In 1962, the Curlett Commission, headed by the former president of the Baltimore School Board John N. Curlett, recommended that the State Colleges be placed under their own governing board which “should be charged with the single task of governing these institutions,” and that these governing boards should be granted independence and autonomy. The recommendations called for a comprehensive reorganization of public higher education in Maryland to meet the rapid growth of enrollments with the adoption of a tripartite system, whereby the University of Maryland remains a separate entity with its own Board of Regents, the two-year community colleges remain under the jurisdiction of the State Board of Education, and the state colleges fall under the supervision of a newly formed Board of Trustees of the State Colleges.

The Curlett plan received the support of the General Assembly, and in 1963, Governor John Millard Tawes appointed the new Board of Trustees of the State Colleges for higher education under the provisions of Chapter 41 of the Laws of Maryland. The first meeting of the newly formed Board was on July 25, 1963, and by formal resolution adopted as its temporary rules and regulations those of the former Board of Trustees of the State Teachers Colleges. For almost one hundred years previous to this first meeting, the growth and development of the State Teachers Colleges had been the responsibility of the Board of Trustees of the State Teachers Colleges, composed of the members of the State Board of Education and the State Superintendent of Schools.

The five state colleges to be overseen by the newly appointed Board were those of Bowie, Coppin, Frostburg, Salisbury, and Towson, with Morgan State College being excluded until “the first day of July next following the recognition by the accrediting agency of the accredited status of any three colleges under the government of the Board of Trustees of the State Colleges.” Eventually, Morgan came under the jurisdiction of the new governing Board in July 1, 1967, and later in 1975, the University of Baltimore, privately founded fifty years earlier, joined the campuses governed by the Board of Trustees of the State Colleges. The Board was composed of nine members, including a president (later renamed chairman), vice president (later renamed vice chairman), and the state superintendent of schools, serving as ex-officio, and was responsible for the administration, control, and direction of the public colleges, with the two major functions of overseeing the establishment, fostering, and expansion of courses in the arts and sciences, as well as maintaining programs for the preparation of teachers. At this time, certain committees were established to effectively carry out its duties and responsibilities: Budget and Finance Committee, Advance Planning Committee, and the Program Committee.

Effective July 1, 1976, by enactment of Senate Bill No. 1037, the Board of Trustees of the State Colleges was re-designated as the Board of Trustees of the State Universities and Colleges. The Board now consisted of eleven trustees, ten lay members and one student member, including the chairman and vice chairman. Subsequently, in 1983, the membership was increased from eleven to fifteen members. On June 30, 1988, pursuant to the enactment of S.B. 459 by the General Assembly of Maryland signed by Governor William Donald Schaefer, the Board of Trustees of the State Universities and Colleges was dissolved, and its responsibilities transferred to the Board of Regents of the newly formed University of Maryland System, a merger of the University of Maryland institutions with those formerly under the Board of Trustees of the State Universities and Colleges.