Another round of court-ordered mediation has again ended without resolution in the 13-year case by a coalition of historically black colleges and universities against the state of Maryland.
The most recent deadline – imposed by a panel of three U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals judges in January – passed on Monday.
The judges had urged the state and the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education to settle the case, “otherwise, the parties will likely condemn themselves to endless years of acrimonious, divisive and expensive litigation that will only work to the detriment of higher education in Maryland.”
Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, which represents the coalition, confirmed Tuesday that there was no resolution during the mediation period, but said he remains confident the HBCUs would prevail in court.
The coalition of HBCUs – Morgan State, Coppin State, Bowie State and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore – first filed the case against Maryland in 2006, alleging that the state had failed to dismantle vestiges of segregated higher education, including by underfunding the four institutions and by allowing traditionally white state universities to continue creating new degree programs that were duplicative of programs at the historically black schools.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Danielle E. Gaines over at Maryland Matters