The Maryland Higher Education Commission is forcing MICA to give up its planned interior design classes, complicating the school’s effort to offer new programs and overcome declining revenues. The commission administrator determined that MICA’s program was too similar to one offered by Morgan State University, although MICA leaders said it was not.
Morgan and other historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in Maryland reached a settlement in 2021 with the Hogan Administration of its lawsuit accusing the State of providing inequitable resources to its four HBCUs. In addition to a $557 million payment, the settlement required the State to guarantee that HBCU schools were not forced to compete with other universities in Maryland. Morgan is a state university, but MICA is private.
According to the Baltimore Banner, the secretary of the state’s higher education commission, Sanjay Rai, ruled in March that MICA could not create the program. The college appealed the decision. The commission voted 5-3 in favor of MICA, but the art school needed seven votes to overturn Rai’s decision.
The commission’s decision will cause “financial harm,” said Raymond Barclay, MICA’s vice president of enrollment management. Morgan and other HBCUs have successfully blocked expanded programs at Johns Hopkins University, Towson University and Stevenson University.
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