Natalie Page looked forward to graduation from Morgan State University last spring with the eagerness of a student nearly half her age. But she and five others appear to have lost that dream in a tangle of regulations that has also led to a lawsuit and a fight between state agencies.
A 38-year-old mother of two, who holds two jobs counseling the homeless, Miss Page went back to school to receive a bachelor's degree from Morgan's department of social work and mental health. She had attended what is now Baltimore City Community College in the early 1980s, receiving her associate's degree, and took a full course load in her two years at Morgan, earning mostly A's and B's.
But two days before graduation in May, two administrators told her she lacked seven introductory courses needed to graduate.
"It's very unfair," Miss Page said. "I'm not there this semester because I feel I've completed my work. I did what I was advised to do."
While apprised of their credits periodically by advisers, the six students maintain that they were not told they needed the lower-division courses until their graduation ceremony was hours away.
Morgan State President Earl S. Richardson said he is confident the students were told of their requirements when they arrived on campus and they also could have seen them in the catalog.
The situation involves transfer students, who make up a considerable portion of Morgan's 5,800-member student body.
"The general education requirements are the same for all students, and we cannot allow some students to meet the standards and others to have them waived," Dr. Richardson said last week. "Once you do that, the value of the degree and the credibility of the university is lost."
Dr. Richardson also confirmed that Morgan officials planned to fire Darryl Talley, chairman of the department of social work and mental health, but would not comment on the reason for it. Dr. Talley did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
"It has been recommended that he step down," Dr. Richardson said. "That's a personnel matter; we don't want to get into details. But we have to make judgments sometimes. This action was judged to be appropriate."
While past transfer students may have been granted a waiver in similar situations, Dr. Richardson said that the school has an obligation to correct its mistakes when they are found -- even right up to the moment of a student's graduation.
"That's devastating . . .," state Sen. John A. Pica Jr. said of Morgan's refusal to let the students graduate. The Baltimore Democrat has interceded with higher education officials on their behalf.
"Morgan will not relent," he said.
Morgan officials said they could not speak in detail about the situation because of legal matters. On Oct. 17, Morgan senior Mary Smithson Legg filed a lawsuit in Oklahoma seeking full recognition as a Morgan graduate.
Earlier this fall, state Secretary of Higher Education Shaila R. Aery ruled in favor of Miss Page and Bob Walker, another Morgan senior who was denied his degree in May. Dr. Aery asked Morgan to grant the two students and other students in their situation the credits they need to graduate. The Maryland Higher Education Commission oversees the state's public and private campuses, but does not have authority over them.
Dr. Richardson and John Green, chairman of Morgan's board of trustees, held firm on their decision.
Joshua Hill, like Miss Page, enrolled in Morgan well after receiving his degree at Baltimore City Community College. A 50-year-old counselor at Baltimore Substance Abuse Services, Mr. Hill attended Morgan under a program in which his agency paid for his tuition, about $70 per credit.
Now, Mr. Hill said, that money has run out, and he has no degree despite following his adviser's guidelines.
Referring to the agency that paid his tuition, he said, "I feel a liarI feel a fraud, I feel a cheat. What do I go back and tell these people?"