Courtesy of Frostburg State Office of News and Media Services

Frostburg State University celebrated the inauguration of its 15th president, Dr. Ronald H. Nowaczyk, in a ceremony that centered a week bookended by events celebrating student artistic achievement on Friday, April 7 in the Performing Arts Center’s Pealer Recital Hall.

During the ceremony, University System of Maryland Chancellor Robert Caret, assisted by Board of Regents Chair James Brady, performed the investiture, the formal recognition of Nowaczyk’s leadership role. Maryland Secretary of Higher Education James Fielder Jr., Frostburg Mayor Robert Flanigan, FSU Foundation Board of Directors Vice President Ken Oldham and FSU Student Government Association President Nicholas DeMichele offered greetings, and Caret spoke, delivering the charges for Nowaczyk’s presidency.  

The date of the inauguration was chosen in recognition of the anniversary of April 9, 1898, the date that Gov. Lloyd Lowndes signed the bill creating State Normal School No. 2 at Frostburg, the institution that, 119 years later, is now Frostburg State University.

Nowaczyk’s address, titled “Living Our Commitment,” honored the aspirations of those coal miners and community leaders who are responsible for the creation of the institution. He recognized that the University has gone far beyond the imaginings of those founders, but that the commitment continues to be toward changing lives, student by student.  

Nowaczyk, who assumed the presidency on May 9, 2016, has spent his first year in office focusing on building a collaborative administration marked by open communication, with a particular emphasis on student success initiatives and regional outreach. He initiated a strategic planning process, which is under development by a team of more than 50 faculty, staff and students with the input of more than 1,000 individuals from the University’s student body, faculty, staff and alumni, along with numerous community members and other regional stakeholders. It will be presented to the University System of Maryland Board of Regents and to the public in June.