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Senate Hearing Testimony

Northern Michigan University response
to Senate Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee questions
Dr. Leslie Wong, President
February 17, 2006

1. What is the fundamental mission of your university?

The fundamental mission of Northern Michigan University is to prepare its students to be leaders in their chosen career fields and communities, as well as lifelong learners and engaged citizens in an ever-changing, technologically savvy and multicultural world. We excel at having created a high-touch (personal attention), high-tech and high-quality learning environment.  Our goal is to provide our students with a solid foundation in critical thinking, problem-solving, communications, technological skills, diversity awareness, integrity, and civic responsibility.  We know that regardless of their chosen career field or even how many times they may change careers, NMU graduates will have the skills needed to contribute to and be successful in a complex world.

2.   In which areas of study would you like to see more students? 

Northern Michigan University believes it has growth potential and that there is high demand for graduates in the following programs:

• Business – all majors (900 students)
• Clinical Laboratory Sciences (cytogenetics and molecular diagnostics; currently have 218 CLS majors)
• Communications (broadcasting, journalism; 125)
• Computer science (95)
• Engineering Technology (238)
• Nursing (280)
• Occupational Technology (aviation main tenance, alternative energy, hospitality management; 600)
• Secondary education teachers (400)

In which academic areas are there perhaps too many students?

This is a very difficult question to answer.  One may be tempted to say that traditional liberal arts majors – English, philosophy, history, languages, communications, etc. – are not the academic programs that will drive the economy and, thus, may have more students enrolled than are desired.  However, a review of the CEOs at Fortune 500 companies demonstrates a significant number of these corporate leaders graduated from college with such majors. 

Today’s university students will most likely work between 45-50 years of their lives before retiring.  During that time period, the majority will change careers 3-5 times – not jobs, but careers.  What does this mean?  It means that it would be shortsighted to focus solely on majors, believing that our engineers will be engineers for life, our nurses will remain in the hospitals for decades, or our researchers will never leave the laboratories.  The reality is college graduates must enter the 21st century workforce with strong, transferable skills and ingrained lifelong learning habits.  It is a fact that nearly all college degree programs are designed to be training preparation for a professional endeavor, but the university experience as a whole must also teach students to be learners for life – people with the flexibility to change as the world changes around them. 

3.   What do you foresee as the “hot” jobs over the next 10 years?

Northern Michigan University relies heavily on the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics as a primary source of information regarding national employment trends.  For regional trends, we often refer to the Recruiting Trends Survey compiled by Michigan State’s Collegiate Employment Research Institute.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, significant increases in jobs for 2004 through 2014 will be in:

• healthcare services, including jobs in nursing, home health care, private duty aide care and other health services 
• social assistance and programs, including social work and related fields
• educational services
• financial services, including accounting, financial planning, and insurance
• employment services
• professional, scientific and technical services
• computer systems design and information services
• leisure and hospitality
• government services, with a shift of growth from the federal to the state and local levels

According to the 2005-06 Recruiting Trends survey, significant increases are expected for accounting, insurance, nursing and healthcare; computer science, computer system design and information services; and civil, environmental and electrical engineering.  

What can be done to encourage students to study in those areas of need?

Northern informs students about high-demand fields, or those anticipated to be in high demand in the short-term future, by:

• providing NMU students with exposure to current practitioners earlier in their collegiate career so they can develop a real-world view of these career possibilities;
• developing strong links between current practitioners and faculty, particularly those faculty who teach freshmen and sophomore-level courses;
• offering the opportunity of a career component in the First-Year Experience freshman seminar course;
• and encouraging current practitioners from the high-demand fields to have a stronger, more consistent presence at career events like job fairs, career days, etc.

In many cases, our efforts to educate young people about the high-demand career fields extend well beyond our campus into high schools, middle schools and elementary schools throughout the Upper Peninsula, state of Michigan and Midwest region.  One example of this would be the NMU virtual career path field trips.

