The best sign of spring....an "open" sign at Frosty Treats!

Plenty of sunshine this past weekend had everyone thinking "spring", even if some of them were wearing mittens while standing in line at Frosty Treats. Temperatures have been mild, coming close to breaking record highs. Forecasters call for continued sunshine and mild temperatures with cool air moving in later this week.

The nice weather had folks outside enjoying a breath of fresh air. These young ladies, who live in Hunt Hall, were out Sunday taking photos at Picnic Rocks to send back home.

I am scheduled to give Northern’s annual legislative testimony to the House on April 27 in Lansing. The House appropriations subcommittee for higher education has asked for information on the following questions: economic impact to the local community and state, cost-effective savings implemented at each university during the past two years of state funding reductions, initiatives regarding access and affordability, and short-term future goals for funding investments. In addition to answering these questions, the three key points I hope to get across are to the legislators are:

1) Northern personifies the profile of the university mission outlined by the Cherry Commission for Higher Education and Economic Development. We place our priority on scholarships, financial aid and active service learning. We attract many high-caliber students, but we also have the programs in place to enable students who enter with less than perfect academic credentials to rise to great heights of success during their NMU career and after graduation. The state wants to double the number of students enrolled in college. Obviously, most of that growth won’t come at the highest academic-achiever end of the scale – those high school students are already advancing into college. It will come at the level where students need more refinement. At NMU, individual attention is what we’re known for – we have successful programs in place and ready to perform to motivate these students to levels of excellence.

2) While headcount (or full-year equated student, FYES) is an important funding measure, other factors also should be considered. These include such things as location, efficiency of scale and potential for private/corporate giving and partnerships. For example, how drastically different is the cost to build a science building that serves 10,000 students compared to one that serves 30,000 students? Probably not much. However, larger schools are able to spread the cost of the facility over 20,000 more students. Consider location for a moment. For the three U.P. universities, location adds to our cost of operations with regard to maintenance (winter), recruiting and retention. And corporate partnerships, which can help to ease funding burdens, especially for new initiatives, are much easier to foster when there is a large amount of industry in your backyard, which isn’t the case for Michigan’s rural universities.

3) Northern prides itself on always having a balanced budget and being among the most affordable public universities in Michigan. I will explain to the legislators what we’ve discussed in this newsletter before – that NMU’s funding equation is pretty simple when one considers that state appropriations make up about 50 percent of our general fund budget and tuition and fees the other 50 percent. When one goes down, the other goes up, and vice versa. The only other option is to cut programs and services. After reducing our general fund budget by about $13 million over the past three years, what could be be cut without impacting quality was cut. Drastic funding changes will result in drastic changes.

Northern has a great story to tell. I’m armed with a plethora of examples of how NMU is making a difference in students’ lives. I’ll keep you updated on how the hearing goes.

The NMU Jobsearch Center, in partnership with other state universities and colleges, is taking part in the first Michigan Collegiate Virtual Job Fair. This new venture can connect graduating seniors, alumni and students interested in career possibilities with employers--all in a fast, convenient, and cost free environment.
What is a Virtual Job Fair?
A virtual job fair is similar to any other career fair except that it happens online.
Employers set up virtual "booths" or profiles with information such as organization name, organization overview, industry summary, and the positions they have available.
Candidates upload their resume into the Virtual Job Fair and, once they have identified employment opportunities, can submit their document to multiple companies with one click of a button.
The Michigan Collegiate Virtual Job Fair also allows interested candidates to chat with a company representative at times determined by the company.
Why a Virtual Job Fair?
To create an online environment in which students and employers from many geographical locations may make initial contacts to discuss career opportunities and goals.
To learn more about the Virtual Job Fair and how you can take part, visit the NMU JOBSearch Center.