A merger of the university in 1973 with the Baltimore College of Commerce provided further business focus, and in 1982, the school received three large financial gifts from the Merrick Foundation.

The situation came to a head in late autumn, when the amorphous HBCU alumni group put forward in court a suggestion that UBalt be legally required by the judge to have its brand merged into that of Morgan State University, with Morgan being the surviving institution.

The merger plan was heavily criticized by legal experts, academics and students alike, with the latter group going so far as to post anonymous "open letters" on campus bulletin boards to student governments, suggesting an alternate plan in which both UBalt and Morgan would be merged under the brand of UMBC—an existing, non-HBCU institution with a better track record of educating successful black students than that boasted by Morgan.

Catherine C. Blake, the judge considering the complaint, added legal weight to the rejection of the plan in early 2016, calling the idea of a merger of UBalt into Morgan State "extreme" and saying that the rejected plan "would not be considered further."

The parties returned to court in early 2017 to argue over a different plan, which could see some programs transferred from historically white institutions to nearby HBCU counterparts.