Hawks for Football say USM is underfunding UMES with “Non-Growth” designation
PRINCESS ANNE, Md- The Hawks For Football non-profit comprised of former UMES Faculty with the goal of bringing a D1 football program to UMES say the University System of Maryland has a history of underfunding the HBCU that is making the promise of football and rising enrollment unattainable.
“We feel the fundamental way that the current governance system for UMES needs to be examined because UMES has always been in a situation of being like a stepchild of the state of Maryland,” said Hawks for Football Chair Dr. Bryant C. Mitchell.
Mitchell says that a main barrier to getting a football program is lowering enrollment, down from a peak of 4,500 students to a current level of 2,200, but he describes this as a catch-22 as he believes having the program would see growth.
‘We see kids leaving after their sophomore year to other schools, having a program it builds loyalty in the students, and it brings the student experience up,” Mitchell said.
“If we help the university to drive enrollment to the level which it could sustain football, football would come back, football would come back if we could help the university to come up with those niche programs, those niche programs would help drive enrollment, football would come back if we helped to broaden the university’s footprint in the community and help to drive economic development,” said HFF President Wayne Jearld.
But Jearld says that kind of investment from the University System of Maryland is not happening.
In 2021 Maryland HBCUs won a 577 million settlement against the state, alleging disparities in resources for the four historically Black colleges and universities.
UMES was one of the plaintiffs but hawks for football say that undervaluing is still happening.
“If you look at the University System of Maryland’s projections in 2032 our enrollment is low, right around 3400 students, they don’t even take us back to the 4500, they do not make us whole,” Jearld said.
Jearld says in the eyes of the USM, UMES is a “Non-Growth” institution, and that is the stated reason why other schools see higher levels of investment.
“During a 5 year period from 2005 to 2010, Salisbury University got $213 million for campus infrastructure improvement for, $213 million. At the same time, UMES got 3 million,” Jearld said.
Mitchell says once a University has that label, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, as the investments needed to drive investment don’t happen.
“You look at SU they are talking about growth, of growing their program because this is a business and growth is the name of the game,” Mitchell said.
The organization is calling for a Blue Ribbon Commission from the Moore administration into the USM, to see if the patterns and practices behind the lawsuit in 2021 are still leaving UMES in an under-invested position.
“The whole non-growth designation relates back to us being a historically black college that is all based on the racism that has been documented, documented in the lawsuit, and that’s the reason why we are a smaller institution,” Jearld said.
47ABC reached out to the current administration of UMES and the USM for a statement and did not hear back.
