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The board of Morgan State University announced Tuesday that it had decided not to renew the contract of President David Wilson, meaning that he will leave office in June, after three years in the position. The official announcement gave no reason for the decision. The Baltimore Sun reported that the university's board was divided on the issue, and made the decision last week in a "heated" meeting. Recent months have seen two shootings on the campus, and the indictment of a professor for obtaining grants fraudulently, but the Sun quoted sources as saying those incidents were not behind the ouster. The Sun quoted from a letter Wilson sent to the campus in which he suggested he was being punished because he had been considered for another job (even though he withdrew from contention).
Marybeth Gasman, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies historically black colleges such as Morgan State, wrote a column for The Washington Post questioning the way the university's board decided to end Wilson's presidency. "Wilson is an exceptional leader," she wrote. "When I look across the landscape of university presidents for an example of an individual who is ethical, personable, forward-thinking, brave, data driven, charismatic, scholarly and committed to student-centered education, I think of Wilson."
