(NAME-MCE) Race and Fairness

[Anselmo Villanueva]

For related stories, go to:

http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/03/15/maryland

March 15, 2007

Race and Fairness

On the surface, the battle in Maryland over a new M.B.A. program might
seem to be just another parochial fight between neighboring colleges.
But the dispute over which public universities in Baltimore should
offer an M.B.A. escalated this week in a way that educators say raises
serious issues about desegregation, state planning in higher education
and fairness.

The Maryland Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would force the
Maryland Higher Education Commission to reconsider its decision to
approve a new M.B.A. jointly offered by Towson University and the
University of Baltimore. And if the commission doesn't kill the
program, Morgan State University would have the right to go to state
court under the bill to try to seek an order to do so. Morgan State, a
historically black institution that has offered an M.B.A. for decades,
maintains that the new M.B.A. will divert students and funds from it,
undermining the state's desegregation plan.

The Senate bill was pushed hard by the powerful black legislative
caucus. If it passes the House of Delegates and is signed into law —
currently considered likely but not a sure thing — it could kill off
(as its sponsors want) a Towson-Baltimore M.B.A. that is already
attracting far more students than enroll for an M.B.A. at Morgan
State.

To supporters of Morgan State, that's exactly what should happen
because they think the state tried to do an end run around its
desegregation commitments by approving the competing program at a
non-black college. But to others, such a move would put the interests
of a historically black college above the interests of the state's
students and amount to political interference in education decision
making.

While the issue has come to a head in Maryland, it is hardly unique to
the state. In many other states, historically black and predominantly
white institutions are located near one another — and many believe
that choices over which institutions control which programs could have
a huge impact on the vitality of the institutions involved.

If the Towson-Baltimore M.B.A. program is allowed to remain, "it would
violate the letter and spirit of desegregation," said Lezli
Baskerville, president of the National Association for Equal
Opportunity in Higher Education, the national group of historically
black colleges. "It would make a mockery of the state's pledges."

But Robert L. Caret, president of Towson, said that the Maryland
Senate's action is making a mockery of the way decisions need to be
made in higher education. "These public policy issues need to largely
be driven by the needs of the public, not the needs of the
institution," he said. If the bill becomes law, "we'll end up spending
four years in court fighting each other while the public waits for a
newM.B.A. program."

The reason such lofty principles are cited with regard to an M.B.A.
program relates in large part to the guidelines set in 1992 by the
U.S. Supreme Court for desegregating public higher education systems.
In the Fordice case (named for the then-governor of Mississippi), the
court ruled that states needed to do more to desegregate than simply
end admissions policies that barred black students from predominantly
white colleges. The justices ruled that states needed to end
duplicative programs at nearby predominantly white and historically
black colleges.

The focus on duplicative programs is based on several ideas. One is
that the programs are a manifestation of the "separate but equal" idea
in which by having two similar programs, states may be encouraging
white students to attend one institution and black students to attend
another. But another key idea is that "separate but equal" is rarely
equal, and favors the white institutions, so only when prestigious,
growing programs are placed at black colleges will those institutions
get a fair share of students of all races and the state funds that
follow.

In practice, this has meant that state and federal agencies that
oversee desegregation efforts in states that once had de jure
segregation (Maryland among them) focus considerable time and
attention on issues of program duplication. The Maryland Higher
Education Commission had rejected 10 proposed new programs at
predominantly white institutions — most of the rejections at the
behest of Morgan State and other black colleges — before the approval
of the Towson-Baltimore M.B.A. And that approval only came after
Towson tried to set up a joint M.B.A. with Morgan, but was rebuffed.

The commission has a new leader — James E. Lyons Sr., the secretary of
higher education — who started in his position on Wednesday without
having been involved in the decision to approve the Towson-Baltimore
M.B.A., but with plenty of experience dealing with desegregation.
Lyons has been president of two public historically black colleges:
Maryland's Bowie State University and Mississippi's Jackson State
University. He knows all about the program duplication issue. In
Mississippi, he said that he and others were worried about proposals
to put duplicative programs 30 miles away from Jackson State, because
there were plenty of white students "who would drive 30 miles" rather
than enroll at a black college.

