27 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Morgan State University’s fight against Towson University’s combined MBA program with the University of Baltimore pits two area schools against each other. The battle involves the U.S. Constitution, two strong-willed presidents and allegedly the race card.

“It’s a terrible disservice to portray this as a feud between Towson and Morgan,” says Dr. Earl Richardson, Morgan’s president. “This is really about unnecessary duplication, it’s about economies of scale, it’s about fairness.”

The issue goes back to 2004, when Towson was thrice turned down by Morgan in a proposal to partner in a new MBA program, with each side claiming the other made unreasonable demands.

Towson then submitted a plan to offer the same program with the University of Baltimore. The secretary of Higher Education, Dr. Calvin Burnett, approved the school’s plan in March 2005 after rejecting an earlier version.

“They never addressed any of the issues we raised,” said Richardson, “including the issues of unnecessary duplication, not enough demand for the program, and that this is a poor use of state tax dollars.”

But Towson’s President Dr. Robert Caret called demand for the program “overwhelming” and says the private sector encouraged Towson to establish the program, aimed at producing more qualified new hires for area corporations.

Richardson argues that MBA programs at Loyola, Morgan, Hopkins and UB mean no need exists for a new program. Yet Caret says, “Earl’s not mentioning that he’s had 30 years to get his MBA program to work; it has been a failure, and now he wants to oppose ours.”

The basis of Morgan’s opposition comes from the Supreme Court’s 1992 Fordice decision in which the court banned the creation of new taxpayer-funded graduate programs that would hurt historically black institutions by duplicating programs offered at those schools. There are exceptions in cases of overwhelming demand for the program, or a strong public need that would be met by the program.

“The final opinion we received from the attorney general’s office was that our program clearly met the Fordice standard,” Caret says. “We are serving the overwhelming need from the business community to bring them better graduates.”

The Towson/UB MBA program is fully enrolled in its first year, whereas Morgan’s faced drastic enrollment shortages year after year. That is, until a state funding earmark of $800,000 to hire new program staff more than doubled enrollment in Morgan’s MBA this year — an earmark that was made only after Towson had been approved for its MBA program.

“Walk to my campus, look at my campus, it’s embarrassing,” says Richardson. “Towson has achieved its critical mass. Look at its growth rate — they are up to 17,000 students. If we had received their level of funding, we would be up to 16,000 students. We were historically under-unded between the period of 1941 to 1986, when Towson got many new buildings.”

“We have not received a new building of any kind since 1974,” Caret says. “We want Morgan to do well. We should be supporting each other. For years they have been blackmailing the state by using the race card, and it’s only hurting our schools.”

Richardson says Morgan has never opposed Towson receiving new buildings, but only opposes programs when Morgan feels they violate the Fordice standard, such as Towson’s MBA program, and an electrical engineering course offered at UMBC, which Morgan successfully blocked.

University System of Maryland head William “Brit” Kirwan said, “We are the only school system in the country that allows for one school to sue another.”

“Brit, you should have spoken up when our program was being duplicated,”Richardson says.

Yet, Morgan’s recent program success lends credence to Towson’s argument that the schools programs can coexist. A doubling in enrollment after direction from the state to put more funds into the program suggests better results are on the horizon for Morgan.

Towson deserves better than to be blocked from having an MBA program when it fulfills a huge private sector need for better business graduates.

Tom Moore hosts “The AES Tom Moore Show” on AM 680 WCBM, Saturdays 10 p.m. to midnight. His Web site is www.tommooreradio.com