FROM THE PRESIDENT
Expanding Student Offerings
We continue to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Frostburg State University’s founding in April of 1898. While my letter in the last edition of Profile focused on our outreach, I would like to share more of the “internal” initiatives that are ongoing here at FSU.
First and foremost, thank you for your generosity in supporting our students. This year the FSU Foundation has made over $1.3 million available to help our students financially. As recently as 2015, that annual support was considerably less at $640,000. Alums and friends have contributed their time and talents to help our students through mentoring, providing internships and practica, and sharing their experiences through leadership events like those offered by the Sloop Institute and the Division of Student Affairs. While the funds help students graduate, the advice you provide shapes their careers.
FSU President, Dr. Ron Nowaczyk, talks with students about ongoing initiatives.
Increasing our enrollments following the COVID-19 pandemic has been a strategic initiative. Our University community has been focused not only on remaining affordable but also providing career pathways to address the changing needs in today’s global society.
We have partnered with several institutions to formalize those pathways. Our oldest collaboration in engineering with University of Maryland, College Park continues. There is a pre-law pathway with the University of Baltimore’s Law School that has FSU students studying philosophy and law and society for three years at FSU and then transferring to the law school. FSU students studying chemistry have a pathway to the Doctor of Pharmacy program at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. A recently approved master’s degree in environmental management and sustainability is being offered jointly through FSU and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. In the area of health sciences, we are pursuing a pathway for talented STEM undergraduates to be admitted earlier into our Physician Assistant’s master’s program. Our faculty in Exercise and Sport Science are developing programs where students from other institutions can transfer here and earn their master’s degree in athletic training.
We are reaching out to the non-traditional student as well. Nursing has expanded its online offerings to include an LPN-to-BSN program. We have an online “degree-completion” offering in multidisciplinary studies. Our federally funded Maryland Accelerates program is a pathway for bachelor’s prepared individuals to earn a living while pursuing a career in teaching. And, we have formal agreements with the Allegany and Garrett County public school systems which allow talented high school students to take classes on our campus during their senior years.
These are but a few examples of the initiatives underway at FSU. We have reorganized academic operations to support these efforts. We are in the third year of offering new students two advisors – a professional advisor and a faculty mentor. Based on best practices in higher education, this focus on supporting students is essential to improve student success and retention. And, as we all know, it is critically important now as we help students who have had their K-12 studies altered because of the pandemic.
We have restructured our academic colleges as well to better support students and create synergies among our faculty in their creative scholarship and research activities. The three new colleges are:
- College of Arts, Humanities and Social & Behavioral Sciences
- College of Business, Engineering and Computational & Mathematical Sciences
- College of Education and Health & Natural Sciences
I’ll close by encouraging you to visit the campus and tour our newest academic building, the Education and Health Sciences Center, which opened this summer. I am proud of FSU’s response to the changing landscape in higher education and in society. I think the miners and local contributors who established State Normal School No. 2 in 1898 would be as well.
Go Bobcats!
Ronald Nowaczyk, Ph.D.
President