Approved

NORTHERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Minutes of the Formal Session

of

Friday, December 16, 2011

A formal session of the Board of Trustees of Northern Michigan University was held on Friday, December 16, 2011, in the Cohodas Hall, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, Michigan.  The meeting was convened at 10:18 a.m. in the Board of Trustees Room, 602 Cohodas by Chair

Brian D. Cloyd.

Trustees present included:

            Brian D. Cloyd, Chair                         Jon G. LaSalle             H. Sook Wilkinson

            Stephen F. Adamini                            L. Garnet Lewis          Gilbert L. Ziegler

            Stephen L. Gulis, Jr.                           Richard M. Popp         Leslie E. Wong, ex officio

Senior staff and counsel present included:

            Catherine L. Dehlin, General Counsel

Paul L. Lang, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

R. Gavin Leach, Vice President for Finance and Administration and Treasurer of the Board

            Theresa M. Nease, Executive Assistant to the President and Secretary of the Board

INDIVIDUAL REQUESTS TO ADDRESS THE BOARD

None.

FOCUS DISCUSSION 

Trustee Lewis, Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, updated the Board on the progress of the branding study being conducted by Stamats, Inc.  (Addendum #1).

Mr. Chuck Reed, Senior Vice President for Client Services at Stamats, Inc., gave a brief overview of the activities completed as part of the branding study process.  The Strategic Planning and Core Branding Committees have put together a list of attributes with the ultimate goal of developing five promise statements to test with various internal and external stakeholders (students, faculty, staff, alumni and prospective students) in January.  The promise statements will be tested on importance, believability, distinctiveness and engagement.  Results will be back the middle of February.  A report with recommendations will be forwarded to the Board upon the completion of this process.  Discussion followed with Mr. Reed responding to questions and comments from the Board.  Trustee Popp said when you get it right, you will know it as it will be sensed and felt emotionally throughout the institution.  It has to be aligned within the University, and every department needs to feel it.  He commended the group for going through the difficult work of this process.  Trustee Cloyd said the brand needs to be intentionally driven throughout the institution.  Implementation is one of the most critical parts of this process so that five years from now there is a clear understanding of the messaging throughout the organization. 

Mr. Reed said the brand needs to be driven internally first and externally second.  The pace of the project is on schedule for the messaging to begin next fall semester.

Chair Cloyd led a discussion on how NMU reports information about the University in a structured format.  The Board and President would like to have a report that looks and feels like an annual report.  President Wong said the growing reputation of NMU nationally and in the great lakes region, the branding work, and innovations that have gotten the University national attention has gotten NMU to this point.  The Board has given the President a directive to prepare a Report to Investors as a way of gathering a summary of where the University has been the past year and the direction the University will be going in the next year.  The report will be a key document to sustain the public trust.  President Wong solicited comments and recommendations from the Board on the preparation and content of the report.  Board members all agreed with the idea of a report.  Comments from the Board included:

• The report should include information that is fundamentally the way a department operates with every department having their metrics and their cadence.  As long as this is the case, it will not add burden to the workloads of the faculty/staff in needing to find a lot of annual data.  It would not be added work for anybody; it would be better work by everybody.

• The information contained in the report should be good information, not filler information.

• President Wong is open to timeline but likes the idea of distribution of the report at the start of the academic year.  A lot of annual reports tend to look back a bit to set the stage for the next year. 

• The report would be to catch the attention of internal and external stakeholders to showcase what incredible work NMU is doing.  Transition from those successes will open up opportunities. 

• The report, if done correctly, then becomes a marketing tool for everyone; not just what NMU has done, but where NMU is going.  It will support the branding study work in the believability of what NMU says it is.  It also creates some healthy competition amongst the University departments wanting to be highlighted in the report.

• A report would give some consistency to internal and external stakeholders on what NMU has accomplished and where it is heading.  It is easy to forget all of the good things that are going on when faculty and staff are concentrating on their immediate tasks.  It is good to have a record of the wonderful things that have taken place and opportunities for the future.

• A report would be an opportunity to address concerns and to communicate the plan of action to address these concerns.
• Collecting data here at NMU is good, but the report should limit statistics to make it easy to read.  No more than six graphs should be included.

• The first report will look different due to the branding project.  The next year it will be in the format of the brand, and from then on there will have some consistency.  The challenge will be to make the report fresh each year.

RECESS – Chair Cloyd recessed the meeting at 11:10 a.m.  

RECONVENE -- Chair Cloyd reconvened the meeting at 11:17a.m. 

