Tuesday, June 20, 2023

A special formal session of the Board of Trustees of Northern Michigan University was held on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, via Zoom video conference. The meeting was convened at 3:30 p.m. by Chair Stephen E. Young.

Trustees present included:

Mr. Stephen E. Young, Chair	Mr. Steven W. Lindberg
Ms. Lisa I. Fittante	Mr. Gregory J. Seppanen
Ms. Alexis M. Hart, Vice Chair	Mr. Greg M. Toutant
Ms. Melissa A. Holmquist	Dr. Brock F. Tessman, ex officio
Ms. Brigitte R. LaPointe-Dunham

Senior Staff and Counsel present included:

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

Dr. Dale P. Kapla, Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Ms. Cathy A. Andrew, Secretary of the Board of Trustees

Ms. Deanna Hemmila, Executive Director – Board/Government Relations

Mr. Carrick Craig, Legal Counsel

The meeting was live-streamed on YouTube at https://tinyurl.com/NMUAVStreaming.

ROLL CALL

Secretary Andrew took roll call of the Trustees and noted that a quorum was met with all Trustees being present.

COMMITTEE REPORT

Finance Committee

Trustee Hart, Chair of the Finance Committee, reported on a meeting held today, Tuesday, June 20, 2023. A copy of the report is appended to these minutes. (Addendum #1)

TUITION AND FEES – FISCAL YEAR 2024

The following action was taken:

It was moved by Trustee Hart and seconded by Trustee Seppanen to approve the proposed fiscal year 2023-2024 tuition and fee rates as presented in the Finance Committee Report (Addendum #2)

Discussion followed:

Vice Chair Hart thanked the members of the Finance Committee and Administration for their efforts in putting together the proposal and being very thoughtful of the sensitivity of tuition increases noting the university needs to make continued investments in academic programs and strategic initiatives that are focused around student wellbeing and campus safety. She said with the overall general fund budget increases as well, this will allow the University to keep up from an inflationary perspective and meet its contractual obligations for salary increases. She stated that it is great that NMU is still able to offer some of the most affordable tuition in the State of Michigan, noting that with tuition restraint language NMU needs to be mindful of keeping the tuition gap between NMU and the other universities from becoming too large, while continuing to provide the quality academic programming and services to our employees and students.

Chair Young thanked President Tessman, Vice President Leach, and their teams for putting this together, as well as the Finance Committee for bringing forward a proposal that is very fair, noting this decision is always very difficult and deliberate. He said NMU has some good momentum going this year with President Tessman and renewed energy and enthusiasm and, hopefully, this decision today will help further those efforts that are happening on campus and in the community.

Being no further discussion, Chair Young called the question.

On a roll-call vote, the Board voted as follows:

Aye Nay

Stephen E. Young

Alexis M. Hart

Lisa I. Fittante

Gregory J. Seppanen

Melissa A. Holmquist

Brigitte R. LaPointe-Dunham

Steven W. Lindberg

Greg M. Toutant

FORMAL RECOMMENDATIONS

The following action was taken:

It was moved by Trustee Holmquist and seconded by Trustee LaPointe-Dunham to approved the Formal Recommendations as presented. (Addendum #3)

Being no discussion, Chair Young called the question.

On a roll-call vote, the Board voted as follows:

Aye Nay

Stephen E. Young

Alexis M. Hart

Lisa I. Fittante

Gregory J. Seppanen

Melissa A. Holmquist

Brigitte R. LaPointe-Dunham

Steven W. Lindberg

Greg M. Toutant

ADJOURNMENT

Chair Young adjourned the meeting at 3:40 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

/signed/Cathy A. Andrew

Secretary of the Board of Trustees