27-04-2025
College presidents relieved that state grant program was preserved in budget
After months of letter-writing advocacy from staff members and students of higher education institutions in Maryland, a state grant program for private colleges and universities was preserved for next fiscal year.
The Maryland Higher Education Commission in January recommended that state lawmakers reduce funding for the Joseph A. Sellinger Program, which provides students with scholarship assistance, by nearly $36.7 million.
That amount is about half of the Sellinger funding typically in the state budget.
Hood College and Mount St. Mary's University said Sellinger funding is vital to continue operating as tuition-dependent institutions.
Sellinger funding is based on an institution's full-time enrollment. The state program was established in 1973.
After a statewide advocacy effort organized by the Maryland Independent College and University Association (MICUA) — which includes Hood and the Mount — to contact local legislators, lawmakers fully funded the Sellinger program in the state's budget.
Leadership from Hood and Mount St. Mary's said the grant program is instrumental to their ability to provide students with financial aid, and a necessary part of their budgets.
Hood College received $3.6 million in Sellinger funding for the 2024-25 academic year. Mount St. Mary's typically receives about $5.5 million per year in Sellinger funding.
State Del. Ken Kerr (D-3) said in an interview on Friday that any cut to Sellinger funding 'was going to be devastating for colleges like Hood.'
He said he spoke with leadership from the Appropriations Committee, which handles the budget, and let them 'know that this is the situation we're in in Frederick.'
'That's really the way that we can influence it,' Kerr said.
He added that he is unsure how much advocacy from Hood and the Mount helped influence the Appropriations Committee's preservation of funding.
'I know that we got a lot of emails, and we got visits from the leadership of both those institutions over the course of the legislative session,' Kerr said.
Hood College
Hood College President Debbie Ricker said in an interview that Sellinger funding is 'instrumental to our support for Maryland students, and that's not true just for Hood College.'
The college has an annual operating budget of $54 million and received $3.6 million in Sellinger funding this academic year.
Ricker said MICUA worked to engage state lawmakers in Annapolis 'about the significance and importance of Sellinger funding for our continued work and commitment to Maryland students.'
'We were really worried when that funding was at risk of being cut in half, as well as at risk of being allocated based on a newly defined formula,' she said.
Mason Cavalier, a spokesperson for Hood College, said that as of mid-March, 58,770 emails were sent to state legislators from districts where MICUA students, alumni, employees, donors and parents are from. Hood College community members sent about 3,000 of those emails.
Laurie Ward, the executive director of marketing and communications for Hood, said the school sent emails, posted to social media and created a website with an easy way to send legislators an email advocating for the grant.
She said the initiative now is to send thank-you notes to legislators and 'make sure that we are showing gratitude for the fight that they put up and made sure that they saved Sellinger for all the [private colleges] in Maryland.'
Mount St. Mary's University
Mount St. Mary's University President Gerard 'Jerry' Joyce said the university took part in MICUA's advocacy efforts to get Sellinger funding restored, including traveling to Annapolis with students to meet with legislators.
He said 'it was a significant accomplishment for us in terms of that money passing in the budget.'
'My biggest fear was when that money goes away, and we're a tuition-driven institution, and we're trying to get everything possible to lessen the burden on students and families as they come into higher education, how is that going to impact not only the university, but the families?' he said. 'That was something for the past several months that has kept me up at night in terms of how we would have to pivot.'
Joyce said the Mount typically receives about $5.5 million in Sellinger funding.
Donna Klinger, a spokesperson for the Mount, said out of a budgeted revenue of $80.7 million for the 2024-25 school year, Sellinger funding represented approximately 6.9% of that revenue.
Joyce said the partnership between the state of Maryland and private higher education institutions 'speaks to the future.'
He said Sellinger funding helps increase the likelihood of in-state students attending college in Maryland, and lawmakers' decision for Sellinger funds to remain as is in the state budget 'could actually impact decades of residents staying and setting their lives up in Maryland.'
'So, I thought that it's not just a short-term issue, it's a long-term impact for the state,' he said.
Joyce said he was thrilled that lawmakers 'heard us.'
Kerr said there are only a couple of places in Maryland where a state university is not within a 30-minute commute, and Frederick is one of them.
He said other places 'have state options, whereas the people who are in Frederick who maybe are career changers, young families, people of limited means who are not able to pay the full price of a private institution, they're kind of denied access to a resource the rest of the state enjoys.'
