Good morning NMC community,
I hope you are finding your rhythm this semester and feeling optimistic from the energy and engagement offered by our students and colleagues. It’s easy to feel upbeat when we see more friendly faces in the Hawk Owl Café, but there are also some important points of pride taking place behind the scenes. That’s what I want to lift up for us to celebrate today with our new strategic plan, NMC Next.
Last year, we all created this plan together to focus our efforts on the most important work here at the College and to prepare for a successful future. Now, more than half way through our first year, I want to share some great successes that you and your colleagues are accomplishing.
-
Strategy 1: Future-Focused Education
-
We are ahead of schedule and making great progress to increase our number of online/hybrid courses thanks to the guidance of Mark DeLonge and Ryan Bernstein. Their smart approach to training has resulted in more faculty becoming peer reviewers and is building excitement for others to participate.
-
-
Strategy 2: Student Engagement and Success
-
Thank you everyone who helped with Welcome Week activities! Not only is this a fun way to support our students, it also supports Strategy 2, objective 1. Not only are we forging an important sense of belonging, but we’re also tracking attendance so we can measure the impact on student success.
-
-
Strategy 3: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
-
We have a passionate and dedicated team advancing this important work and have met some major milestones already. NMC’s first Special Assistant to the President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Dr. Marcus Bennett, started in his role in July. Also this summer, the NMC DEI Core and Employee teams merged to become the NMC DEIB Advisory Council and completed DEIB training through Grand Valley State University.
-
-
Strategy 4: Community Partnerships and Engagement
-
Thanks to Elizabeth Sonnabend, Laura Matchett and Ed Bailey for helping the college advance our skilled trades goals. They’ve been busy developing workforce and professional development training across all industry sectors in response to employer needs. With the assistance of MiWorks!, they have secured funding to allow participants to attend these training sessions, sometimes for free, providing the skills necessary to upscale the community’s workforce.
-
-
Strategy 5 – Institutional Distinction and Sustainability
-
Chef Les Eckert, the entire GLCI team, and many others across the college have completed the incredibly hard work of reimagining the institute. This effort touched nearly every aspect of the program and resulted in new content, shorter courses, and a renewed optimism for the future success of GLCI.
-
We also have to give a shout out to the ORPE team of Joy Goodchild and Shelly Grant for developing dashboards that allow us to easily track all of the data related to the objectives. Transparency and accountability are central to the success of our strategic plan.
These are only a few examples of the great work that’s happening all across our College. I am proud of all of you for staying focused and continuing to make progress. It’s important that we remain committed to seeing this work through to completion and just as important to celebrate our success along the way!
Vice-President of Strategic Initiatives Jason Slade, in true engineer fashion, is making sure everything is running smoothly and on schedule. It is a lot to keep track of, but he does a great job of making sure the information is accessible. Attached you will find his fall report on the status of our entire strategic plan. I encourage you to read it and congratulate your teams and colleagues on all your hard work. While we have more work to do, we already have so much to be proud of!
Nick
—
Nick Nissley, Ed.D. | President | Northwestern Michigan College | 231.995.1010
