Mar 17, 2020 | Intercom, President Updates, Student News
Good Morning NMC Family,
There is again some breaking news relating to the coronavirus issue here in Michigan. Late last night we learned of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Traverse City. This is a trigger event we identified that would necessitate the closing of the College, to be consistent with public health protocols and to ensure campus and community health and safety. Following the Governor’s executive orders we have made the decision to close the College, effective at noon, today for a two-week period. This includes Main Campus, as well as all campuses and University Center. Additionally, while we will continue to deliver classes via virtual learning, we are cancelling all face-to-face labs. Faculty will communicate directly with their students on how they will deal with such classes. However, they cannot meet face-to-face. All staff, except ‘essential employees’ will be sent home at noon today. While campus is closed and doors will be locked, limited access will be available with your employee ID card if you need equipment or supplies.
We have now divided all staff into one of two categories: ‘Essential’ and ‘Non-Reporting/ On-Call’. If you are an ‘Essential’ employee, you will be told by noon today. Vice Presidents will communicate with supervisors on identifying essential and non-reporting/on-call employees. Supervisors will communicate the way forward reporting schedule and safety protocols for essential employees. A team will then work to develop further details and will communicate with all other employees (‘Non-Reporting/On-call’) on how you will be considered moving forward. The College reserves the right to change or modify your classification at any time based on changing circumstances and need. Be sure to monitor your NMC email for further information.
No matter how you are categorized, you will be compensated. This includes all part-time and student workers. We will be monitoring the situation and will reassess at the end of March. We are trying our best to not impact those who may be least able to endure that financial burden. Should the period of closing go beyond the end of the semester, the College reserves the right to modify this plan. We will be assessing our supplemental staffing levels and will communicate with those employees directly later this week.
For those who are Essential and Non-reporting/On-Call, further information will be shared as to how your work will continue during the days the College is closed. Look for those details over the next 48 hours and respond accordingly.
Faculty are essential employees and will continue teaching their classes virtually, with no course/lab work permitted on campus. In order to continue serving faculty in their transitioning from face-to-face instruction to virtual teaching and learning, essential employees (e.g., Educational Media Technologies) will still be available. However, we ask that you severely limit your need to be on campus and follow social distancing and other CDC health protocols, if you must visit campus, in order to plan for and deliver your teaching online.
I would like to thank our staff, faculty, and students for the cooperation that has been displayed during the unprecedented situation we are facing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The presence of the first case here in Traverse City has changed our plans yet again. However, we are resilient and will continue to plan for the days ahead with our employees and students in mind.
Stay safe. Together we will overcome.
Nick
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Nick Nissley, Ed.D. | President | Northwestern Michigan College | 231.995.1010
Mar 16, 2020 | Intercom, President Updates
Dear NMC Family,
As you are well aware, our world has changed dramatically in the matter of a couple of months, since the start of the semester; since COVID-19 entered our daily newsfeed and conversations, affecting our wider world, our country, and even right here in Michigan and at NMC.
In an effort to more effectively support student and campus safety, last week we decided to transition from face-to-face classes to virtual; to afford us social distancing precaution, while also seeking to minimize disruption to student learning. After sharing this decision with our campus community last Friday, I spent the rest of the morning and Saturday meeting one-on-one with students, to listen to their reactions, and to better understand their concerns about such a transition. I heard three consistent themes from them: (more…)
Feb 24, 2020 | Intercom, President Updates
So, here we are, at the fifth of the “Five Behaviors of Cohesive Teams.” What brings us here? The ultimate goal of building greater trust, conflict, commitment and accountability is one thing—achieving greater results as a team. In the case of NMC, we don’t seek to realize results for results sake, nor for a profit motive. We’re driven by a community centered – community serving purpose, and a mission focused on supporting student transformation and success. (more…)
Feb 17, 2020 | Intercom, President Updates
Good afternoon NMC community! I hope you are all enjoying the beauty of northern Michigan in the winter. I have been exploring the region on several hikes and am just awestruck by what I am seeing! I am also thoroughly enjoying meeting with you, learning more about our college and being able to share my thoughts on strengthening our teams in these weekly Intercom posts. Thus far, as I’ve sought to introduce the ‘Five Behaviors of Cohesive Teams’ to afford our College community a framework for building a strong NMC, we have covered: trust, conflict and commitment. Here, I turn our attention to the fourth behavior, accountability; before concluding next week with results. But next week is not an ending, rather, it’s a beginning. (more…)
Feb 10, 2020 | Intercom, President Updates
Good afternoon NMC community, I hope the first month of your spring semester has been positive. It has been a busy and exciting time for me around campus! As we head toward the middle of the semester, when some of the new begins to wear off and we settle into routines, I’d like to talk with you about commitment. I promised you that weekly, over a five-week period, I would share a short personal reflection about the “Five Behaviors of Cohesive Teams.” To become a high performing and cohesive team, members must trust one another, engage in healthy conflict around ideas, commit to decisions, hold one another accountable, and focus on achieving collective results. This week, I turn our attention to commitment.
