Editorial: Alliance, not merger of University of Maryland campuses

Posted: 6:21 pm Thu, December 15, 2011
By Daily Record Staff

The University System of Maryland Board of Regents made the right call in endorsing a strategic alliance between the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore rather than a merger of the two campuses.

We had been waiting to hear a convincing argument for merger ever since Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., a merger proponent, slipped language into the state budget bill last spring requiring the regents to study the issue and make a recommendation by the end of the year.

That argument never came. What we kept hearing was bigger is better: merging the two institutions would dramatically improve the combined entity’s national ranking among research universities in terms of grants and thus would give the expanded university more clout and prestige.

True enough, perhaps. But the tangible benefits of that never became clear enough to justify putting these two institutions through the organizational trauma and expense of merging, especially at a time when every dollar in the state budget must be used as effectively as possible.

We believe these institutions, already prominent under their own banners, should focus on improved collaboration and innovation to benefit not only their students and faculty but also the state as a whole — its citizens and its economy.

A strategic alliance enables and encourages this kind of collaboration without the torturous bureaucratic process of a merger, where there would inevitably be winners and losers in ugly infighting over power and turf.

Indeed, Mr. Miller’s move in forcing the merger study had already polarized political and higher education factions in the state.

College Park, the flagship campus, stood to gain the most from the merger, possibly vaulting into the Top 10 universities in the nation for research spending. It would inevitably emerge as the dominant partner.

Fearing the negative impact of that outcome without seeing positive advantages, many Baltimore civic leaders and UMB faculty opposed the merger.

But in the end, even College Park President Wallace Loh endorsed the regents’ action, saying he had never supported a full-blown merger.

Now it’s time to get to work in constructive ways to reap the benefits of a strategic alliance. The regents have already approved several initiatives, such as a joint center for medical innovation and a new approach to admissions that would allow students to be admitted jointly to College Park and to graduate programs in Baltimore.

Also, the regents called for the two universities to report their research funding jointly, thus accomplishing the goal of a higher national research ranking with a new policy instead of a costly merger.

We encourage and expect more meaningful collaboration of this nature in the future, as the research university in College Park and the prestigious professional schools in Baltimore find new ways to do what they do best even better.