University leaders and state lawmakers have called for the legislature to require public deliberations and decisions for contested academic program proposals to keep Maryland in line with a recent settlement for underfunding HBCUs for decades.
In a set of roughly two dozen recommendations approved Friday, a work group of school leaders and lawmakers also pushed for the Maryland Higher Education Commission, which establishes statewide policies for public and private colleges and universities, to clean up and regulate the program approval process.
Maryland’s process came under scrutiny from the Office of the Attorney General earlier this year, and one of the state’s historically Black colleges and universities and its allies in the legislature have questioned whether the process has aligned with a 2021 settlement in which the state agreed to pay $577 million to end a 15-year lawsuit alleging the state underfunded its four HBCUs for decades.
The work group — led by state Sen. Nancy King and Del. Stephanie Smith, both Democrats — also recommended that, beginning in 2025, the state review academic programs approved in the last four years over the objection of a HBCU to determine whether the program hindered funding or enrollment at the HBCU.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Tristan Navera over at The Daily Record