Great teams understand they must be able to make timely decisions and commit, even when the outcome is uncertain and not everyone initially agrees. It’s the desire for consensus and the need for certainty that prevents many teams from achieving commitment and making real progress. Teams that fail to commit find themselves revisiting discussions and decisions again and again. They encourage second-guessing, which creates ambiguity and lack of confidence about the team’s direction and priorities. Whether it’s avoidance of risk, excessive analysis, or fear of failure, a lack of team commitment means delay and lost opportunities. It also means a lot of wiggle room with fewer bases for accountability and an inattention to results.
As a new team, the President’s Council and I are seeking to build trust, and engage in healthy conflict so we can commit to decisions and, ultimately, hold one another accountable to focus on achieving collective results. We’re doing this by being intentional about how we structure our meetings and agendas, how we engage in decision making, and how we ensure follow-through with commitment to action. We’re being intentional about our development as a team and mindful of the opportunity to lead by example as role models for the rest of the college.
Too often organizations lack true commitment. Employees feign buy-in on group decisions because of their fear of conflict. Artificial harmony is sought over constructive debate. What does commitment mean to you? To me, it means sticking with it. It means not giving up, even if it gets messy and tough. Commitment usually evokes a strong sense of intention and focus. This week, after spending my first month focused on campus engaging with our students and employees, I ventured outside of NMC to visit with other stakeholder groups, specifically, our alumni and donors. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, I was able to travel to Sarasota and Naples, Florida, to engage with our NMC alumni and visit several of our key supporters and donors. These are individuals with intention and focus — intention to help transform students’ lives through their generous support, and focus on bringing the necessary resources to the table, to help NMC accomplish our desired outcome of student success.
Many of our students demonstrate incredible levels of commitment. I recently learned about an NMC student who found herself in a life-changing situation, needing to start over. She was a single mom in the military, which was not what she had envisioned for herself. She wanted to build a better world and pursue her passion of sustainability and renewable energy, and wondered how she could study environmental issues while caring for her daughter in northern Michigan. She heard about NMC through the college’s reputation for being a top school for veterans. Due to the commitment of our employees, and support from donors, we offer a dedicated office of Military and Veterans Services and multiple military-specific scholarships. In turn, this student feels supported and can remain committed to sticking with her education and not giving up on her goals. In fact, she finished her first semester at NMC with a 4.0 GPA.
Let me encourage us to follow this student’s example and be committed to sticking with it and not giving up. Also, let’s be inspired by the supporters and donors who are committed to NMC, as witnessed by their intention and focus. And, rest assured, the President’s Council will be ever mindful that commitment matters, because it fosters shared vision. In a workplace, a shared vision changes people’s relationship with the company. It is no longer their company, it becomes our company. At NMC we understand that we’re not just a community college, we’re the community’s college. A shared vision uplifts team members’ aspirations. It gives a higher purpose to work. It creates a sense of immersion, excitement and passion. A shared vision is what inspired cathedral builders of the Middle Ages to labor on cathedrals that could take 100 years to complete. It’s what inspired NASA to put a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. It’s what inspired Apple to realize its vision of a computer which people could understand intuitively. As I go about listening and learning to orient to NMC, I am seeking to understand the shared vision that connects the NMC internal community with the external community. What I am repeatedly hearing echoes the 1951 course catalog tagline, Community Centered – Community Serving, which speaks to the shared vision NMC has committed to for almost 70 years! I look forward to recommitting to that shared vision with you as we work toward continued success for our students and this community for decades to come!
Nick
Feb 3, 2020 | Intercom, President Updates
Dear NMC Community,
It’s been just over a month since I’ve been on campus meeting with you to listen and learn about our college. These first weeks have been exhilarating and positive! Since my Intercom communication with you last week about the foundational importance of trust, I had the honor to attend Governor Whitmer’s State of the State address in Lansing, as a guest of our State Senator Wayne Schmidt. That night, bearing witness to the political process in action, I was reminded of how important constructive conflict is to healthy, vibrant communities and organizations. It has inspired me to reflect on that experience as a learning opportunity for us at NMC. (more…)
Jan 27, 2020 | Intercom, President Updates
Dear NMC Community,
Over the past three weeks – has it been just three weeks that I’ve been on the job? – my focus has been three-fold:
- maintain the momentum, ensuring that all the good work that our faculty and staff have already set in motion, continues to move forward;
- build relationships, with both our internal and external stakeholders; and
- learn about NMC, and how we do things around here.
