36 state colleges and universities to share nearly $19 million in public safety grants

Three weeks after the Board of Public Works approved nearly $150 million in budget reductions for this year, Gov. Wes Moore (D) announced Thursday that 36 colleges and universities will share nearly $19 million in grants for campus safety projects.

The funding will be administered by the Maryland Higher Education Commission’s Campus Safety Grant program and will include campus security assessments, implementation of enhanced security operations and mechanisms, and emergency management planning.

Higher education institutions receiving the funds will be required to track each program and provide a quarterly performance measure and financial report to the commission.

“Public safety is our administration’s number one priority,” said a statement from Moore, who chairs the three-member Board of Public Works. “These grants will enable our institutions of higher education to invest further in infrastructure that will help make our campuses safer for students, faculty, and staff.”

Administration officials said last month that higher eduation funding accounted for $54 million, or more than a third of the $150 million in budget reductions eventually approved by the board. That included a $6 million in reduction in state aid to colleges and universities for security improvements.

During homecoming festivities at Morgan State University last fall, five people were struck in a shooting on Oct. 3 which caused the remaining homecoming events to be cancelled. About five days later, two people were shot at Bowie State University on the night of that school’s homecoming.

But on Thursday, Bowie State and Morgan State – along with the state’s two other historically Black colleges and universities, Coppin State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore – were part of the 36 colleges, universities and community colleges slated to share in the public safety grant.

“The Maryland Higher Education Commission is a diligent partner in meeting the public safety needs of Maryland’s institutions,” Maryland Higher Education Commission Secretary Sanjay Rai said in the statement from the governor’s office. “We must continue to uplift our institutions of higher education to ensure our students, faculty, and staff have ideal learning and working environments.”