University Officials

Morgan State University officials plan to ask the state Board of Public Works tomorrow to approve a contract for a $37 million student dormitory complex on the site of the former Pentridge Apartments, recently demolished on the west side of campus. The planned facility - on 13 acres between Loch Raven Boulevard and Perring Parkway - will house up to 800 students and provide 270 parking places, state documents show. A brisk timetable for completion shows that three-quarters of the housing should be occupied by August of next year.

Towson University announced yesterday that it will offer automatic admission and at least a $4,000 scholarship to all Baltimore public school students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their class. University officials say they want to increase the number of Baltimore students who attend Towson. Only 25 in this year's freshmen class were graduates of city public schools, according to university officials. "We're trying to be good neighbors, and we hope that it will improve our diversity on campus," said Louise Shulack, Towson's director of admissions.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore broke ground yesterday on a $67 million addition to its School of Pharmacy, an expansion officials hope will help to address a nationwide shortage of pharmacists. University officials say the expansion will allow the school to increase enrollment by nearly 60 percent. Growing demand for prescription drugs, particularly from an aging population, and higher demand for pharmaceutical research to battle chronic diseases are fueling the need for more pharmacists, according to school officials.

A Johns Hopkins University student has been expelled after a review by university officials of a Loyola College sophomore's charge that she was sexually assaulted in a Hopkins fraternity house last fall.A second Hopkins student was suspended for a year as a result of the campus investigation, and a third was reprimanded. Officials concluded that the three men had violated the student conduct code.The alleged assault took place at the beginning of the fall 1991 semester in the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, of which all three men were members.

Morgan State University for not keeping tabs on its multimillion-dollar art collection, saying the institution lacks sufficient documentation on the location of its artwork.The university's James E. Lewis Museum of Art, renowned for an extensive African-American collection, closed abruptly for two weeks last year while university officials investigated allegations of security and management problems there.The facility has since reopened. Its director, Gabriel S. Tenabe, who was reassigned for several weeks during the internal inquiry, has returned to his duties, according to university officials.

CHICAGO -- The computer system intended to track international students as part of the nation's stepped-up security routinely loses sensitive information about foreign students and faculty, according to university officials throughout the country. Gaffes in the $36 million Student and Exchange Visitor Information System -- or SEVIS -- have also left schools unable to print documents that international students and visiting scholars need to obtain visas, delaying their entry into the country.

The Johns Hopkins University, despite prodding from black students, has ruled out the creation of a black studies department, college officials said yesterday.The university instead will set up a major in comparative cultural studies that draws on courses from several disciplines.A black studies department was among black students' demands in a list of grievances presented to the university in the summer of 1992.University officials said yesterday that a free-standing black studies department would be too small and would lack political influence, making it vulnerable to budget cuts.

A former aide to state Sen. Richard F. Colburn has sent a complaint to the General Assembly's Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, asking for an investigation into the aide's allegations that he was required to write academic papers and conduct other personal tasks for the senator as part of his job. Gregory A. Dukes, who resigned from Colburn's staff in December, said he made the request after learning that the ethics committee had no plans to act...

State and federal authorities are investigating the apparent theft of more than $100,000 worth of goods and services at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, sources said yesterday.The investigation is centered on a former UMBC employee who left the university after the apparent thefts were discovered last summer, officials said.They declined to identify the former employee or say whether the person quit or was fired.The university referred the matter to the state attorney general's office for criminal investigation after a supervisor detected evidence of theft, officials said.