Last week the University of Baltimore (UB) and Towson University announced that they will end the joint Master of Business Administration (MBA) program that triggered a lawsuit against the institutions and the State of Maryland based on a 1992 decision by the Supreme Court known as United States v. Fordice.  According to the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education the action by UB and Townson is not nearly enough to solve the disparities caused by the state’s history of favoring publically-funded traditionally white institutions at the expense of Maryland’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).  The Coalition has a proposed “solution” that is as polarizing as it is absurd.

In order to remedy the effects of past discrimination within Maryland’s higher education system the Coalition proposes merging UB into Morgan State, and transferring programs in computer, electrical and civil engineering and information systems from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to Morgan State, fulfilling the vision of Morgan State by its president, David Wilson, as a “comprehensive, urban research university.”  In other words, his vision would be achieved by eviscerating UMBC’s enormously successful engineering programs and taking over UB’s equally successful law and business programs.   Instead of developing its own successful programs Morgan State would attempt to transplant successful programs from other institutions.  Whether these programs would continue to flourish after being uprooted and moved is an open question.

It is worth noting that it was the failure by Morgan State to offer an MBA program attractive to either black or white students that preceded the decision by UB and Towson to initiate the joint MBA program in 2005.  At the time the number of students enrolling in the Morgan State program had dropped to 28 from 62 a decade earlier.  Robert Caret, then president of Towson and now chancellor of the University System of Maryland, referred to the “dwindling enrollment” in Morgan State’s MBA program and told the hard truth:  “Morgan simply has not delivered for the citizens of Maryland.”

Earl Richardson, at the time president of Morgan State and now an adviser to the Coalition, claimed that the failure of Morgan to attract more students was primarily due to a lack of state funding.  That claim discounts the importance of leadership; UB established its MBA program in 1972 at a time when UB was struggling financially.  The program flourished because of the dedication and commitment of leaders like former UB President H. Mebane Turner, not because state funding, when it began in 1975, was any more generous than that provided to Morgan.

Fordice remains a controversial and confusing decision.  It requires states that had racially-segregated publically-funded systems of higher education to eliminate all practices that tended to perpetuate the adverse consequences of the racially-segregated systems and reduced the educational opportunities available to students of the HBCUs.  “Suspect” practices include the systematic underfunding of HBCUs and program duplications that result in disadvantage to HBCUs and decreased academic choices for their students.  Program duplication is permissible, however, if based on “sound educational justification.”  The problem with Fordice is that the standard for determining whether a state has complied with its obligation to remove all vestiges of segregation for its higher education system is vague; Justice Scalia stated that the standard lacks clarity and is incomprehensible and, based on the decisions by lower courts applying Fordice, he has proved to be correct.                

To place Fordice in perspective it is worth noting that the decision does not require a state to maintain the existence of a HBCU.  The decision was not intended to protect institutions; it was intended to ensure that the educational opportunities available to black students are the same as those available to white students.  Justice Thomas raised the concern that Fordice could prompt states to merge or eliminate publically-funded HBCUs as one means of removing the vestiges of a segregated past, a measure some states have considered.

Nothing good will come of Morgan placing itself in an adversarial position with its sister institutions, especially after proving itself unable to compete with them based on the merits of its programs.  As both UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski and UB President Kurt Schmoke stated in affidavits, the solution to Morgan’s programs should not include setting back the state’s overall higher education system.

November 29, 2015

Earlier this month Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said that the increase in crime in Baltimore was “atrocious” and that the murder rate was “out of control.” He stated that it was “horrible situation” to which a solution must be found.  Solving all of the problems that are behind the cycle of poverty and violence in the city will take a long time, but there is one problem for which something can and should be done with some of the state’s estimated $500 million budget surplus.  There are programs in the city that keep at-risk children in school, off the streets, and out of trouble, and these programs need to be expanded as soon as possible.

These programs address the following problem:  There are too many children in Baltimore who, by the time they are teenagers, are lost to life on the streets where recourse to violence is second nature.  Gang and drug-related violence is appalling but no phenomenon in Baltimore is a more alarming sign than the vicious attacks by groups of young people on victims who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The brutal assault on a 70 year old retired police officer is just the latest example.  Something has gone seriously wrong with the value systems of these young men and women.  Why?

One theory that tends to polarize reactions along racial lines is the absentee-father theory.  The theory is that the absence of fathers from the lives of their children, particularly their sons, makes it less likely that children will have the type of moral upbringing that helps keep them in school and out of trouble.  According to a survey released by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2013, more than 19 million children across the country — 26% — are living without a father in the home.  Among African-American children in Baltimore the rate is 69%.

Critics of the theory complain that it fails to acknowledge how institutional racism and wrong-headed social and economic policies have contributed to the plight of poor black families.  We need to put that debate aside because, regardless of how we have gotten to this point, the situation is dire:  As confirmed by a landmark 30 year study by Johns Hopkins sociologist Karl Alexander released last year 49 percent of black men from low-income backgrounds in Baltimore had a criminal conviction by age 28.

People working in the trenches in Baltimore aren’t wasting time debating.  They are doing something about the problem.  Joe Jones founded the Center for Urban Families (CFUF) in 1999.  In a 2013 interview with CNN he stated that most men come in the door looking for help getting jobs.  But Jones believes that jobs are just the first step, and that the key to creating real change in Baltimore’s troubled communities is ending what he calls “the cycle of father absence.”  “If we don’t crack the code of men having babies for whom they’re not responsible for, all of our efforts to build a better Baltimore will be limited.”  CFUF runs a program called Responsible Fatherhood.  [“A Fresh Start for Absentee Fathers,” CNN, September 19, 2013.]

Last spring, Renaissance Academy Principal Nikkia Rowe hired four men to mentor 20 students each based on her “strong belief that human beings change their behavior based on deep, interpersonal relationships.”  She added:  “Ultimately, it’s about our children not necessarily having the benefit of relationships.”  Grades are up and suspensions are down since the program began and Principal Rowe is looking for the money to hire more mentors.  [“For At-Risk Kids, Mentors Provide Far More Than Just Homework Help,” NPR, October 29, 2015.]

Baltimore’s recreation centers have been another source of support for at-risk children.  Earlier this year Brandi Murphy, director of the Lillian S. Jones Recreation Center, told NPR:  “We are mom, dad, aunt, cousin. They come here to get what they don’t have at home.  There are some parents that even to this day, I’ve had some kids for two years and still haven’t met them.”  [“In Baltimore, Rec Centers Provide So Much More Than Just Fun,” NPR, June 23, 2015.]

Programs like these work.  They keep more of Baltimore’s children in school, out of gangs, and off the streets.  The little voice in our heads that tells us the difference between right and wrong started as the voice of someone who cared about us and whose approval was important to us.  For many children from Baltimore’s poorest neighborhoods that someone will have to be a person from outside the home.  If Governor Hogan wants to address the cycle of violence in the city he should consider spending some of the state’s estimated $500 million budget surplus on services to Baltimore’s at-risk children using these programs as a model.

November 5, 2015