By Melanie R. Holmes
AFRO Staff Writer
(November 19, 2009) - In a recent decision, the Board of Regents denounced Morgan State University’s complaint of program duplication by the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). The Board will continue to allow UMUC to offer its new online doctoral program in community college administration that Morgan has been offering in classrooms for about 10 years.
“They can have the program online for out-of-state students but not online for in-state students,” said board member attorney A. Dwight Pettit. “[The MHEC secretary] doesn’t have the jurisdiction to restrict the offering of courses online or internationally.”
Pettit voted in alliance with the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) that the UMUC program was duplicative of Morgan’s, taking into consideration the fact that two years ago, the University of Baltimore and Towson University also began to offer a an academic program already available at Morgan. He said that the duplications are violations of the state’s civil rights laws for equity among Black and White institutions.
“Individually it doesn’t hurt, but if you put it together, it becomes more and more of an economic dissipation of historically Black colleges and universities,” Pettit said.
Officials at Morgan, a traditionally Black school, believe that program duplication has led to continued segregation of Black and White colleges. They say the effect of program duplication began with the decline in White enrollment years ago. Between 1969 and 1974, 234 students enrolled in MBA programs, 54 of which were White. As of 2006, no White students enrolled.
Currently, the university is involved in a lawsuit against the MHEC, alleging that traditionally White institutions (TWI) have duplicated programs at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), including Towson University and the University of Baltimore duplication a master’s in business administration program similar to one at Morgan. Similarly, MHEC alleges Salisbury State University offers a computer science program originally introduced at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
“Maryland used to run a formerly segregated higher education school system,” said Tricia Jefferson, senior counsel to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, who is participating in the lawsuit. “One of those effects can continue if you have a TWI carrying or offering unique programs that are offered by HBCUs that are close by.”
Officials of the MHEC declined to comment on the pending case. No trial date has been set at this time, but the Coalition is scheduled for a status conference with the opposing counsel and the court on Dec. 18.