More than 1,200 new beds will be added to Morgan State University’s on-campus housing by 2027, but the process begins with removing some beds already on campus. 

Baldwin Hall and Cummings House will be renovated and offline during the 2023-24 academic year. 

“The buildings will be rebuilt from the inside and new rooms will be constructed. The skins, or exteriors of these buildings, will remain untouched,” University President David Wilson wrote in a university-wide email. 

Wilson said Morgan is committed to a “complete transfiguration” of the university into one of the world’s “foremost living/learning communities.” 

While the renovations match the growth and transformation of Morgan’s campus over the past five years, the process eliminates about 200 beds for on-campus housing for at least 14 months, until fall of 2024.

Over 400 students were housed at the Lord Baltimore hotel this academic year due to Morgan’s continued housing shortage, but there are no plans to add more rooms for next year, according to Sidney Evans, executive vice president for finance and administration. 

Evans said, “We do not anticipate acquiring any additional hotel rooms. We are going to do more advanced planning around the number of beds we need for each fall semester.”

Evans said the university plans to add additional beds at HH Midtown, Towson Town Place, and Altus. There is also another apartment complex that is closer to campus that the university is planning to contract with. 

The university also plans to add more beds in the facilities they already have contracts with. 

Douglas Gwynn, director of residence life and housing, said, “We are currently in the process of securing additional spaces with the current properties that we have to, I guess, subsidize those numbers that we are going to be losing in the renovation plan.” 

More students living off campus means more students utilizing the university’s shuttle services.

In the first few weeks of the spring semester, challenges with the contracted shuttle services left students struggling to find transportation to and from campus. 

“There were some initial hiccups in terms of the companies to provide a service for us at the beginning of the semester, but I’m sure that we have already resolved those issues and the system is working much better.” Gwynn said. 

Gwynn said when the fall semester arrives, there should be no issues regarding the shuttle system and providing off-campus students with transportation. Therefore, if freshman students are placed off campus, they should have reliable transportation as the shuttles will already be off campus. 

More Housing Transformation to Come 

The demolition of O’Connell Hall is scheduled for May 2025 and is expected to be ready for occupancy in fall 2027. 

The new 604-bed housing facility adjacent to Thurgood Marshall Hall is scheduled for students to move in fall 2024.