As enrollment continues to rise, the Morgan State Board of Regents has signed off on a lease for the university’s latest housing complex, an off-campus facility that will be home to nearly 500 students.
The board, which met in quarterly session Nov. 12, voted to move forward on the Enolia, a 473-bed property located on the 4500 block of Harford Rd., less than a mile from campus.
Construction on the Enolia – named for Enolia P. McMillan, the first female chair of the Board of Regents and the first female president of the national NAACP – began earlier this year and comes as Morgan’s enrollment exceeded 10,000 students for the first time in school history.
“We have this high enrollment; we also [must] be able to maintain our housing,” said Shirley Malcom, a regent. “We have a target of around 5200 [total beds] and in order to do that, given that we are having to take things offline, then we still have to house students.”
Morgan President David Wilson told the board that the official fall enrollment is a record 10,789 students, which he noted “unofficially” was closer to 11,000.
The university’s enrollment exceeding 10,000 students this year significantly outpaces the goal set in its 10-year strategic plan unveiled in 2022, which aimed to reach that milestone by 2030. Linda Gilliam, another member of the board, noted that Morgan’s enrollment has risen 44% since 2020.
In other developments:
*The board heard testimony regarding the university’s decision on whether Morgan will participate in a settlement between the NCAA and student athletes over the use of their names, images and likenesses (NIL).
A federal judge has signed off on an agreement between the NCAA, the Power Five, the five biggest college conferences, and former athletes who have sued to recoup potential earnings lost during the time when they were barred from making NIL money.
If finalized, the settlement would enable major schools to create a $21.5 million annual revenue-sharing pool for athletes while preserving their ability to secure independent NIL deals.
Melvin Hines, Morgan’s deputy athletics director and chief operating officer, said the university and fellow members of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference are deciding the league’s course of action.
While schools from the Power Five may be able to foot the bill on what may be billions in retroactive payments, Wilson and board Chairman Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-7th) expressed concern that schools from smaller conferences like Morgan might be priced out of the market.
“You’re going to have a situation where the Power Five conferences are going to be actually paying student athletes a substantial amount,” said Wilson. “We have to decide if we want to play in this game at all, and then we’ve got to decide whether there’s a competitive disadvantage to us.”
Said Mfume: “That just seems like it (the settlement) is the great thunderstorm getting ready to hit us if we’re not careful. None of us want the university to be hit with a bill that is retroactive back eight years or so,”
*Wilson announced that Magic Johnson, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, donated $1 million to the university as a part of last month’s Homecoming gala.
The donation comes as a part of $1.4 million that was taken in as a part of the annual fundraising event connected with Homecoming. The gala was cancelled last year in the wake of an Oct. 3 shooting. Johnson oversees SodexoMagic, which operates food services on campus.
