MICUA President Emerita Tina Bjarekull receives honorary degree

Tina Bjarekull, president emerita of the Maryland Independent College and University Association (MICUA), was conferred an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree by McDaniel College’s Board of Trustees. The presentation took place May 15 during the board’s annual spring meeting.

Bjarekull served as president of MICUA for 17 years before retiring in 2019. In this role, she was “the name, the face and the voice of private, nonprofit higher education in Maryland” and an advocate for ensuring access to quality education for Maryland students.

Under her leadership, she established the Guaranteed Access Partnership Program (GAPP) to bridge the financial gap for economically disadvantaged Maryland students at MICUA member institutions. She also was a champion of the Sellinger Program, the state grant program for eligible, nonprofit private colleges, and was the managing director of the Independent College Fund for Maryland (I-Fund).

She also served as the chair of the National Association of Independent Colleges and University State Executives (NAICUSE) and was a member of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU).

Bjarekull obtained a Master of Business Administration from Loyola University Maryland and went on to work as a senior policy analyst at the Maryland Department of Legislative Services, where she became involved with the Senate Budget & Taxation Committee. She was later named the deputy superintendent for finance at the Maryland State Department of Education and assistant secretary of finance at the Maryland Higher Education Commission before becoming president of MICUA.

She was elected president emerita by the MICUA Board of Trustees in February 2020.

MICUA is a member-driven, nonprofit organization, which has as its mission the collective representation of 15 Maryland private, nonprofit colleges and universities, including McDaniel. MICUA provides public policy leadership on behalf of its members, fosters cooperative efforts among its member institutions and the broader higher education community, and serves as the official liaison between Maryland’s independent institutions and state and federal policymakers. In addition, MICUA serves as the resident agent of the I-Fund, which has as its mission raising funds to provide scholarships and grants to students attending 12 I-Fund member institutions. More information about MICUA can be found at www.micua.org.

For more information about McDaniel College, visit www.mcdaniel.edu.

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McDaniel College, founded in 1867, is a four-year, independent college of the liberal arts and sciences offering more than 70 undergraduate programs of study, including pre-professional specializations and student-designed majors, and over 20 graduate programs. One of 40 “Colleges That Change Lives,” McDaniel emphasizes experiential learning and student-faculty collaboration to develop the unique potential in every student. Represented by the Green Terror, its 24 athletic teams compete in the NCAA Division III Centennial Conference. A student-centered community of 1,800 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students offers access to both Baltimore and Washington, D.C., plus a European campus in Budapest, Hungary. www.mcdaniel.edu