Page 10 - DISSERTATION AND THESIS HANDBOOK 2017 -2020

UNIVERSITY EQUAL OPPORTUNITY POLICY STATEMENT

Bowie State University shall not discriminate against any individual on the basis of race, color,
religion, age, ancestry or national origin, sex, sexual orientation, disability, marital status or
veteran status. All policies, programs, and activities of Bowie State University are and shall be
in conformity with all pertinent Federal and State laws of nondiscrimination, including, but not
limited to: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; Title IX of the Education
Amendments of 1972; the Equal Pay Act of 1963; the Age Discrimination Act; the Americans
with Disabilities Act of 1990; Federal Executive Order No. 11373; and Article 49B of the
Annotated Code of Maryland. This commitment applies in all areas and embraces faculty, staff,
and students.

Equal opportunity of access to academic and related programs shall be extended to all
persons. Bowie State University shall have as its firm objective equal opportunity in
recruitment and hiring, rate of pay, all other promotions, training, retention and dismissals, for
all employees and applicants for employment. The University will stress equal access for
employees and applicants for employment to all programs and services provided by the
University both on and off campus. The University will also provide equal opportunity and an
atmosphere of nondiscrimination with respect to women and members of minority groups in
all its operations. In addition, the University shall promote equal opportunity and equal
treatment through a positive and continuing Affirmative Action Program.

HISTORY

Bowie State University is an outgrowth of the first school opened in Baltimore, Maryland, on
January 9, 1865, by the Baltimore Association for the Moral and Educational Improvement of
Colored People, which was organized on November 28, 1864, to engage in its self-appointed
mission on a statewide basis. The first normal school classes sponsored by the Baltimore
Association were held in the African Baptist Church located on the corner of Calvert and
Saratoga Streets. In 1868, with the aid of funding from the Freedmen's Bureau, the Baltimore
Association purchased from the Society of Friends a building at Courtland and Saratoga
Streets for the relocation of its normal school until 1883, when it was reorganized solely as a
normal school to train Negro teachers.

The Baltimore Normal School had received occasional financial support from the City of
Baltimore since 1870 and from the state since 1872. In 1871, it received a legacy from the
Nelson Wells Fund. This fund, established before Wells' death in February 1943, provided for
the education of freed Negro children in Maryland. On April 8, 1908, at the request of the
Baltimore Normal School, which desired permanent status and funding as an institution for
the education of Negro teachers, The state legislature authorized its Board of Education to
assume control of the school. The same law re-designated the institution as a Normal School
No. 3. Subsequently, it was relocated on a 187-acre tract in Prince George's County, and by
1914, it was known as the Maryland Normal and Industrial School at Bowie.

A two-year professional curriculum in teacher education which started in 1925 was expanded
to a three-year program. In 1935, a four-year program for the training of elementary school

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