Goodbye, Annapolis

Photo by Kanji Takeno

Session ends with some significant legislation

for state's colleges and universities

By Jan Lucas

For the most part, the Maryland General Assembly looked favorably upon higher education during the legislative session that ended earlier this week.

Jennifer Gajewski, assistant to the president for governmental relations, says Governor O'Malley allocated and state legislators approved a 6.6 percent increase over last year. TU received $81.4 million in general funds.

“Governor O’Malley is very supportive of higher education,” Gajewski adds. “Although he strongly endorsed the bill to freeze tuition at USM schools, he added money to the base budget to offset any losses to the institutions.”

The state allocated $810 million for capital projects, including $13.5 million to TU to complete Phase I construction of the College of Liberal Arts building. The allocation included legislative intent language to fund $3.095 million in FY 09 for Phase 2 planning and design.

In addition, Gajewski says legislators passed a 2.5 percent merit increase for USM institutions and a 2 percent cost-of-living increase for state employees.  

Bills of particular interest to Maryland’s institutions of higher education included:

• HB134/SB108 prohibits USM institutions and Morgan State University from increasing undergraduate tuition rates for this academic year.

• HB204 calls for a study of the cost of college textbooks, with findings and recommendations due by September 2008.

• HB279 expands the distribution of grants to cover summer session for students pursuing degrees in areas of high need.

• HB538/SB525 requires the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) to administer a grant for dually enrolled students.

• HB1056 requires the Maryland Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped to convene an Instructional Materials Assess Guidelines Committee to coordinate the distribution of instruction materials to blind and other print-disabled students.

• HB110 establishes a subcabinet to coordinate and oversee the implementation of all state action to support the missions of military installations in the state affected by Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) recommendations.

• HB604 increases the maximum amount of a senatorial scholarship from $2,000 to the equivalent annual tuition and mandatory fees of an undergraduate program at a USM institution (to exclude University of Maryland University College and University of Maryland, Baltimore). 

Notable among bills that failed this year was HB81/SB29, which would have allowed retroactive review of MHEC’s decision to grant the University of Baltimore and TU a joint MBA program.

“That doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of it,” Gajewski cautions. “But in the meantime we’ll continue offering the UB/Towson MBA program.”

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