University System of Maryland

The University System of Maryland (USM) is a public corporation and charter school system comprising 12 Maryland institutions of higher education. It is the 12th-largest university system in the United States, with over 125,000 undergraduate, 43,000 graduate and roughly 13,000 combined full-time and part-time faculty. In 1988, it was created from the merger of the five University of Maryland institutions and the six members of the State University and College System of Maryland under the name University of Maryland System. In 1997, its name was changed to the University System of Maryland. In 1999, the Maryland General Assembly transformed the system to the charter model. The system headquarters are in unincorporated Adelphi in Prince George's County.

The merger creating the University of Maryland System was directed by Governor William Donald Schaefer and was overseen by University of Maryland President John S. Toll, who then became the system's first Chancellor. The current Chancellor is William Kirwan.

System members

Universities

• Bowie State University
• Coppin State University
• Frostburg State University
• Salisbury University (9,000 enrollment, founded 1925, endowment $35 million)
• Towson University (22,000 enrollment, founded 1866, endowment $33 million)
• University of Baltimore (5,000 enrollment, founded 1925)
• University of Maryland, Baltimore (6,000 enrollment, the oldest campus in the system, founded in 1807)
• University of Maryland, Baltimore County (14,000 enrollment, founded 1966)
• University of Maryland, College Park (38,000 enrollment, founded 1856, endowment $792 million, the flagship campus)
• University of Maryland Eastern Shore
• University of Maryland University College

Centers and institutes

• University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Satellite campuses

• Universities at Shady Grove
• University System of Maryland at Hagerstown

Relationships with other schools

When USM was originally formed in 1988, Maryland's other two state-funded (i.e., public) 4-year institutions (Baltimore's Morgan State University and Southern Maryland's St. Mary's College of Maryland) opted out of the system and made separate funding arrangements with the state.

The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, although state-supported, remained outside the system because of its unique status as an institution jointly funded by Maryland and Virginia. It is a constituent of both the College Park campus and Virginia Tech, with its main campus at Virginia Tech.

The USM institutions with the words "University of Maryland" in their names are not satellite campuses of the University of Maryland, College Park. They are independent institutions within the university system.

External links

• University System of Maryland