Kurt Schmoke is the first to admit his idea to save the University of Baltimore might not work.

Enrollment is bleeding, the university is in a long-term structural deficit and the pressure is on for Schmoke, its president, to find a solution. It will likely take years and require him to roll up his sleeves and shake a lot of hands.

But the former Baltimore mayor sees a solution: merging with Baltimore City Community College.

Schmoke soft-launched his plan in a community email earlier this month, teasing a partnership between the two universities but offering little detail. Surprise and confusion bubbled among the staff, several faculty members said.

In an interview, he described his dream to fold BCCC into the university as a formal division, akin to its law school and graduate and professional program.

“We could have a single institution that we could promote to our community that would offer the option of a two-year degree, a four-year degree, graduate, professional degrees, workforce/apprenticeship certificates,” he said.

Schmoke said that the community college’s president, Debra L. McCurdy, is all in on the idea. But representatives for BCCC did not respond to multiple requests for comment, and when a reporter was on campus, several employees seemed confused and concerned about what the integration could mean.

“In the future I see it as an attractive institution that would do very well on enrollment,” Schmoke said.

Both schools need that.

The student body at the University of Baltimore has decreased by nearly 50% in the last 10 years under Schmoke’s tenure, to 3,232 from 6,422.

The university, which was founded 100 years ago, has gone through several identity shifts.

For a significant chunk of its history, the university, spread across Mount Vernon in the shadow of Penn Station, educated just juniors, seniors and graduate students in law and business. Originally private, it joined the state’s public university system in 1975 due to financial hardship.

Historically, it educated underclassmen on and off, and in 2008 the university once again added first-year students and sophomores. That move to increase enrollment has faltered — last year, just 33 first-year students enrolled.

The community college has faced similar struggles. In 2011, it enrolled just under 7,000 students. Last fall, that number shrank to 4,375.

Unlike other community colleges that receive local funding, BCCC gets the bulk of its funding from the state. The city of Baltimore must provide at least $1 million annually to the college, with at least $400,000 of that allocated to tuition reimbursements and scholarships. The community college currently employs about 625 people.

Schmoke knows about the community college’s struggles firsthand, as the chair of BCCC’s board of trustees.

“Some people have said that it may pose a conflict of interest, that it may look like I’m pressuring BCCC to do something,” Schmoke admitted. “The ethics commission might say that I should step down.”

Schmoke has already spoken to the University System of Maryland’s Board of Regents about the idea of a “consolidated institution” and plans to sit down with the Maryland Higher Education Commission, legislators and eventually Gov. Wes Moore. Schmoke would need legislation to authorize the “strategic integration.”

Michael Sandler, spokesperson for the university system and regents, said the chancellor and board encourage “innovative partnerships” and that “President Schmoke’s proposal has great potential to expand college opportunities in Baltimore.”

Gov. Moore hasn’t committed support for the project, but has in the past promised “strategic investments” in apprenticeships, which Schmoke says will be prominent in the partnership.

Schmoke, who was born and raised in Baltimore and was the first African American to be elected mayor of the city, may be just the person to broker the deal.

As mayor, he made strides in improving public housing and enhancing community economic development. He’s also no stranger to big swings — Schmoke made headlines in 1988 for his stance in favor of decriminalizing some types of drugs.

Even if Schmoke can earn political backing, he will still face other challenges, like duplicated positions between the two schools. There will be a “transition period” if the deal goes through, which will require Schmoke to eliminate some positions, he said.

That would mainly impact senior-level officials, according to Schmoke, who added that faculty and lower-level staff will not be affected. He estimates that 11 total employees will feel the transition’s effects.

The University of Baltimore this summer eliminated more than a dozen vacant faculty and 21 vacant staff positions. In addition, nine employees were laid off and two more did not have their contracts renewed.

Another issue on Schmoke’s mind: Under Maryland law, faculty at community colleges are allowed to unionize. That’s not the case for the state’s public four-year universities.

“That’s an issue that we would have to address, and so that’s why I say we’re still at the beginning of this process,” Schmoke said. “I’ve got a vision for what I’d like to see, but I know that there are an awful lot of hurdles.”

Though the potential merger is likely to take years, similar projects have worked elsewhere. Schmoke pointed to Perimeter College, a two-year college that was consolidated into the Georgia State University system in 2016.

The move made Georgia State the largest university in the state and among the largest in the nation.

Schmoke is so intrigued by the Georgia merger that he has already sent a number of state legislators articles about it in an effort to show them this type of consolidation is possible, he said.

Cory McCray, a state senator representing East Baltimore, said he’s had initial conversations with Schmoke about the consolidation but did not commit to supporting the project.

McCray, who just published a book about the importance of apprenticeships, said “higher education is evolving,” and it’s clear that Schmoke “wants to figure out how to stay in front of that.”

In his email to faculty, Schmoke pointed to Arrupe College, a two-year associate’s degree program started by Loyola University Chicago, and Messina College, a two-year feeder college supported by Boston College.

But unlike Schmoke’s pitch, both were created from the ground up by their respective four-year colleges and have a strict mission of educating low-income students so they can graduate debt-free. They are also both affiliated with private Catholic colleges.

Steve Katsouros, who helped create Arrupe, now serves as the CEO of the Come to Believe Network, an organization that assists universities in developing and launching two-year college models that provide a pathway for underserved students to receive four-year degrees.

Katsouros said he understood why four-year colleges are eager to open two-year campuses — about 40% of the college-going population goes to a two-year college, he said.

His organization isn’t working with the University of Baltimore, he said, adding that universities that seek to add a two-year college to their campus need to be doing it for the right reasons.

“If they’re interested because their enrollment is in decline, then this is probably not the reason to do this,” he said. “We look for universities with strong enrollments, endowments, a strong capacity for advancement and for fundraising.”

The University of Baltimore doesn’t check many of those boxes.

“If this is a last-gasp, desperate attempt to garner more enrollment, it’s probably not going to work,” Katsouros said.

Greg Walsh, president of the university faculty senate at the University of Baltimore, was more optimistic about the prospect of a merger.

Walsh, who graduated from BCCC, said he would be “thrilled” to see more collaboration between the two schools, adding that the faculty senate will “ensure the faculty’s voice is heard in conversations about the future of UBalt.”

In the long run, Schmoke said, he thinks a potential integration will help with his university’s identity crisis.

“We have to do a better job at defining ourselves for the future,” he said. “We’re here. We’re not dying.”

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.