FSU’s Educational Market Alignment Plan Puts University’s Budget Back in the Black

Feb 10, 2025 8:00 AM

Frostburg State University was facing a $7.7 million structural budget deficit over the next several fiscal years caused mostly by a decrease in enrollment, state funding cuts and unfunded mandates. As a result, senior leaders at the University were charged with making some very difficult and complex decisions to resolve this deficit to ensure FSU’s financial stability.

Over the summer, a team consisting of members of FSU’s shared governance units (faculty, staff, students) worked to assist leadership in identifying options to address the budget challenges that would have the least negative impact on students. The University System of Maryland (USM), of which Frostburg is part, also pledged financial support and flexibility to help FSU through these budget challenges if it was able to implement a plan to resolve the long-term deficit.

The resulting multi-year plan, coined the Educational Market Alignment Plan (EMAP), included an administrative reorganization to merge divisions and eliminate two vice president positions, reorganize deans’ offices and reduce the number of department chairs and coordinators responsible for like disciplines; reductions to the athletics budget and scholarship reallocations; University and unit operational reductions; and a reduction in faculty staffing to address an imbalance in the number of students, due to enrollment declines, compared to the reduction of faculty that had occurred through attrition. This rebalancing was meant to raise the student to faculty ratio, which had fallen to less than 13 to 1, to 16 to 1, closer to the historic benchmark of 18 to 1.

“The EMAP that emerged from a lengthy process that included the opportunity for input from the campus community and alumni is a balanced approach that impacts every part of campus,” said Al Delia, now serving as the FSU Interim President and at the time was FSU Acting President. “Making the individual decisions that constitute EMAP was not done lightly, nor were the decisions easy.”

While all the decisions were difficult ones, the termination of faculty appointments, defined as retrenchment, proved the most difficult. The retrenchment process is a highly prescribed process outlined by USM Board of Regents policy and in the FSU Faculty Handbook. It is a process led by faculty members, both elected and appointed, to serve on a Retrenchment Plan Committee (RPC).

FSU’s president at the time, Ron Nowaczyk, charged the committee with developing and providing an ordered list of academic departments to be recommended for retrenchment based on an articulated definition of departmental productivity and to develop and provide an ordered list of 45 faculty FTEs by academic department or program subject to retrenchment with justification.

“The Committee worked very seriously and diligently, put in many hours of time, and provided a thoughtful, comprehensive set of recommendations based on the best available data and a very well-considered methodology,” said Nowaczyk. “I am grateful for their steadfast commitment to Frostburg State University.”

Originally scheduled for mid-January, the outcome of the retrenchment process was accelerated and announced to campus at the end of December, before the University’s holiday break, at the request of FSU’s Faculty Senate. In total, after applying the savings from four senior faculty member retirements, thirteen senior faculty member Transitional Terminal Leave agreements (often described as phased-retirement), the retirement of four individuals serving within the administration (not including two divisional vice president positions being eliminated as part of divisional mergers), and eleven adjunct faculty each teaching one course not being called back, the retrenchment process ultimately resulted in FSU notifying four faculty members, categorized as Full Time Non-Tenure Track (FTNTT) faculty, that their contracts would not be renewed. Additionally, three tenure-track faculty members and one tenured faculty member were notified that they were to be retrenched – their faculty appointment ended. Each of these eight faculty members, depending on their length of service to FSU, received six-months to one year notification that their employment would end. All will continue their employment and receive full compensation until that time. Each of the full-time non-tenure track, the tenure track. and tenured faculty will receive, at no cost to them, career services, coaching and placement help from a national company engaged by the University. All these adjustments as part of the EMAP will result in an approximate $4.875 million savings for the University and result in a student to faculty ratio of 16.5 to 1

“It is important to note that any additional faculty retirements or Transitional Terminal Leave agreements taking effect and thus realizing additional savings before the start of fiscal year 2027, may reduce the number of retrenchments or reduction of full-time non-tenure track contracts further,” said Delia.

The successful implementation of Frostburg’s EMAP so far has taken FSU from a budget deficit of $7.7 million to a $3.48 million surplus in the current fiscal year because of the difficult decisions that the University has had to make. FSU is also in a much better position now to withstand the additional cuts in the Governor’s budget to the University System of Maryland’s state appropriation.

“FSU will tighten our belts as much as possible, without impacting the quality of the education we provide to students, to meet the budget requirements asked of us,” said Delia. “We will, once again, be looking carefully at ways we can decrease costs and increase revenues in the coming year.”

The implementation of the various components of the EMAP will be carried out over several years. Frostburg continues to remain transparent on the plan’s progress, which will keep FSU moving forward to meet the needs and expectations of students and families.