Morgan president Earl Richardson asked the commissioners to overturn Secretary of Higher Education Calvin Burnett's approval of the proposal. The commissioners will reconvene to discuss the matter and come to a decision on Wednesday, May 25, an MHEC spokesperson said.
Towson hopes to offer the joint degree with the University of Baltimore, which has had an MBA degree for several decades.
Towson President Robert Caret repeatedly stressed the point that denying Towson and UB the joint MBA would be "bad public policy."
He cited statistics showing that private institutions confer 80 percent of MBA degrees in the region, and said the state shouldn't be allowing the public sector to be subservient in its offerings. He added that the public is not being adequately served by Morgan.
Enrollment in Morgan's MBA program has declined from 263 students twenty years ago to only 28 this year.
"We believe the program constitutes unnecessary duplication," Richardson said. "There are other institutions -- several other institutions -- in the Baltimore area that have the capacity to accommodate the number of students that have been projected for this new program." He said one of the "unintended consequences" of duplicating programs could be a "movement toward the resegregation of higher education."
Clifton Conrad, a consultant for the federal Office for Civil Rights, seemed to agree. During an hour of testimony to the commission, he said the proposal would contribute to the establishment of a "dual structure of higher education" -- one for whites, one for blacks -- that the Supreme Court spoke against in a 1992 ruling, United States v. Fordice.
In 2000, Maryland signed a Partnership Agreement with the Office for Civil Rights. The agreement required the state to support historically black institutions and reduce "de facto segregation" by encouraging white enrollment at the schools.
The Office of Civil Rights expressed concern about the proposal in a letter to MHEC last month. OCR enforcement director Sue Bowers said the office had not determined whether the joint MBA program would violate the state's agreement.
"We are not yet ready to make a legal determination," she said. "If the commission makes a decision to approve the program then we'll be in that spot. But we're not there yet."
Under questioning by the commissions, Bowers said the agency had relied on Conrad's advice in several other cases.
Following Conrad's testimony, Caret asked for an opportunity to respond in writing to the consultant's comments.
"To focus just on Fordice with no context of the needs of the citizens and the needs of the state is foolish," Caret said.
Several representatives testified in support of Towson and the University of Baltimore. Donald Hutchison, president of Suntrust Bank and a member of the TU Board of Visitors, testified that the joint MBA is "a way to utilize two state resources...and make them more effective in providing master's degree opportunities to a greater number of people in the region."
In his testimony, Caret asked the commissioners to make decisions in the best interest of the state of Maryland.
"The law relating to unreasonable program duplication was not intended as a shield for ineffective programs, nor was the intent to make needed programs less accessible and less affordable," Caret said.
"I don't believe that the law is going to bring more students to Morgan," Barbara Dreyer, a member of Towson's Board of Visitors, added during her testimony. "It hasn't so far and it's not going to in the future. Regulatory protection clearly gave Morgan a non-market-driven head-start."
Following the hearing, Caret said the University has prepared alternatives in case the commission overturns Burnett's decision.
"There's a Plan B and a Plan C, but I don't think we're going to need them," Caret said.
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