From both a university and a state policy perspective, incentive programs could be more fully considered. For example, many states (including Michigan) have addressed the need for nurses with nursing scholarship programs or programs that allow for students to have some of their student loans covered once employed as a nurse or healthcare provider in the state. Through a recent grant, NMU is now offering registered nurses the ability to complete online a Bachelor’s of Nursing degree.  We have attempted to maximize access to opportunities by using the Web, as have our colleagues at Michigan’s other public universities.

4.   Does a university have any responsibility to encourage and direct students to study in those academic areas where there is the most need for graduates? What is your fundamental responsibility to the students of your university?

It would be incorrect to believe that Northern Michigan University students (or any college students) are unaware of the potential job market.  For instance, there has been a steady decline in computer science and information technology enrollment statewide as news surfaces about companies shrinking and outsourcing technology departments during the latest economic downturn.  At the same time, the state has seen a surge of enrollment in healthcare programs such as nursing as the general public has become more aware of these national shortages.

There are, however, many students and families who are unsure as to wise career choices, and this is reflected in a rather large number of undeclared students.  At Northern, we had 915 undeclared students out of our fall enrollment of 9,500 plus students (9.6%).

Northern welcomes the responsibility to properly advise students not only about their own career goals and aspirations, but also about career opportunities that match their strengths and interests with employment benefits.  Faculty and staff take great pride and passion in our “high-touch – high-tech” learning environment.  The importance of the match cannot be understated.  For instance, not everyone can be a scientist, but the possibility of being a science instructor remains real. One significant component of our vision is to provide “high touch.” That10/20/2008udents find out where their strengths lie, what occupational areas provide the best options, and how a course of study puts them on their chosen path. A university education provides the additional benefit of helping students decide what not to pursue as well.  Northern is known for the high quality of interaction with faculty and staff.

The NMU faculty and staff believe it is our most fundamental responsibility to prepare students to:

• expect and have the ability to deal with change;
• develop a vocabulary of fundamental concepts upon which to support their continuing education;
• start them on a life of civic engagement (academic service learning);
• start them on a life of global awareness and engagement;
• and ground them in the technologies that support learning and communication.

5.   How does your university track the job placement rates of its graduates? What are your university’s job placement rates for the most recent year for which you have records?

Northern Michigan University’s JOBSearch Center surveys graduates approximately six weeks after they earn their degrees. The Center then follows up with those who do not complete the survey approximately four weeks after sending the initial survey postcard.  The survey’s response rate has hovered around 42 percent each year.  Additionally, the Center surveys academic departments about any tracking measures they are taking regarding graduates of their programs.  At this time, Northern does not do follow-up surveys (3 years, 5 years, 7 years, etc.) to track career development.  The difficulty for Northern (and all colleges and universities) in tracking employment is that the first 3 years after graduation is traditionally a period of significant geographical transition for new professionals – they move a lot and often do not think to keep their alma mater up to date with their latest address and other contact information.

According to a compilation of the annual surveys, Northern has had an 81.6 percent placement rate for graduates who have earned a degree since 1998.  In 2003-04, the placement survey indicated 77 percent of NMU graduates were employed or enrolled in post-graduate work within three months of graduation. 

6.   What is your university’s role in driving the local economy? What impact does your university have on the economy of the State and the nation?

[Please refer to the “NMU in the Community” DVD.]

Northern Michigan University is the third-largest employer in Marquette county, the largest university in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, an active partner with local industries, and a key player in the Lake Superior Community Partnership (a multi-city partnership of chambers of commerce and economic development).  Northern’s annual appropriation of $42 million per year has a return of well over $275 million in economic activity to the region.  Our partnerships with Lenovo Inc. of China, Meru Networks, Dendreon of Seattle, the Mayo Clinic, Marquette General Hospital and Pioneer Surgical represent significant corporate identities bringing jobs and opportunities for our students. This list continues to grow. 

Locally, NMU has a long history of assisting industry in the Upper Peninsula. We work closely with regional employers to provide a variety of services to companies, including more than 200 training courses where employees come to campus to receive Craft Upgrade Training in specific technical fields; employee assessment services for more than 100 new hires or promotion candidates for area businesses and organizations; apprentice and summer internship training programs (some of which lead to degrees) for companies such as Cleveland Cliffs, Inc. and Louisiana-Pacific; and training programs, such as the one for Pioneer Surgical Technology and the line technician program, that specifically address critical U.P. workforce needs.