INTRODUCTION OF GRADUATING SENIOR SPEAKING AT MIDYEAR COMMENCEMENT

Associate Provost for Student Services and Enrollment, Mr. William Bernard, announced that Ms. Lauren Fusilier, a Elementary and Special Education – Emotional Impairment major from Stockbridge, Michigan will represent the graduating class of Winter 2011 at Commencement ceremonies tomorrow.  On behalf of the Board, Chair Cloyd congratulated Ms. Fusilier and presented her with a plaque.  A photo was taken.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF COMMENCEMENT SPEAKER AND HONORARY DEGREE RECIPIENT

President Wong announced that Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole, Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art and President emeriti of Bennett College for Women and Spelman College, will be the December 2011 Commencement Speaker and will receive the Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters. 

ASNMU REPORT

Mr. Justin Brugman, 2011-2012 ASNMU President, reported.  A copy of the report is appended to these minutes (Addendum #2).   

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

President Wong reported on the future of performance funding at the University.  The number one policy discussion happening across the country is performance funding.  The State’s discussion regarding finding the balance between the more traditional funding and performance-based funding is a policy switch that has a lot of ripples.  NMU is following this discussion carefully.  Adding output variables to justify appropriations is a dramatic switch to higher education and the University.  For example, the University still needs to hire a faculty member to teach an English class with 30 students at the start of the semester.  This is an input variable with overhead costs that have to be covered.  How many graduates is quite independent of funding the English course.  There are merits to performance-based funding, but there are challenges that would require some considerations and changes of habits that seep way down to the departmental level.  Schools should be measured by performance measures such as graduation rates; however, universities also have upfront costs that need to be met as well.  In addition, performance-based funding is a multi-year proposition which inevitably gets tweaked along the way.  This is a philosophic change of great proportion that NMU will be monitoring closely.

President Wong updated the Board on the increase of four hundred students in four years, a plan he unveiled during the Fall Convocation.  This will be discussed in detail as part of the February Board of Trustees retreat.  The four areas under review are athletics, academic programs, retention, and recommendations from the Enrollment Management Network.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Academic Affairs

Dr. Lewis, Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee, reported on a meeting held on Thursday,

December 15, 2011.  A copy of the report is appended to these minutes (Addendum #3). 

Finance

Mr. Adamini, Chair of the Finance Committee, reported on a meeting held on Friday,

December 16, 2011.  A copy of the report is appended to these minutes (Addendum #4). 

Executive

Mr. LaSalle, Chair of the Executive Committee, reported on a meeting held on Thursday,

December 15, 2011.  A copy of the report is appended to these minutes (Addendum #5).

APPOINTMENTS TO BOARD STANDING COMMITTEES FOR CALENDAR YEAR 2012

Chair-elect Cloyd announced that the recommended 2012 NMU Board of Trustees Standing Committee Appointments are included in the formals (Formal Recommendation F-1).  The appointments are as follows:

2012 NMU BOARD OF TRUSTEES STANDING COMMITTEES

Academic Affairs Finance Executive

L. Garnet Lewis, Chair             Stephen F. Adamini, Chair       Jon G. LaSalle, Chair

Jon G. LaSalle                           Stephen L. Gulis, Jr.                 Stephen F. Adamini

Richard M. Popp                       Richard M. Popp                       L. Garnet Lewis

H. Sook Wilkinson                    Gilbert L. Ziegler                      Brian D. Cloyd, ex officio

Brian D. Cloyd, ex officio        Brian D. Cloyd, ex officio        Leslie E. Wong, ex officio

    Leslie E. Wong, ex officio        Leslie E. Wong, ex officio         

Chair Cloyd also announced the ex officio re-appointments of Mr. Richard Popp, Mr. Gilbert Ziegler, and Dr. Sook Wilkinson to the NMU Foundation Board of Trustees for calendar year 2012. 

ACTION ON FORMAL RECOMMENDATIONS

It was moved by Trustee LaSalle, seconded by Trustee Ziegler, and unanimously supported by the Board of Trustees to approve the Formal Recommendations. (Addendum #6)

ANNOUNCEMENT OF CLOSED INFORMAL SESSION TO BE HELD IN CONNECTION WITH THE THURSDAY-FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16-17, 2012, MEETING OF THE BOARD

President Wong made this announcement for the public record. 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES RESOLUTION

Chair Cloyd read a resolution for Mr. Howard Schultz, 1975 graduate of Northern Michigan University, recognizing him for distinguishing himself as one of the Nation’s outstanding business leaders by receiving the Fortune Magazine 2011 Business Person of the Year Award. 

It was moved by Trustee Ziegler, seconded by Trustee Wilkinson, and unanimously supported by the Board of Trustees to adopt the resolution. (Addendum #7)

ADJOURNMENT

Chair Cloyd adjourned the meeting at 11:55 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

___________________________________

Theresa M. Nease

Secretary of the Board