Sign In
Free Newsletter
University of Baltimore, President Kurt Schmoke. (Submitted photo)
UB’s Kurt Schmoke: No further discussion with BCCC on merger ahead of retirement
As his retirement looms next year, University of Baltimore President Kurt Schmoke said his proposal to unite his institution with Baltimore City Community College is not moving forward at this time.
“There has not been further discussion of a structured collaboration between BCCC and UBalt,” Schmoke, a former member of BCCC’s board of trustees, wrote in an email to The Daily Record last week.
BCCC did not return a request for comment.
Last October, The Baltimore Banner reported that Schmoke tested reactions to the concept in a community email that confounded staff and faculty as he attempted to alleviate the Mid-Town Belvedere university’s lagging enrollment and long-standing structural deficit.
A month later, Schmoke resigned from the community college’s board of trustees, upon which he had served for eight years, The Banner reported.
Schmoke floated the concept in a 2019 commentary published in The Baltimore Sun, in which he proposed that UBalt, Coppin State University and BCCC merge to create the City University of Baltimore.
“The strengths of the institutions outweigh their weaknesses, but there are several ways in which a formal collaboration among these organizations would be mutually beneficial,” Schmoke wrote at the time. “Streamlining administrative functions, coordinating improvements in digital technology and eliminating duplicative academic programs are just a few of the benefits to be achieved.”
Schmoke informed the University System of Maryland board of regents on June 12 that he is retiring from his role as the president the following June. He previously served as the mayor of Baltimore from 1987 to 1999.
