Calling it a "win-win," State Senate President Thomas V. "Mike" Miller is suggesting a merger between UMB and UMCP, a move which would create a top-10 research university.
"There has been talk about this for years," said Regent Francis X. Kelly, who was also an important voice on higher education during three terms in the state Senate. "No one disputes the fact that the campuses should be working more closely together. I think the timing is probably right for a good study."
The campuses actually shared a president, though not an identity, between 1920 and 1970. Kelly said he also remembered talking about a merger in 1988, when the General Assembly passed a sweeping reorganization of the university system and formally designated College Park as the system's flagship school. He said the regents have not formally discussed it in recent years.
Miller said he proposed the study this year because he felt the regents missed an opportunity to examine the issue in 2010, when the presidential jobs at both campuses were open."
Read the
full story at the Baltimore Sun.