Baltimore Hebrew University, Towson Sign Merger Deal
Source: Baltimore Jewish Times
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed recently that integrates Baltimore Hebrew University’s programs into Towson University, effective July 1, 2009.
A letter recently went out from Towson’s administration welcoming BHU students to the school.
Under the merger, BHU will continue to offer a master’s degree in Jewish studies, a master’s in Jewish communal service and a master’s in Jewish education. The programs will be offered under a new entity called the Baltimore Hebrew Institute (BHI) at Towson University. They will fall under Towson’s graduate offerings at its College of Liberal Arts and College of Education.
Under the agreement, all of BHU’s existing master’s degree programs will transfer intact, and the school’s professors will continue to teach graduate students. Seven BHU faculty members will continue at the BHI. Current BHU students who are pursuing doctoral degrees will be grandfathered into Towson’s program. Currently, BHU has 70 students in its masters’ and doctoral degree programs.
As part of the integration, BHU’s Joseph Meyerhoff Library will move its extensive and prestigious collection to Towson, where it will be housed in a designated space on the second floor of Towson’s Albert S. Cook Library. The Meyerhoff Library has more than 80,000 volumes and includes a rare book collection, as well as books acquired from the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction Organization after the Holocaust.
BHU's surrender of independence is one of the results of the current economic downturn, the longest since the Great Depression. Other key institutions of Jewish scholarship are also facing harsh economic realities and weighing their options carefully in order to meet the challenge.