FACULTY HANDBOOK July 2009 - Morgan State University

PAGE 16 * Morgan State University Faculty HandbookResearch Center (ERC) from the Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)in 2004. The ERC sits on the Patuxent River in St. Leonard, Maryland, not far from theChesapeake Bay. The Center is on the grounds of the Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum,home of the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory. The research emphasis ofthe ERC is on marine, coastal ecosystem and bioenvironmental sciences with the goal ofaddressing the mounting environmental problems that threaten the health, safety and wellbeingof urban communities, the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Morgan’s primary goalin acquiring the ERC is to enhance its research presence in the fields of marine biology,ecology and the environmental sciences as well as increase training of minority students inthese fields. Morgan is the only HBCU with a facility dedicated to Marine Science.Morgan’s mission and goals, as reflected in the most recent Strategic Plan(2007-2012), were developed through extensive collaborative planning and deliberation at alllevels at the University: departmental/program, college/school/institute and division. It is, inpart, informed by, and responds to, the impact of changing local and national demographics,the educational attainment gap between the races, changing student and parental values andtheir effect on student choices, and the free market nature of higher education in the state.Morgan’s mission, in all of its iterations, revolves around serving a heterogeneous populationthat is academically, demographically, socio-economically and racially diverse and alsoaround making a significant contribution to increasing the educational attainment of theAfrican-American population in fields and at degree levels where it is under-represented. Itfocuses on offering a comprehensive range of undergraduate programs and selected graduateprograms; providing access to higher education to a broad cross-section of the population,including at-risk students; promoting student success; researching difficult problems faced bysociety; and offering programs that assist under-served communities.1.2 Mission SummaryThe University is designated by legislative statute as Maryland’s Public Urban University. Assuch, it gives priority to addressing the needs of the population of metropolitan Baltimorewithin the context of its statewide responsibilities for academic instruction, research, andservice. Morgan also is one of the Nation’s premier historically black institutions of highereducation. It is one of a select group of HBCUs offering a comprehensive range ofundergraduate programs, awarding masters and doctoral degrees in a significant number ofdisciplines, and having significant programs of research and public service.These characteristics as well as its tradition of serving an academically anddemographically diverse student body place it in a unique position among Marylandinstitutions to serve the increasingly heterogeneous population of the state and the specialneeds of Baltimore City. While committed to educating a culturally diverse and multi-racialpopulation, the University also makes an important contribution to increasing the educationalattainment of Maryland’s rapidly-growing African-American population in fields and atdegree levels where it is under-represented.Teaching is central to the University’s mission. As a comprehensive university, it recognizesthe close inter-relationship between quality teaching, research, and public service. It alsogives priority to research in fields in which it offers graduate programs that promote theeducational process, and that increase the knowledge base necessary to improve the quality oflife of residents of the Baltimore Metropolitan area and of the state. The University placesparticular emphasis on integrating appropriate resources from its graduate, research, and