The University of Maryland University College wants to create an online doctoral program for aspiring community-college administrators, but Morgan State University is seeking to block it, The Sun newspaper, in Baltimore, reports. Morgan State, which is historically black, says the program would duplicate a program offered on its campus, and therefore violate civil-rights legal precedents. William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, thinks another precedent is at stake. “I’m not aware of another instance in which an online degree has been considered duplicative of a face-to-face program,” he said.
RSS
Follow The Ticker through your favorite RSS reader.
10 Responses to Maryland Dispute Pits a Brick-and-Mortar Ph.D. Program Against a Potential Online Rival
chazzbo - September 15, 2009 at 8:27 am
If the UMUC is recruiting program participants from a geographic area that is traditionally served by Morgan State University, then it seems that constitutes a duplication of effort. Seems that with size and resources on the side of UMUC they could agree to recruit students who are not within MSU’s traditional sphere of influence. Even better, why not allow UMUC to offer the program without geographical limitations and hire the MSU Community College Administration program faculty to teach as adjuncts for UMUC.
nholly86 - September 15, 2009 at 8:59 am
This is educational colonialism at its best. Individual states would be wise to to create protections for their home institutions. North Carolina had such laws until the mid 80′s. This issue in Maryland is a duplicate program, the issue in Tennessee and Montana could be local programs closing, because UMUC undercuts them in cost and ease. The real threats of the online programs are not in your small virtual universities, but in major state and private universities who have the resources to easily push current online contenders out of the way, and then focus their attention on eliminating local and regional programs.
cwinton - September 15, 2009 at 11:49 am
Evidently UMUC needs to do stuff like this to justify its existence. It would be nice to know the back story since it appears to be an attempt to poach from another institution’s developed program within Maryland’s higher ed system. I guess there’s a bit of internal politics going on here that us outsiders are not privy to.
pjstudevent - September 15, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I worked at the University of Maryland and UMUC is a huge provider of online education – HUGE! UMUC is in Adelphi, Maryland, near D.C. while Morgan State is in Baltimore. I don’t know why any other school would want to deny opportunities for people to get a higher degree, but their request should be thrown out.
pjstudevent - September 15, 2009 at 4:32 pm
I worked at the University of Maryland and UMUC is a huge provider of online education – HUGE! UMUC is in Adelphi, Maryland, near D.C. while Morgan State is in Baltimore. I don’t know why any other school would want to deny opportunities for people to get a higher degree, but their request should be thrown out.
jennifernace - September 22, 2009 at 9:41 am
UMUC has administrative offices in MD, S Koriea, and Germany. Their online programs are for anyone…U.S. citizens overseas as well as international students living in their home country. The idea that UMUC is trying to poach MSU prospective students is just silly. They are looking to serve students who want a degree and for whatever reason either choose not to attend face to face, or who live out of range for face to face. Don’t confuse UMUC with UMCP, they are different schools with different markets. There should be room for both programs because there will always be folks who prefer a face to face degree.
jbrugger - September 22, 2009 at 12:23 pm
I totally agree with jennifernace and pjstudevant. I received both my undergraduate and graduate degrees at UMUC while moving every 2-3 years as a military spouse. the idea that UMUC is taking potential students from Morgan State is ludicrous as a great majority of UMUC’s students are or have been affiliated with the military in domestic and foreign markets. Can MSU provide that kind of service…I think not!!
headmin - September 22, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I find it odd no one commented on MSU’s statement that the online offering is a violation of civil rights. Would not an online option provide greater access and therefore provide more minorities an option to pursue their administrative PhD? Offering a program online opens opportunity worldwide. I do like chazzbo’s notion of sharing faculty. As far as duplicative, if MD is like our state system, new offerings have to be vetted by other state players for their comments and or objections. I believe MSU’s challenge is fair on the basis of potential saturation of academic offerings but I fail to see how providing an opportunity for learning violates civil rights.
ljstrating - January 13, 2010 at 2:29 pm
I would like to see the Maryland Community College System get involved in this discussion, if only because I would imagine there’s a need for a program like this beyond the boundaries of Baltimre. Morgan has – for decades – used the degree cuplication card to discredit and block degrees offered elsewhere. It’s almost like they’re trying to punish others for their own lack of innovation and market response. Seems to me that to allow only one institution the opportunity to offer a certain graduate program only to those who are within commuting distance of an urban campus in Baltimore denies the same right – unfairly and in possible violation of anti trust law – to community college administrators who live outside the Baltimore area (or even those who live close by who choose – and this is about choice) not to commute to campus after work. This attempt to block a professionally-aligned program also interferes with the very mission of a community college, which is to serve its community – in this case, the leaders of tomorrow’s campuses who, in turn, also need to serve the needs of a community. I’m not sure the folks at Morgan fully understand the nature of the community college itself by denying its colleagues the chance to grow in this way. And, let’s face it – online education opens up new doors of opportunity to scores of folks from all walks of life and ethnic affinity – surely Morgan understands the diversity obligation imposed on other institutions in the Maryland system. Why would they block the chance of black administrators from other parts of the state to take part in an online graduate program which serves the needs of numerous minority populations who don’t happen to live in Baltimore? It’s time for Morgan to look at this differently.
allens - January 13, 2010 at 8:15 pm
There are quite a few cases in which more than two state-supported institutions, one of them historically black, are in the same town, as far as I can recall. Does this indicate that it’s illegal for such to have overlapping precedents? And state support varies radically from state to state and university/college to university/college. There are two different sets of institutions in terms of state support in PA, for instance. The University of South Alabama, at least when my father was a professor there, got less than 5% of its budget from the state.