Mary Baldwin University in Staunton is facing significant financial challenges, leading the school to take dramatic cost-cutting measures, including selling property, eliminating staff, reducing employee benefits and offering fewer academic majors to incoming students.
A confidential source reaching out to AFP said they feared that MBU could close within five years due to the hardships.
On Friday, as part of homecoming festivities, MBU will inaugurate its 10th president, Dr. Jeffrey Stein. Stein took the reins on July 1, 2023, from long-term Mary Baldwin president Pamela R. Fox, who served in the role for two decades.
Internal emails provided to AFP dating back to October 2023 show Mary Baldwin making strategic financial decisions due to “flat revenues, increasing costs and discount rates, and ongoing cash deficits – in addition to decreased enrollment due to changing demographics and the flawed federal FAFSA process.”
“We are overhauling our financial practices for the sake of the university’s longer-term stability,” an Aug. 7 email from Stein, directed to colleagues, states.
On Thursday, Mary Baldwin acknowledged to AFP the challenges they are facing.
“Mary Baldwin University is not alone in facing external headwinds in higher education, including many colleges and universities, some in Virginia, that have recently made deep cuts to academic programming and staffing,” read a statement sent on Thursday from Liesel Crosier, vice president for integrated communication and interim vice president of enrollment management.
The August email from Stein also points to numerous other schools facing challenges, including the University of New Orleans, Averett University, Wittenberg University and Lynchburg University.
Stein said in the email that Mary Baldwin is doing more than merely cutting staff and benefits, it is “facing the challenges head on with a range of short and long-term strategies for the benefits of students and the long-term health of the institution.”
MBU believes it is making strides when it comes to its financial well-being.
“At MBU we are known as an institution that evolves to serve students and the community and, with that ethos at our core, are making these strides to stay ahead of those headwinds,” today’s statement read. “We have made some strategic financial decisions, including selling property that was no longer needed, reducing some faculty and staff positions and other cost-cutting measures.”
While an internal email pointed to declining enrollment numbers as one reason for the university’s struggles, the school shared in a Sept. 23 note to staff that its overall numbers declined just 1 percent over the previous academic year.
Mary Baldwin currently has 1,773 students enrolled across all programs and improved its first-to-second year retention rate from 61 percent to 63 percent, according to an enrollment snapshot for fall 2024 prepared by the school’s registrar.
Departing staff members in the past 12 months have included, but are not limited to, Vice President of Enrollment Management Matt Munsey, Student Engagement VP Justin Tyler Owens, McCree Center for Life Success Executive Director Thy Nguyen and Senior Director Rachel Hirsch.
MBU has also discontinued 23 under-enrolled majors.
Restructuring finances and systems
MBU has overhauled its financial practices and put cost-cutting measures in place including:
- Executive staff pay cuts up to 10 percent through June 2025
- President taking 15 percent pay cut through June 2025
- Reduction of staff positions
- Some positions reclassified at lower title and salary to better meet university needs
- Retirement contributions reduced from 3 percent to 0 percent for all employees
- Higher insurance premiums for employees
- Moratorium on nonessential travel (all employee travel not directly related to student recruitment or fundraising); athletic team travel and required trips to campus by remote employees are exempt
- Require approval for all purchases $250 and above
- Reduced operational expenses, including contracts and memberships
- Scaled back plans for inauguration programming
- Campus events will be reviewed to determine if food is important
- Careful and limited or delayed hiring of vacant positions
“While I regret that our position requires financial measures that impact each employee, I am heartened that with a fuller understanding of these challenges, partnerships with higher education experts, strategic and trajectory-altering initiatives, and collaboration across campus and with alumni, we can now begin to build Mary Baldwin’s future together,” Stein said in the Aug. 7 email.
Virginia public universities face similar challenges
Mary Baldwin University is not alone in its financial challenges.
A recent review of public four-year higher education institutions in Virginia found that six schools gained enrollment over the past decade, with nine schools losing ground on enrollment, according to JLARC, Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
The study found that none of Virginia’s 15 public four-year institutions are in immediate danger of closure or need a bailout.
However, seven institutions were rated as having some viability risk factors and need to be monitored:
- Christopher Newport
- Longwood
- Norfolk State
- Radford
- Virginia State
- University of Mary Washington
- UVA-Wise
For example, Radford University’s full-time enrollment has declined more than any other public institution over the past decade, at 26 percent. Its first-year enrollment declined even more sharply, by 38 percent.
The University of Mary Washington had heavily discounted tuition, leading to less revenue, and the age and condition of its campus complicates the school’s ability to recruit and retain students. Its debt levels are also relatively high due to poor investment choices, according to the report.
Virginia State University’s inflation-adjusted tuition revenue per student has declined approximately 26 percent since 2015. It also has the highest percentage of students receiving a Pell grant among public universities in the state. Housing availability has also been an issue for students.
The report points to further erosion in the belief that four-year degrees are necessary, demographic decline and the consolidation of students at larger institutions as part of the issues prompting the monitoring of the schools.
Future of MBU
In its statement today, Mary Baldwin University said the past seven months have encompassed a strategic planning process that has given them “a roadmap to success to 2030 and beyond.
“We are building strategic enrollment management capabilities, and we are restructuring our finances and systems to balance our budget and maintain strong financial systems, including a balanced budget in FY 25,” the statement read. “Instead of exclusively cutting, we have strategically built a new undergraduate experience, including creating a brand-new common curriculum that combines the best of liberal arts learning with professional preparation.
“As opposed to merely cutting, we have significant plans and initiatives underway that will transform and grow the institution in terms of the revenues it can produce. This proactive approach demonstrates how our 183-year-old institution faces and conquers external challenges.
“We have been and will continue to remain transparent with our community about these challenges and the university’s significant strategic initiatives and plans in place at our university that will build a strong and stable future that supports students, faculty, staff, alumni and the broader Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro community.”
The source that reached out to AFP didn’t paint a picture quite as positive as the university’s statement.
The source confirmed the cuts have been going on for approximately one year, but said the university has been the opposite of transparent with the staff and public about its challenges – “trying to sweep it under the rug.
“There’s been a mass exodus of administrative staff in addition to the staffing cuts,” they said.
“It’s a hot mess over there. If they stay open another five years, it will be a miracle.”
Related stories
For more coverage, search “Mary Baldwin University” on Augusta Free Press.
- Staunton: Mary Baldwin University to inaugurate Dr. Jeffrey Stein as 10th president
- Virginia: Enrollment declines put Radford, Mary Washington at ‘some risk’
- A new Sheriff in the Queen City: Mary Baldwin announces new interim CFO
- Mary Baldwin announces appointment of VP of student engagement
- Glitches, errors with college FAFSA form leads Mary Baldwin to open its doors for help
- Mary Baldwin University fondly remembers former president Cynthia Tyson
- Mary Baldwin University names new vice president of university advancement
- ‘Honored and humbled’: Mary Baldwin University names Dr. Jeff Stein as 10th president
- MBU names new dean and vice president of Murphy Deming College of Health Sciences
Share
Crystal Graham
