April 1, 2016

NMU Faculty and Staff,

Let me begin this campus update with the most heartfelt condolences to those of you who are close friends and colleagues of Dr. Chuck Ganzert. Our thoughts and prayers are with Dr. Patricia Cianciolo and all of her and Chuck's family and friends as they go through this difficult time following Chuck's passing. It is never easy to lose a member of our NMU community. Chuck was the very essence of the Northern spirit. As Dr. Jim Cantrill mentioned in yesterday's campus-wide email, Chuck was to have been recognized as a recipient of the 2016 Distinguished Faculty Award in just a few days. We certainly will use that ceremony to celebrate Chuck's life and his work at Northern, as well as his love of NMU and Marquette. We will also pass along any information that becomes available about any other services. Again, if you called Chuck one of your dear friends or colleagues, my deepest condolences on your loss.

Town Hall Meetings
There are a lot of big projects taking place at Northern right now. To make sure the campus has updated information and can ask questions to me directly about all of the activities, I've had three town hall meetings scheduled: 1:30-3 p.m. Monday, April 11; 8:30-10 a.m. Tuesday, April 12; and 6-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 13. We are finalizing room locations, so watch for an email that provides that information. I hope the variety of days and times allows as many of you as possible to attend in person. However, at least one of these presentations will be taped for Internet streaming to make it possible for those who can't attend to still be able to review the discussion.

Strategic Planning and Budgeting Advisory Committee
During the strategic planning sessions last semester, I spoke about creating a new Strategic Planning and Budgeting Advisory Committee that can provide input to me and the vice presidents on strategic planning initiatives and strategic planning procedures. I've asked about 40 people to serve on this group, giving us broad campus-wide representation including students. Brent Graves, biology faculty member, and Leslie Warren, dean of Academic Information Services, have agreed to be co-chairs. We will be meeting every first Wednesday of the month, including an April, May and one summer meeting yet this academic year.

One of the main tasks for the members of this committee is to help me keep the campus informed of strategic planning ideas, discussions, decisions and decision rationale. They will be asked to relay this information to the campus components they represent. Responses to my invitation to potential members are still coming in, but we will be ready to post the full list of committee members to the strategic planning website (nmu.edu/strategicplan) next week. Those representatives can help bring any feedback you have to the overall discussion.

Legislative Funding Update
I also want to update the campus on the legislative funding process to date. Last week, the House and Senate Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittees released their respective funding bills. The governor released his executive budget in February. With all three proposals completed, the next step will be for the Legislature to iron out the differences.

The governor's executive budget included a 4.4 percent increase, or $59.8 million, for Michigan's 15 public universities operations. One-half of the increase was distributed across the board for operations while the other half was appropriated through the current performance formula. In order to qualify for the performance portion of the funding, universities would be required to limit tuition increases to 4.8 percent or less. In the governor's proposal, NMU would receive a 3.9 percent increase to bring our total appropriations to $46.9 million.

The House version deducts $13.5 million from the governor's recommended increase. The House proposed a 3.4 percent increase, or $46.3 million, for the universities. It also changed the tuition restraint to be the greater of either a 4.8 percent increase or an absolute increase of $500, a change that is meant to help address the varying tuition bases among the 15 institutions. The House bill allows for a potential increase in the Tuition Incentive Program (TIP) funding, a financial aid program for low-income students. Based on the House proposal, NMU would receive a 3.3 percent increase, or $1.5 million, for a $46.6 million in total appropriations. This is about $300,000 less in funding than what would be received in the executive budget version.

The Senate bill is similar to the governor's executive budget in that the overall funding is $59.8 million for university operations and the tuition restraint stays at 4.8 percent. The Senate bill withholds base budget increases to Eastern Michigan University and Oakland University, who both exceeded the tuition restraint cap last year. It also includes language for a two-year exclusion on capital outlay projects for universities that go above the tuition cap this year. In the Senate version, Northern would receive the same amount as it would in the governor's budget.

Having all three versions of the funding proposals gives us an indication of the state appropriation range, as well as the main parameters that will be considered for the final bill. This in turn provides a range to consider in beginning to develop Northern's 2016-17 tuition and fee rate options. These options will be considered by the NMU Board of Trustees over the next months as it works on setting tuition for next year. For example, consider a 4.8 percent tuition restraint cap. We anticipate that our MPSERS increase for next year might equate to about 1.5 percent in tuition increase and the 30 percent increase recently imposed by the Marquette Board of Light and Power also equates to another 1.5 percent. That's 3 percent of the possible 4.8 percent increase without even taking into account increases in employee compensation and other inflationary costs. That leaves little for new investments, and it demonstrates why it's important to have as much information as possible before making our tuition rate decisions.

State appropriation funding is about 43 percent of the university budget with more than 50 percent being tuition revenue. And, tuition revenue is dictated not only by rate but, more importantly, by enrollment. At the upcoming town hall meetings, I'll provide an update on the current enrollment numbers. Enrollment is a part of all of our jobs and I know many on campus take that seriously. Thank you for doing whatever you can to help student recruitment and retention.

Fritz Erickson, President