For the week of May 24, 2004
From the 6th floor
 |
Rainy
days and Mondays. I know I really have no right to complain, because plenty
of the midwest is dealing with some real nasty weather. Here in the U.P.,
we've just had rain and rain and more rain. It has been pretty chilly, too,
with temperatures not making it much above 50 degrees. Difficult to be very
optimistic about spring, that's for sure. But still, nothing like the terrible
storms in other areas of the country. Friday was the first time in my life I had ever heard tornado sirens. We were in Allen Park, setting up for our alumni event, when some serious storms moved through the area. As you may have seen on TV or read in the newspapers, the Detroit area was hard hit by storms throughout the weekend, beginning Friday afternoon. In Allen Park, at the Detroit Lions Practice Facility, we were able to watch the storms move across the area. I have never seen anything like it. The sky was green. Yes, green. Now, I am not a weather specialist and have no idea what causes green skies, but it was very eerie. I have seen some pretty dark skies before, but never anything like the green that darkened the area. Fortunately, no twisters touched down, but rain and hail swept through, causing rapid flooding. I am thankful to live in the UP where our biggest weather concerns are snow-related. While snow can cause damage, it is rarely as deadly as tornadoes. |
Wildcats invade Lions Practice Facility
|
As mentioned above, Friday, May 21, NMU Alumni and Friends invaded the Allen Park home of the Detroit Lions for a special Wildcat Open House. Almost 200 Northern alumni showed up to tour the practice facility and meet Steve Mariucci '77, our host for the evening. What a fun evening! At the close of the event, the Wildcats joined Lions head coach Steve Mariucci, NMU Interim President Mike Roy, and NMU Alumni Association President Barry Axelrod, for this photo on the field. |
 |
| Former
Wildcat football players pose with Steve Mariucci and current Wildcat head
coach, Doug Sams. Front row, left to right: Mike Williams '75, Rick Popp '88, Dan Stencil '76, Steve Mariucci '77, Paul Goldman '63, Dominic Sarvello '64. Back row, Fred Smith ' 78, Tim Chapman '82, unidentified player we think might be Dan Cooley '79???, Jack Hirn '80, Coach Sams, Mike Kowalko '81, David Gregory '92, Alex Moslimani '77. |
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|
 Joy '82 and Joe '81 Evans and their children, Emma, Owen and Helen, and Coach Mariucci. |
 Mike Kowalko '81, Dana Verville '80, Jack Hirn '80, Ben Chapman, Tim Chapman '82. |
|
 Former NMU football player Mark Fragel, Lauren and Brett Fragel and Rod McLeod check out the Lions locker room. |
 Steve Mariucci and TJ Verville pose with the Joey Harrington autographed poster TJ bought at the auction. |
|
 Tours
of the Detroit Lions Practice Facility began in the turf room. |
 Checking
out the state of the art weight room. |
|
 The
training room. |
 The
locker room. |
|
 The
cafeteria. |
Go Lions! |
A legislative update from Interim President Mike Roy
| I
testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Higher Education
a few weeks ago. If you relate the legislative process to a football game,
we’re late in the third quarter at this point. Next the subcommittee
will bring its recommendation before the full House for a vote, then the
conference committee will meet to work out the differences between the Senate
and House higher education bills before an agreement goes to the Governor.
As for Northern’s House hearing, I think it went well. The members
of the subcommittee, like those on the Senate subcommittee, were most interested
in learning what universities are doing to cut costs in order to keep tuition
and fees as low as possible.
To summarize what I discussed with the legislators, I said that even before Northern’s loss of $7.5 million in state appropriation reductions over the past 16 months, Northern had been reorganizing, reallocating, redesigning and refocusing. Since 1991, NMU has reduced its university divisions from eight to three, its vice presidents from five to two, its colleges from five to three and merged numerous academic and administrative departments. By the end of the next fiscal year, 135 positions are scheduled to have been eliminated and 70 people laid off or retired. I also explained how technology is helping us put in place more self-service operations and that we’d looked at every corner of the university and asked the hard questions, “Is what we’re doing here important to the student experience? Can we do it differently to realize savings and efficiencies?” I told the legislators that the NMU campus community had come together and implemented $5.5 million in budget reductions and $2.2 million in cost avoidance measures in the current fiscal year and identified and $3.3 million in general fund budget reductions and eliminations and $1 million in cost avoidance measures that will be implemented in the next fiscal year, and we did so with the least amount of damage done to the core academic arena as possible. However, I also told them that now I feel we are at a crossroads where Northern would have trouble identifying additional cuts that wouldn’t start to impact the classroom.
Another thing I mentioned to the legislators (something that seemed to catch their attention) is that Northern has kept its cost increase per student below the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase for the past 11 years. I feel a lot has been done on the part of the NMU students, faculty and staff to contain costs over the years. We will continue to do so wherever and whenever we can. |
Ms. Thompson goes to Washington
 Rebecca Thompson ASNMU President Junior, Marketing/Public Relations |
One of the many unique
opportunities Northern offers is the Washington Internship Program. WNN: Why were you
interested in the Washington Intern Program? WNN: What will
the program involve on a day-to-day basis for you? WNN:
What do you hope to get from it over the next 10 weeks? WNN: What are you
thinking you will do after graduation and how will this |
Make sure these dates are on your calendar
|
Wildcat
Golf Classic Wildcat
Club/Alumni Association Golf Outing |
NMU
Homecoming 2004 October 15-16 "Digging up the Past" Events
include: |
As always, feedback/suggestions/questions can be directed to yours truly.
"What's New, NMU?" is a service of the NMU Alumni Association. Consider joining today!
And
now we know what NMU Interim President Mike Roy is going to do now that
Dr. Wong is coming on board.