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In a landmark public session, Morgan State University’s Board of Regents announced that it will award a new 5-year contract to University President David Wilson, extending his term until 2023. The official signing took place in an open session on campus.
“The Board of Regents of Morgan State University has been generally very pleased with the performance, administration, and leadership of Dr. David Wilson during his tenure as University President and the Board wishes to underscore that satisfaction in good faith with a five-year employment contract,” said Board Chair Kweisi Mfume.
“We hope that this demonstrated commitment signals to donors, potential donors, our Governor, the State Legislature, the larger world of academia, alumni, supporters and most of all our students, that we support the leadership of President Wilson. At Morgan State University we take seriously our claim to…Growing the Future, Leading the World.”
Dr. Wilson was inaugurated as the 10th president of Morgan in July 2010, after an extensive national search. Since 2014, his term as University president had been an at-will appointment in which he served annually at the pleasure of the board.
“It is a true honor to be in a position to continue serving as Morgan’s president with the backing and support of the Board of Regents,” said Dr. Wilson.
“I appreciate the Board’s confidence in my ability to lead this university as well as their belief that we are indeed on the right path to securing a stronger position for the future. Morgan is a great university, and I welcome this opportunity to extend my time working alongside such an exceptional faculty and staff in service to our brilliant and phenomenal students.”
Among his many accomplishments as Morgan’s president, Dr. Wilson overhauled the infrastructure, modernizing the campus’s technological capabilities. He also opened the School of Engineering’s Center for Reverse Engineering and Assured Microelectronics laboratory to provide research in cybersecurity, and had the National Security Agency (NSA) and Department of Homeland Security designate Morgan as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education.
Dr. Wilson secured the largest federal grant in the Morgan's history, a $23-million National Institutes of Health grant to produce next-generation bioscientists. He procured the university’s largest-ever research contract, a $28.5-million, five-year contract with NASA, and ensured Morgan's inclusion as one of the recipients of a $129-million energy innovation research grant to Penn State University.
As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan serves a multiethnic and multiracial student body and seeks to ensure that the doors of higher education are opened as wide as possible to as many as possible, the mission statement states.
Wilson's other accomplishments include:
- Increasing enrollment to nearly 8,000 students
- Elevating the University’s status as a top awarder of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees to African Americans
- Establishing Morgan’s first online degree program and growing that number to a total of 10 online degree programs and four certificate programs
- Overseeing a 183 percent increase in the alumni participation-in-giving rate since 2010, going from 6 percent in 2010 to more than 17 percent to-date
- Ushering in an endowment increase of 123 percent, from $14.3 million to $31.8 million. The endowment giving during FY2011–17 reached $7.8 million
- Steering Morgan’s financial stewardship, producing consecutive years of solid A1 and A+ bond ratings, as ascribed by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, respectively, and projecting a long-term stable outlook
- Increasing the number of faculty members with terminal degrees while significantly decreasing the number of contractual faculty
- Launching the University’s “50 by 25” initiative to boost the graduation rate, and subsequently increasing Morgan’s graduation rate by more than 35 percent
Under the new agreement approved by the Board of Regents, Dr. Wilson will receive a 3 percent increase (an amount he plans to reinvest back into the University over the next several years) bringing his salary to $445,737, along with a 457(f) non-qualified deferred compensation retirement plan.
In addition, Dr. Wilson will relinquish his right to professional tenure at Morgan at the conclusion of his time as president.
All new terms are effective immediately. For more information about Morgan State, visit www.morgan.edu.