For the second time in two years, Morgan State University asserted a Towson doctoral program would violate a 2021 discrimination settlement.
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Another Towson University program rejected as ‘duplication’ of one at Morgan State
11/20/2024
For the second time in two years, the Maryland Higher Education Commission asserted a Towson program violated a 2021 discrimination settlement
The Maryland Higher Education Commission ruled on Wednesday that Towson University cannot create a doctoral program in sustainability and environmental change, citing its “unreasonable duplication” of a similar program at Morgan State University.
Eight members of the commission voted to uphold a previous ruling on the matter issued by Sanjay Rai, the secretary of higher education in the state. Only one disagreed that Towson’s program would cause “demonstrable harm” to Morgan State’s bioenvironmental science Ph.D. program by competing for students and faculty members.
“The program Towson is proposing is unreasonably and unnecessarily duplicative of the Morgan program,” said David Wilson, Morgan State’s president, at the meeting. “Morgan State University takes very, very seriously the whole notion of program duplication.”
This is not the first time the two universities, situated less than 5 miles apart, have clashed. Last year, Morgan State raised alarm bells after
Towson “replicated” a business analytics administration program at the historically Black college. The Maryland Higher Education Commission ultimately sided with Morgan State and rejected Towson’s request for that doctoral program, as well. The same year,
the commission denied requests from the Johns Hopkins University and Stevenson University for a Ph.D. program in physical therapy, which it said would have duplicated a program at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, another HBCU.
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Champions of Maryland’s historically Black colleges won a $577 million settlement in 2021 after years of arguing that the state had underfunded HBCUs and allowed other public colleges to duplicate their programs, hindering their ability to attract students. The commission must now consider whether new, competing programs at historically white institutions would harm those at HBCUs.
While Towson “respects the decision of the commissioners, we are disappointed in and do not concur with today’s denial of our appeal,” a spokesperson told The Baltimore Banner. “The graduates of such a unique program would have helped our state to meet the critical environmental and climate-change related challenges we all face today and increasingly will face in the future.”