Retiring Morgan State President Earl Richardson says his school has accomplished a great deal, but could do more with equitable support from the state.
When Dr. Earl S. Richardson came to Morgan State University in November 1984, the 3,000-student school had old residence halls and academic buildings in need of renovations. Today, the university on Baltimore’s east side has more than 7,000 students and has received about $500 million toward new construction and renovations that include a $54 million architecture school, a $40 million fine arts building and a $14 million expansion project at Hughes Stadium. After serving at the helm for nearly 25 years, Richardson is retiring as president at year’s end. The 65-year-old Air Force veteran spoke to Diverse about his legacy, MSU’s still-needed improvements and the fight to ensure Maryland’s historically Black institutions are respected.
DI: What are some of your accomplishments as the leader of Morgan State?
ER: I guess our vision has been to transform Morgan from a liberal arts institution to a doctoral research university. We had to increase our academic profile. Increase the uniqueness and academic program inventory. We lead the state in graduating African-Americans. We have made some great improvements to the facilities on campus: a new fine arts building; a new student union; a new engineering facility. We are now rejoicing over a new library in the center of campus, and the planning is now going on for a new business school. With all the accomplishments, we have yet to begin to scratch the surface of this university. This potential has somewhat been stymied by the pace our institution has been able to build. Many of the facilities that we talked about we proposed 25 years ago. Meanwhile, our competitors have continued to build at an already advantaged position.
DI: What are some of the challenges still facing Morgan State?
ER: The state has not given comparable support to us as it has with Morgan’s peers, such as the University of Maryland, Baltimore County…and the bigger institutions like (University of) Maryland (College Park). That is a major issue facing Morgan State University. There is no other way of explaining the disparity there with the failure of the state to provide necessary support for Morgan. There has been little, if any, state support for the doctoral program at Morgan. We got federal funding. We got private funding. All of the successes and achievements we have had at Morgan is through our own ingenuity.
DI: Morgan State received $27.4 million from the state for the school’s Center for the Built Environment and Infrastructure Studies (school of architecture). If the state has committed that much money to that project, why say the school needs more money?
