House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education
Oral Comments April 28, 2008
Thank you Representative Byrnes and the entire subcommittee, for providing me this opportunity to share a thought or two about Northern Michigan University. I also want to thank my friend, President Eisler, for hosting us here at Ferris State University.
Exciting events are happening at Northern. We are proud to have released our academic master plan, “The Roadmap to 2015" and a campus Master Plan which will redefine and enhance Northern's campus of 2020. We are focused on the future and our continuing effort to provide a superior university experience for our students.
I'd also like to introduce my entire senior staff, Dr. Susan Koch, our new Provost coming to NMU from University of Northern Iowa and Mr. Gavin Leach, VP for Finance.
You have received our written comments to this subcommittee's questions, and I would like to use my time with you to address four specific points I'd like to call, “four discussions for higher education and Michigan". I believe these discussions need to happen. These four points frame not only our written responses, but they also address the successes and challenges faced by NMU in the near term.
First, there is considerable focus across the nation, in Michigan and recently in the Governor's higher education proposal on the “STEM" subjects -- science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Proudly, Northern Michigan University is the “T" in STEM: Technology. Our campus has established national standards in both laptop and infrastructure deployment (11,000 laptopss are in student and employee hands. Please keep in mind that the laptop and wireless environment are included within a student's tuition. And Northern remains the second most affordable – second lowest - campus of the public 15). According to some industry leaders, our next generation wireless is believed to be the most dense and stable on any university campus in the U.S. Major telecoms now use our campus environment to test next-generation equipment as well as to observe a campus culture's use of technology to teach, learn and conduct business.
All of our academic majors are technology enhanced, and we are examining new programs and degrees to provide opportunities for our students in networking, IT security, emergency messaging, back-end business processes, and front-line service delivery. Let me give you an example of what I mean by all of our majors being technology-enhanced. Technically speaking, an education major is not considered a technology major. However, as a result of the tech experience gained on our campus, it is not unusual for NMU teacher education graduates to become the technology officer for their building, if not their entire school district
Northern's IT capability enables Northern to reach out to our neighbors in government, education, health practices and others to form economic, business and research collaborations that benefit our students and our partners. Technology at Northern is our distinct signature across higher education and across the IT industry. While we will continue to sustain this unique signature, we have not witnessed the discussion nor the means by which this relevant signature is sustained and rewarded by the state.
Second, two of your subcommittee questions (number 2 and 4) provoked considerable discussion among the NMU leadership team. Primarily, because one of the hurdles for Michigan that is not getting due attention is the disconnection between the discussion of STEM- based rewards and incentives and the topic of jobs and industries for Michigan's future. Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Growth (DLEG) in their report released just this past spring (the report is in your folder) identified jobs most needed in the state's next decade. The conflict between STEM's emphases on science, technology, engineering and math and the DLEG report is stunning. DLEG's report is important because it is about potential new business environments in Michigan. This different environment will need more college graduates in business economics, environment (energy and sustainability), management, marketing, public relations, international relations, languages, law and technology. I'm not saying that investing in scientists, engineers and mathematicians is a bad thing. My point is that Michigan's future economy will be dependent on a much broader array of career/job/work skills indicative of a diverse service-technology economy. I think universities like Northern are responding to this need in dynamic ways.
For example, in the Upper Peninsula, the extraction industries (mining and timber) are keys to the U.P. economy. Kobe Steel of Japan is partnering with Cleveland Cliffs, one of the U.P.'s largest employers, to build a $200,000,000 plant producing more pure and slightly larger iron ore pellets. While engineers of many persuasions will come to the U.P., this partnership will create a much larger need for language and cultural services, teachers, bankers, city and county planners, economists, trade and retail services. There will be a host of needs for infrastructure improvements through effective local governments and school districts along with civic enhancements based primarily in the service-technology arena.
Another example, is the collaboration between Pioneer Surgical and NMU that requires extremely technical and sophisticated machining of orthopedic prosthesis and surgical appliances used in catastrophic bone repair. Our students are trained on Pioneer Surgical's machines on the NMU campus. When they complete their programs and are hired, they move across the street to Pioneer Surgical's main office and laboratories to begin work.
These are two good examples where service industries and jobs are related to, but quite different from STEM
My point is that we must align the goals and vision for Michigan in broad ways that encompass socio-technical applications. Right now, it appears the STEM discussion is disconnected from the DLEG recommendations. Both are right and must come together through deliberate policy planning.
