Student enrollment numbers and construction have been hot topics at Morgan State University ahead of the fall 2023 academic semester. Each of these concerns were addressed during university President Wilson’s speech at Morgan’s annual Faculty Institute this past Wednesday.

“Conservatively, we’re going to make up about 9,200 students, possibly [over] 9,600 students this year,” said Wilson. 

As the total enrollment nears 10,000, students have questioned whether or not the university is prepared, on an infrastructure level, for the influx of students. Students have flocked to social media to share their concerns; a post about the university’s record enrollment on an Instagram page named “hbcualum” is home to many critical comments.

“And the housing for the 10k students is where exactly?” wrote one student. “Ok but do they have the space to accommodate all those students and the other students coming in?” wrote another. 

Wilson referenced the 2022-2023 school year housing numbers for which there were 4,839 total beds available to students with 2,119 being on campus and 2,720 off campus. For the 2023-2024 school year, Morgan will lose 200 on-campus beds due to the renovation of residence halls Baldwin Hall and Cummings House. 

For the 2023-2024 school year, there will be nearly no upperclassmen– sophomores, juniors, and seniors–who can live on campus. With the exception of resident assistants, only 80 upperclassmen (40 girls, 40 boys) will live on campus and exclusively in Thurgood Marshall Hall.  

The majority of the university’s undergraduate population will be housed in Morgan-approved off-campus apartments, Marble Hall Gardens, HH Midtown, Towson Townplace, Altus, and Morgan View, which will make up 2,720 beds cumulatively. Last year nearly 500 students were housed in the Lord Baltimore Hotel.

“Which is why we [are] fast building the second tower,” Wilson said. “And then we are in discussions about the possibility of building a third tower, that would mean we would raze O’Connell Hall…to build another third ten-story tower over there, housing another 650 or so students.” 

Wilson spoke about several other projects the university has embarked on, is continuing, or has delayed. A newer project in the works is a new science center, which will be located behind the football stadium in place of the Washington Service Center. 

“So you’ll get to see a glance into the modest Washington Service Center and to prepare that corner there on Morgan State Campus Rd. and E Cold Spring Ln.  for what will be an eight-to-nine-story new science building on the campus. And we expect to get it done in…2028,” Wilson said. 

The newest on-campus dormitory, the Health and Human Services building, the bookstore, and Edward P. Hurt Gym, were all addressed as well. The new dormitory, North Tower, will be finished in Fall 2024. Wilson attributed supply chain issues as the reason for the delay of the Northwood Barnes & Noble Booksellers, saying that it would be finished in the spring of 2024. 

“That building [Health and Human Services] is moving along now, on budget, on schedule, and is scheduled to open in the summer of 2024,” Wilson said. 

Wilson mentioned that Hurt Gym would be brought back online no later than the 2024 spring semester. He also revealed that the student center bookstore may be converted into a fitness center after the bookstore’s transition to Northwood. 

Wilson later shared some of his experiences throughout the summer that were on behalf of the university. One of the critical experiences was a trip to West Africa with the Morgan State University Choir where they took tours in Accra, Ghana, Lagos, Nigeria, and Togo and Benin. 

“We went into those slave houses, and that was a very, very, very emotional experience. I wondered if the students were being able to pull it all together after all of that, but they did,” Wilson said. 

The president also mentioned an eight-day trip he took to Israel with other HBCU leaders, including the chancellor of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, the CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, and the presidents of South Carolina State University, Alabama State University, and Delaware State University.

He stressed that the trip was strictly to explore research collaborative opportunities with the University of Tel Aviv. The Times Of Israel, an Israeli publication, mentioned the educational collaboration as well, but primarily reported that the trip was to improve the Black and Jewish relationship amidst “high-profile incidents” in America. The trip was amidst Israel’s violent occupation of Palestine, multiple human rights violations of Palestinians, and the violation of the Geneva Conventions.