Beyond the U.P., NMU impacts the state, region and nation in some of the following ways:

• Northern supplies the state with much-needed quality teachers and nurses, two of our largest and longest-standing programs.
• As a leader in higher education technology, NMU is seen as a role model for curricular and university business innovation across the United States and as far away as China and Sweden.  Our cooperative work with the city of Marquette to provide city-wide wireless capabilities has caught the attention of many in higher education, government, and the IT industry. 
• Northern’s art and design programs have helped to develop the area into a mecca of alumni art entrepreneurs. 

Northern is unique in that it serves as Marquette and Alger counties’ community college, along with its baccalaureate mission and providing much-needed post-graduate and continuing education opportunities.  A significant portion of NMU students are first-generation college students and/or working students.  Our faculty and staff continue to believe that serving these populations of students – although somewhat more expensive to the university and somewhat slower to degree completion – is critical to the local, regional and state development of the workforce of the 21st century. 

Public universities should be economic development leaders for their communities, the state and the region, and Northern Michigan University serves that role well.

7. What is your university’s reputation in your region? What have you done to enhance your university’s standing in the community?

[Please refer to the “NMU in the Community” DVD.]

The university enjoys the support of not only the Upper Peninsula but of the region.  Our corporate partners have voiced their support and acknowledge the importance of NMU to their own success.  We have heard the same from our non-profit partners, K-12 partners and NGOs in the U.P. and in Michigan.  Last year’s groundswell of support during budget negotiations served as a demonstration of the strength of NMU’s relationship to the public and the support of our efforts by many constituency groups. Our high-touch, high-tech, high-quality approach has led to a wide range of student success stories that go far beyond those of our nationally and internationally recognized alumni.

Through electronic communications, Northern has become exceptionally good at keeping in regular contact with our university community and stakeholders.  The award-winning NMU Parent Partnership program features an electronic newsletter that is sent to about 5,000 parents twice a month during the academic year and once a month during the summer.  The NMU Community Connection is an electronic newsletter subscribed to by about 600 U.P. residents, business partners and other community leaders. We use the reach of WNMU public television and radio to offer viewers and listeners a wide variety of opinion and a glance into world, national and local events and happenings.  We provide a number of special programs to bring youth onto campus through discounted or free tickets to athletic events, museum openings and art shows, music concerts and a host of other cultural events. 

NMU works hard to achieve a true and reciprocal town-and-gown relationship.  The president, first lady and many NMU employees sit on local boards, act in behalf of their communities as mayor, council members, board members and volunteers.  NMU enjoys what I believe is one of the most student-friendly communities surrounding a campus of 10,000 students.  And students return that warmth with an estimated 30,000-plus hours of volunteer service each year that goes above and beyond that done as part of their coursework.  NMU takes great pride in the community work of all our members.

The university has also hosted a number of national high-exposure events.  

These serve to show how the university works with our civic partners to offer guests the hospitality of the U.P.  Recently these guests have included President George W. Bush, entertainer Bill Cosby, FinnFest (the largest gathering of people of Finnish ancestry outside of Finland), a World Cup short track speedskating event in 2003 and the U.S. Short Track Speedskating Championships this past December to determine the U.S. Olympians who are skating in Torino, Italy, this week.

Young and old alike are invited to share our campus. Northern and River Valley Bank sponsor an awarding-winning program that has area elementary schoolchildren sing the national anthem at home Wildcat hockey games to build greater awareness of the national anthem.  The NMU-sponsored Northern Center for Lifelong Learning (NCLL) is one of the most active community groups in the Marquette area. These are just two small examples of stewardship of place.

As I work through my second year as Northern’s president, one thing I have come to realize is the Upper Peninsula community is one that shares resources.  As NMU continues to grow in enrollment, increases our research efforts, expands our student leadership opportunities, there is a very positive ripple effect that extends well beyond our campus borders.  A strong Northern Michigan University is important to the economic well-being of the Upper Peninsula.