That translates to more than 100 calendared meetings and events during these first three weeks – listening and learning – seeking to better understand who we are and how we serve our students and the wider community. (more…)
Jan 16, 2020 | Intercom, President Updates
Let me begin with a sincere thank you for your warm welcome at our January Conference. It was great to meet you and share a little bit of what shaped me as a person as we begin our journey together. Best of all was feeling the student-centered passion that filled the room! Yes, that was your energy.
As part of our journey, over the next five weeks, I will be sharing personal reflections on what shaped me as a leader each week in “The Intercom” employee e-newsletter. I will begin with the importance of trust; then, work my way through – conflict, commitment, accountability, and results. (more…)
Jan 2, 2020 | Intercom, President Updates, Student News
Good Afternoon NMC Community!
There’s nowhere that I’d rather be today. Being here, at NMC, is a sort of calling. It’s a calling for me to share my strengths as: a possibilitarian and a servant leader. As a servant leader, I understand that my role is primarily to assist in the accomplishments and fulfillment of the hopes and expectations of others. Ultimately, that means my role is to help you as you transform student lives through the power of education. And, as a possibilitarian, I am committed to helping others to think and act beyond boundaries, and to achieve more than was originally imagined. (more…)
Jan 2, 2020 | Intercom, President Updates
Thank you all for everything you do in pursuit of “Keeping Learning at the Center.”
Notable Accomplishments provided by Faculty and Staff
This section recognizes the good work being done and linkages to the Strategic Directions (SD) and Institutional Effectiveness Criteria (IE) are provided where possible.
(more…)
Nov 26, 2019 | Intercom, President Updates
Thank you all for everything you do in pursuit of “Keeping Learning at the Center.”
Notable Accomplishments provided by Faculty and Staff
This section recognizes the good work being done and linkages to the Strategic Directions (SD) and Institutional Effectiveness Criteria (IE) are provided where possible.
(more…)
Oct 29, 2019 | Intercom, President Updates
Thank you all for everything you do in pursuit of “Keeping Learning at the Center.”
Notable Accomplishments provided by Faculty and Staff
This section recognizes the good work being done and linkages to the Strategic Directions (SD) and Institutional Effectiveness Criteria (IE) are provided where possible.
(more…)
Sep 9, 2019 | Intercom, President Updates
Thank you all for everything you do in pursuit of “Keeping Learning at the Center.”
Notable Accomplishments provided by Faculty and Staff
This section recognizes the good work being done and linkages to the Strategic Directions (SD) and Institutional Effectiveness Criteria (IE) are provided where possible. (more…)
Sep 4, 2019 | Intercom, President Updates
I offer my congratulations to Dr. Nissley as the incoming president of NMC. Thank you to all of the campus and community members who participated in the search process. It was open, transparent and effective. Our Board of Trustees should be commended.
The next four months will race by and there will be much to accomplish during the transition to new leadership. I am confident that we will all work to provide information and support that will assure Dr. Nissley’s successful entry to NMC and our college’s continued success into the future. Holly Gorton, Chief of Staff to the President and Board will coordinate the transition process working with the Board, the campus, members of the community and me.
I look forward to welcoming Dr. Nissley and his family to Traverse City and am certain he will be a great asset to the college and community.
Tim
Timothy J. Nelson, President
1701 E. Front Street
Traverse City, MI
Phone: (231) 995-1010
Jun 28, 2019 | Intercom, President Updates
Dear Colleagues:
I would like to share an important next step in our relationship with a long-standing economic development partner, and what this means to our programs and services supporting workforce and economic development. (more…)
Jun 20, 2019 | Intercom, President Updates
Thank you all for everything you do in pursuit of “Keeping Learning at the Center.”
Notable Accomplishments provided by Faculty and Staff
This section recognizes the good work being done and linkages to the Strategic Directions (SD) and Institutional Effectiveness Criteria (IE) are provided where possible. (more…)
May 24, 2019 | Intercom, President Updates
Thank you all for everything you do in pursuit of “Keeping Learning at the Center.”
Notable Accomplishments provided by Faculty and Staff
This section recognizes the good work being done and linkages to the Strategic Directions (SD) and Institutional Effectiveness Criteria (IE) are provided where possible. (more…)
Apr 23, 2019 | Intercom, President Updates
Thank you all for everything you do in pursuit of “Keeping Learning at the Center.”
Notable Accomplishments provided by Faculty and Staff
This section recognizes the good work being done and linkages to the Strategic Directions (SD) and Institutional Effectiveness Criteria (IE) are provided where possible. (more…)