In Maryland, where the Baltimore institutions are much more
contiguous, "it becomes a real challenge for everyone to deal with,"
Lyons said.

Lyons said that he didn't want to offer an opinion on the M.B.A.
programs because he could be involved in resolving the dispute. But he
said that there were legitimate reasons to avoid duplication. He also
said that it was far better to deal with these matters in a
coordinating board such as his than in the courts. "I don't think
anyone wants the courts to be making higher education decisions."

Paul E. Lingenfelter, president of the State Higher Education
Executive Officers, said that coordinating boards try to balance all
kinds of issues when reviewing program disputes, even when there is no
desegregation issue. Limiting the number of programs could promote
efficiency and quality, he said. "It doesn't make a whole lot of sense
for a state to support seven weak Ph.D. programs in history as opposed
to a few strong ones."

On the other hand, "sometimes it boils down to people looking for ways
of controlling the market for a particular service and people don't
like competitors and prefer monopolies," he said.

So which is it in Maryland? Caret, the Towson president, said that he
understands the idea of avoiding program duplication. He said that if
Morgan State had just created an M.B.A. program and was trying to get
it off the ground, it wouldn't make sense for the state to allow
another one to get started. But Caret noted that Morgan State has had
its programs for several decades — and that enrollment has been
dropping. It's now around 70. "This hasn't been a successful program,"
he said, adding that the students that the Towson-Baltimore program is
attracting wouldn't have gone to Morgan State anyway, but would have
enrolled at private universities' programs.

As evidence of the demand, Caret noted the popularity of the new
program. It started in the fall with 150 students and gained another
100 at the start of the current semester. (The program is designed for
working adults and so does not require a fall start.) "There was a
real need here," Caret said.

Otis A. Thomas, dean of Morgan State's business school, acknowledged
that the long-term enrollment in his M.B.A. program has declined, but
of Caret's statements about quality said, "I don't see how he can say
that." He said that the Fordice decision was clear: "The law should
prevail," he said. "There was a clear case in Fordice that there
should be no duplication."

Baskerville, of NAFEO, agreed. "In order for black colleges to have
the opportunity to catch up after not being provided with the kinds of
resources needed to compete, they need there not to be duplication,"
she said. Morgan State has "a stronghold" in business education, she
said, and its programs are well respected, but need more support. If
there is more need in the Baltimore area, she said, the state should
improve Morgan State and help it meet that need. "We are competing for
the same students," she said.

The issue is particularly important in "growth areas," she said, such
as business education. Duplication "pulls from our base of support."

Some advocates for public black colleges say that the Maryland debate
reflects an unfair situation in which black colleges have been placed.
Albert L. Samuels, associate professor of political science at
Southern University at Baton Rouge, is the author of Is Separate
Unequal? Black Colleges and the Challenge to Desegregation (University
Press of Kansas), in which he argues that the Fordice decision has led
to an inappropriate and unfair focus in state policy about black
colleges.Fordice said that "all colleges are equally guilty" of
segregation, he said in an interview, so public black colleges such as
Morgan State are forced to emphasize those programs that might attract
more white students.

This is unfair, he said, because Morgan State and its counterparts
never created segregation or excluded white students. It was the white
flagships that excluded black students. But with the program
duplication emphasis, he said, black colleges are forced to add the
programs that don't necessarily serve their black students. "When the
settlement plans focus on the question of making black colleges
attractive to other-race students, it's probably at the expense of the
educational needs of black students," he said.

There is no question that Morgan State and every other public black
college was discriminated against in the allocation of resources,
Samuels said. And as a result, the black students who attended — and
continue to attend — such institutions don't have the range of
facilities and programs and resources they should have. But black
college leaders are nervous about talking about how they need more
money to serve their black students, he said, "because we don't want
to sound like we are endorsing Plessy v. Ferguson."

The logic for Morgan State to protect its M.B.A. program is consistent
with how education leaders have thought about these issues since
Fordice, Samuels said. But is it correct? "Black colleges are forced
to make almost unnatural arguments," he said. "You end up with black
colleges being forced to argue for desegregation and for money to
attract white students, when what they really want and need is more
money period, which they and their students need because they were
underfunded for years."

— Scott Jaschik