The Northern Michigan University Board of Trustees today demonstrated its support for continued transformation led by a strategic plan that focuses on investment and innovation. Trustees approved a 2018-19 tuition and fees schedule that will generate additional investment dollars while preserving NMU’s longtime rank of second-lowest tuition and fees among Michigan’s public universities. The combined average cost for full-time resident undergraduates will be $5,280.50 per semester, an increase of $245 per semester from last year’s rate.

The Northern Michigan University Board of Trustees presented its annual Student Achievement Awards for significant contributions to the quality of life at NMU through extracurricular activities or work in a university department. Recipients were: Meghan Hohenstein of Bloomington, Minn., Outstanding Female Graduating Senior; Adam Kall of Davenport, Iowa, Outstanding Male Graduating Senior; Samantha Black of Caledonia, Mich., Outstanding Student of Any Class; and Joseph Roberts, Outstanding Nontraditional Student. Michelle Gardiner, who will be relocating from Texas to Germany with the U.S. Air Force, received the new Outstanding Global Campus Student award.

It is not common for triplets to graduate from the same college, but the Rhodes brothers of Memphis, Mich., have ramped up the rarity factor at Northern Michigan University. All three will receive bachelor’s degrees on May 5 in the same major—construction management—and all have earned a perfect 4.0 grade-point average over their academic careers. They even share the same professional goal of someday running their own construction firm. The trio is composed of Jacob and Phillip, who are identical, and Ryan, who is fraternal.

Northern Michigan University will bring back its one-credit RAD self-defense course for women in the fall. The goal of the RAD approach is to reduce victimization through informed decision-making choices and sensible action. It is a practical blend of threat-avoidance strategies and real-world assault resistance tactics.

In honor of its 40th anniversary, the Hiawatha Music Co-op has donated 40 native trees and shrubs to Northern Michigan University. They will be planted in the Outdoor Learning Areas (OLAs) off Elizabeth Harden Drive between Whitman Hall and New Science. Volunteers are invited to participate at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 13.