NMU Faculty, Staff and Students,

I hope your first week of the new academic year has gotten off to a good start. I know how hectic it is regardless of what your position on campus. A big thank you for all who helped students complete what they needed to do to be ready to begin classes Monday. I'm always impressed with how professionally everyone deals with the rush of issues heading into welcome weekend and through the first few days of the semester. Again, thank you.

YOUR RECRUITING ROLE: All of us who work at Northern should consider student recruitment as part of our job duties. Increasing enrollment is a university-wide priority at NMU. With that in mind, I strongly encourage all Northern employees to attend the Recruitment Information Fair being held from 3:30-5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 31, in the Hedgcock lounge outside of Melted. The event will demonstrate how new students are recruited to NMU, what admissions counselors do, the role that intercollegiate athletics and club sports play, strategies currently being pursued by the Extended Learning and Community Engagement division to recruit off-site and non-traditional students, and more. Most importantly, the fair is design to give NMU faculty and staff ideas on how each of us might contribute to the student recruitment process. I look forward to seeing you there.

FEEDBACK WANTED: As a campus, we have a lot of work ahead of us this year. We are returning to our strategic planning efforts at the same time that we are addressing our budget shortfall. During convocation, I talked about our need to create transformational change. Here is the link if you were unable to attend but would like to view the presentation. Last Thursday, a draft of more than $3 million budget reduction proposals was presented to the Strategic Planning and Budgeting Advisory Committee. They were also highlighted in Monday's Campus Connect story. I encourage everyone to review the proposals and share your questions, comments and concerns with those who represent your unit or your employee group on the SPBAC. That committee will continue its discussion at its next meeting, which will be held from 3-5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 7, in the University Center. SPBAC meetings are open for observation by NMU community members.

STATEWIDE INFRASTRUCTURE: Also last week, Northern played host to the 21st Century Infrastructure Commision's statewide tour stop in the Upper Peninsula. Gavin Leach, NMU vice president for finance and administration, was appointed by Gov. Snyder to this commission and is the only U.P. representative. The event was well attended and the commissioners in attendance were pleased with the discussion related to U.P. infrastructure needs. If you did not attend but have thoughts regarding the area's or state's infrastructure (water, sewer, utilities, technology and transportation), go to this website to leave your comments.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Northern is one of the sponsors of the 5th Annual Young Professionals Conference, coordinated by the group 40 Below Marquette County Young Professionals. This may be a good opportunity for some Northern employees. This year's theme is "Work Hard. Play Hard. Achieving Success Inside and Outside the Workplace." The conference is being held from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1. Cost of registration is $65. Get details at 40belowmqt.org/upper-peninsula-young-professionals-conference.

TRANSITIONS: There's a lot of "new" and "changing" for the campus to get familiar with this year. A few examples:

The new Barnes and Noble at NMU bookstore has been very well received.
Students and parents have been curious but excited about the construction being done on the new residence hall complex. The speed on that project has been impressive. The Payne Hall demolition is nearly complete. The footings for the new building were poured last week. The project is running three shifts and taking advantage of the still relatively long summer days and good weather. Several parents commented on how quiet the demolition activity was compared to what they expected.
Students who worked on the outdoor learning area relocation this summer have been positive about the experience, giving kudos to the grounds workers and stating they are pleased with the results.
There have been a number of questions and comments regarding the restructuring of tuition and fees, but those have not been considerably high in volume when one takes into account that it was a pretty significant set of changes.
We've had several academic departments move this summer. Psychology moved from Gries Hall into the New Science Building while Economics, History, Philosophy and Political Science moved from Cohodas Hall into Gries.

I'm proud of the way the campus is handling recent transitions. Change can be difficult to navigate and I think we're doing a pretty good job of it.

DARK STORE DOCUMENTARY: If you missed last night's debut of "BOXED IN," a documentary created by Northern students in an advanced multimedia journalism class on the topic of Michigan Tax Tribunal's practice of "dark store assessing" you can see it when it airs at 8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1, on WNMU-TV. It's an impressive student work. Congratulations to Dr. Dwight Brady, the class' instructor, and all of the students involved.

Best wishes for an outstanding year.

Fritz Erickson, NMU President