Posted on 01/26/2010 10:19:30 AM PST by bs9021
Collegial Collusion
Bethany Stotts, January 26, 2010
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported yesterday that the University of Maryland University College (UMUC) has decided to cancel an online Ph.D. program for community college administrators because it competes with Morgan State University, a public, historically black institution which offers a similar Ph.D. program. Chronicle writer Marc Parry explains,
Last week, 25 new students began training at University of Maryland University College to become community-college administrators.
But none of them live in Maryland. In fact, the university has been barred from offering this online doctoral degree to state residents.
The bizarre situation stems from a turf struggle between UMUC and Morgan State University, a historically black institution in Baltimore that objected to the UMUC effort because it would duplicate a similar program that Morgan State offers as a blend of face-to-face and online course work…
…Some context: In the 1992 college-desegregation case United States v. Fordice, the U.S. Supreme Court said states should make an effort to prevent predominantly white institutions from setting up programs that compete with public black colleges. Another Maryland public institution competing with Morgan’s program would violate the Fordice decision, says Marybeth Gasman, an expert on black colleges at the University of Pennsylvania.
Morgan State is one of the few black colleges that offers a doctoral program for higher-education administrators. James E. Lyons Sr., Maryland’s secretary of higher education, says he decided to restrict the University of Maryland University College degree to protect a unique program, not to assault online education....
(Excerpt) Read more at academia.org ...
I don’t think the court decision is legally binding, it’s just something they’re hiding behind.
Several times in the 1990’s, due to budget shortfalls in Louisiana, proposals were made to combine Southern University at New Orleans with the University of New Orleans, Southern University (Baton Rouge) with LSU,
and Grambling with Louisiana Tech. I do not recall this case ever being mentioned.
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