A PETITION TO RESTORE AND PROTECT MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY ALUMNI HOMECOMING
Presented to the Office of the President, Alumni Relations, and Homecoming Planning Committee

To the Morgan State University Administration, Office of Alumni Relations, and Homecoming Planning Committee:

We, the undersigned alumni and former students of Morgan State University — including those who transferred or graduated elsewhere, yet spent formative years here, contributed to its 150-year legacy, and carry lasting love for this institution — submit this petition to formally register our objection to the escalating restrictions placed on Alumni Homecoming Weekend over the past several years. We ask the University to reconsider a set of policies that, year after year, have made it harder — and more expensive — for those who built and sustain this institution to gather, celebrate, and reconnect.

Homecoming Belongs to the Alumni

Homecoming exists so that alumni — the graduates who have carried Morgan State's name and legacy for 150 years — can return to campus, reconnect with classmates, and commemorate the journey that shaped us. Morgan State has been designated a National Treasure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation — a recognition of exactly the kind of legacy Homecoming exists to honor. It is not, and was never intended to be, an undergraduate event. Current students live on this campus year-round; they do not need a single weekend carved out for them. Homecoming is the one weekend that belongs to alumni, and it is being treated instead as a liability to be managed.

The Restrictions Fall Entirely on Alumni — Not Students

Since an isolated incident several years ago involving individuals with no affiliation to Morgan State, the University has responded each year by adding new restrictions. Notably, these restrictions land squarely on alumni and do nothing to affect current undergraduates, who live on campus and are unaffected by any curfew or off-campus rule:

Alumni are required to be off campus by 5:00 p.m., even though the football game itself does not kick off until noon — leaving little real time to gather before being asked to leave.
Restrictions on alcohol have been added to the alumni tailgate areas, while no comparable restriction is placed on undergraduate parties happening in dorms and around campus that same weekend.
Tailgate tent costs have risen in step with the new restrictions: alumni are being asked to pay more for a smaller, more limited experience.
It is the parents and alumni who fund student tuition, donations, and the University's endowment who are being penalized — not the students themselves.
The Inconsistency Is Hard to Ignore

If safety were truly the only concern, enforcement would be consistent. Instead, what's restricted and what's ignored suggests other priorities are at play:

Alcohol is not discouraged, only restricted to the vendor that generates revenue for the University.
Undergraduate parties, dorm drinking, and the visible presence of marijuana on campus draw no comparable enforcement — restrictions appear reserved for alumni gatherings, not the conduct they were supposedly created to prevent.
Alumni are being asked to answer for a small number of people, years ago, who weren't even affiliated with Morgan State — while the conduct the University claims to police continues unaddressed elsewhere on campus.

The University also seems to have lost sight of what Homecoming means to alumni. The Gala is not the be-all-end-all of the weekend — alumni are a diverse group, and Tent City, not the Gala, is where most of us actually connect, overwhelmingly among alumni rather than students. It's where alumni reconnect with their own children currently enrolled at Morgan, and where Greek-letter organizations hold the anniversaries, reunions, and traditions that have defined Homecoming for generations. Restricting Tent City's time misreads where — and with whom — the real Homecoming experience happens.

This Is Happening as Morgan State's Endowment Grows

These new restrictions have coincided with the largest endowment growth in Morgan State's history. Alumni should not have to watch the Homecoming experience shrink — through earlier curfews, added fees, and narrower tailgate rules — at precisely the moment the University's finances are stronger than ever. Other HBCUs are expanding and enhancing their Homecoming weekends to grow alumni engagement and pride. Morgan State appears to be moving in the opposite direction, scaling back the very tradition that keeps alumni connected, giving, and coming back.

What We Are Asking For

We are not asking the University to compromise on genuine safety. We are asking for a Homecoming policy that treats alumni like the adults, graduates, and stakeholders we are. Specifically, we request that the University:  

Extend the alumni curfew meaningfully beyond 5:00 p.m., reflecting an actual post-game and evening window for alumni to gather.  
Eliminate the no-alcohol restriction on alumni tailgate spaces entirely — alumni are paying more each year for tailgate tents, and the ban directly cuts into our ability to recoup that cost.  

Freeze or reduce tailgate tent pricing until the restrictions tied to that pricing are relaxed, or clearly justify any increase.  

Publish the rationale and origin of each current Homecoming restriction, including how it relates to the original incident it was meant to address.

Include alumni representatives directly in the planning of future Homecoming policies, rather than presenting new restrictions after the fact.

Morgan State's alumni are not a security risk to be managed — we are the reason Homecoming exists at all. We ask the University to recognize that, and to work with us to restore a Homecoming weekend that honors the 150-year journey it is meant to celebrate.