On Race and an MBA

A dispute has been brewing in Maryland regardig MBA programs at two Baltimore area colleges, the majority white and surging Towswon State University, a part of the University System of Maryland, and Morgan State University, a historically black college, about the propriety of a new MBA program at Towson. The problem stems from an old Supreme Court ruling:

In the 1992 case United States v. Fordice, the Supreme Court held that, barring "sound educational justification," duplication of specialized and graduate academic programs at historically black and white colleges violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The court has placed the burden of desegregation on government, not on historically black institutions.

Morgan State is pushing a bill in the General Assembly

that could lead to the dismantling of Towson's MBA program. The bill is based on the argument that by allowing Towson to duplicate a program offered at nearby Morgan State, Maryland is promoting racial segregation.

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Supporters of the bill, including the General Assembly's black caucus, say the Maryland Higher Education Commission violated a landmark U.S. Supreme Court civil rights ruling when it voted 10-1 to let majority-white Towson join the University of Baltimore in offering an MBA. The long-established MBA program at UB is not endangered.

"If you want to be in compliance with federal and state law, you should pass the bill," said Sen. Joan Carter Conway, a Baltimore Democrat and the legislation's lead sponsor. "It's about the law."

Opponents say the bill is a last-ditch attempt by Morgan President Earl S. Richardson to shield his school's faltering MBA program from competition. Critics say Morgan has neglected its program for years.

The statistics bear out a couple of points, first that apparently Morgan State has ignored its MBA program. According to teh Baltimore Sun report,

Enrollment in Morgan's MBA program dropped from more than 250 students, many of them white, in the 1970s, to 28, none of them white, in 2005.

On teh other hand Towson is regarded as a regional leader in business education, with a strong undergraduate program that University leaders felt would sustain an MBA program. University officials also felt that failure to establish a program would endanger their ability to attract and maintain a first class business faculty.

There are also signs that the bill may not be necessary because enrollment at both institutions is on the rise.

But the implementation of the bill, which has already passed the Maryland Senate in a contentious debate and is now heading to the House of Delegates, may mean that Towson could lose the program if no educational benefit is found or if officials determine that the program would encourage racial segregation. The disheartening fact is that race is being used to punish students who make a free choice to attend one school over another. But a larger problem is that if passed, the bill would provide for judicial review of educational programs, so that the courts would get invovled in decisions regarding the types of educational programs schools could offer. Judicial review is a bad idea.

However, the Democratic caucus is exremely sensitive to charges from black caucus members that the Democratic leadership (which is all white) is insenstive to the needs of the black population in Maryland. Which means that the bill may pass the House of Delegates and Governor Martin O'Malley has indicated he may sign such a bill.

Bad news indeed.