Morgan State Blocks Competing Doctoral Programs

BALTIMORE  —  New doctoral programs at Baltimore-area public universities have been put on hold at the urging of Morgan State University officials, prompting critics to claim the school is using its historically Black status to block competition from other schools.
The first doctoral programs at Towson University and the University of Baltimore, initially approved by the Maryland Higher Education Commission, were put on hold when Morgan State officials objected.
Morgan officials say they were trying to avoid duplication of programs already available at their institution.
The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, currently conducting an assessment of the integration of the state's higher education system, has backed Morgan's objections.
That support is due to a 1992 Supreme Court decision in U.S. vs. Fordice, a Mississippi case ruling that says historically Black institutions must not suffer undue damage when formerly segregated university systems, such as Maryland's, are integrated.
But Morgan critics lash back that the school remains largely Black, while other historically Black schools are being absorbed by state systems that have been integrated.
"Morgan has effectively, because of what I would say is a total misinterpretation of the Fordice decision, been able to say ‘No' to many programs" at other schools, says Jack Fruchtman, a political scientist who chairs the faculty senate at Towson University.
The issue is duplication, not race, says Morgan State's president, Dr. Earl S. Richardson.
"It is one of unnecessary duplication and the extent to which that is not good public policy," he says. "It is in compliance with the law."
Richardson says that if Morgan is to become a more diverse institution, it needs exclusive programs. He says that competition from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Towson University and the University of Baltimore drain possible non-Black students away from Morgan.
"If you build it, they will come," he says, implying that some other colleges oppose Morgan's plans because they fear losing their talented Black students to Morgan.