This example of private – public partnerships is an excellent segue to my third point. NMU is a very complex institution offering a very broad and deep portfolio of services not just to “students" in the traditional sense, but also to our local and international industry partners, as well as local and regional citizens. Think of NMU as a small, rural, high tech, metropolis full of services that change and evolve on a very unique timeline. Today's legislative process, with higher education moving up and down the priority list, does not enable the kind of forethought and planning demanded of a rural, high tech multi-service campus. Since I came to Michigan and NMU four years ago, I feel as though “funding survival" has been each university's primary goal. Just as technology changes and evolves faster than we can put up coursework, public expectations about our performance elevate and evolve on cycles quite different than the appropriation process.
Michigan needs to more closely align those decision processes supporting critical services like higher education on a more predictable schedule. We can produce the results you seek – and possibly in ways that are even more innovative and dynamic than you could imagine. However, we cannot accomplish this when priorities change and processes are out of synch with the demands placed on my university. I think it's important for the state to expect universities to be more nimble and accountable than they are perceived to be, but large, complex organizations, like NMU, should not be constantly in a reactive mode. It is very difficult to shift gears, especially if legislative and economic policies shift with every legislative session and budgets.
I do not presume to have all the answers to aligning timelines and commitments, although the NMU leadership team has some ideas. I'm sure all 15 university leadership teams would welcome being an active participant in such a discussion. Now might be a good time to get those ideas on the table. I suggest we collectively take the time to have a deliberate conversation about Michigan's short- and long-term priorities and how higher education – all 15 public universities, as well as the community and private colleges – can come together to help the state achieve them. NMU's track record and that of the other universities remains a key to Michigan's future. Until such discussions occur, NMU supports the concept of across the board increases in FY 2009 and cautions against the idea of one size fits all formulas.
My fourth and last point: At NMU, most of our unique nature is tied to the wide-range of students we serve. Each year, we welcome a freshman class that includes the extremely bright, completely prepared high school graduate; in addition to the at-risk student, who may be at-risk financially, academically or both; and the socially at-risk high school graduate for whom moving to Marquette and attending college is an enormous social and personal transition. If one of the state's goal is to double the number of college graduates, then a larger discussion has to take place about how to reward universities like Northern that are willing to serve the widest range of students because the growth in college degree recipients is not going to take place at the higher level of academic achievement and the more financially secure – students in these categories already have and are taking advantage of great educational opportunities. Serving this wider range of students is a challenge requiring more infrastructure, student support and a commitment to exceptional teaching and service. Traditional outcome measures like graduation and completion rates underestimate the range of challenges these students face while overvaluing the record of the more privileged students.
Let me close by introducing you to two of this year's four NMU Board of Trustees Scholarship award recipients, Northern's most prestigious annual student awards. They are studying for final exams and could not attend today's presentation.
Amanda Moraska, is a biology/physiology and Spanish major. After serving as a medical volunteer in Costa Rica, she returned to found NMU's International Student Volunteer Organization. She also has been a research assistant for the Upper Michigan Brain Tumor Center, a collaborative program between Northern and Marquette General Hospital. She has completed NMU's Superior Edge leadership-citizenship program, as well as completing NMU's two-year Student Leader Fellowship Program. Amanda is set to graduate with a 4.0 grade point average. She has been accepted into six medical schools, including Harvard. Amanda came into NMU well prepared and with few obstacles, and she has taken every opportunity NMU had available to take her aspirations to the next level.
Andrea Dupras has been on her own since she was sixteen years old. She is working on her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering technology with a concentration in management. Andrea received our Board of Trustees Award for Outstanding Non-Traditional Student. In addition to working on her rigorous major and working full-time to support herself, Andrea has found time to volunteer for the Sled Dog Races, the Children's Museum, and the Senior Center, and spent many hours renovating a home for low-income elderly. Andrea is an active member of the Hybrid Mini-Baja Team, which competes regionally and nationally. Andrea will be graduating in 2010. She plans to go to grad school in aeronautical engineering. Andrea entered NMU with as high of aspirations as Amanda, but with more obstacles. I have no doubt both will be just as successful, in part due to their individual determination and in part due to their NMU experience.
In closing, I am proud of the fact that Northern Michigan University serves a diverse student population with a wide range of academic and life skills. The higher education picture – student needs, student patterns, state need, future patterns, economic and socioeconomic factors –is truly a complex one. Let's be sure that our collective strategic planning takes into account this level of complexity, enables effective planning and supports the effort of a university like Northern to serve students symbolized by both Amanda and Andrea.
As always, I encourage members of the legislature to visit Northern Michigan University.
Thank you.
Les Wong
President
Northern Michigan University