President’s Update for September 20, 2016

Sep 21, 2016 | 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.

  • The Michigan Legacy Art Park has awarded the Dennos Museum Center and Executive Director Gene Jenneman with the 2016 Legacy Award in recognition of 25 years of arts inspiration, collaboration, accessibility and leadership in northern Michigan and beyond. The award honors those who make a significant, positive, impact on Michigan’s arts, history, culture or environment.
  • T/S State of Michigan returned from completing back-to-back training cruises on August 9. This evolution lasted 111 days and represented a 100% increase in the use of the vessel from previous years. Additionally, it showed that GLMA can provide requisite sea service for all cadets in order to meet USCG credentialing requirements regardless of availability of commercial internships. During this evolution the following took place:
    • Consumed 80,500 gals of diesel
    • Transited 8,425 miles, all of which were in high traffic pilotage waters
    • Visited 14 ports
    • Provided training for 109 cadets and three GLCI students
    • The GLCI students will graduate with both culinary and U.S. merchant mariner credentials. These students will be in high demand by the U.S. maritime industry for service on either Great Lakes or ocean going vessels. Crowley Maritime, one of the largest maritime companies in the world will visit GLMA/GLCI in October to begin discussions on increasing the number of GLCI students who will graduate with seagoing experience and merchant mariner credentials.
    • The crew and cadets consumed $191,000 worth of food
    • A total of 24 professional mariners took part
  • GLMA proved the ship can be operated safely by moving toward a ballast regime that features minimal changes and utilizes only public drinking water, which may avoid a large future expense and current technological uncertainties associated with ballast treatment systems. GLMA received notable personnel, financial, or in kind support from: American Steamship Company, Interlake Steamship Company, US Army Corps of Engineers Chicago and Sault Ste. Marie, Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, USCG Sector Sault Ste. Marie, American Maritime Officers, Masters, Mates, and Pilots, GLMA front office, NMC HR, Arnold Transportation Company, City of Houghton, Acheson Ventures LLC, City of Algonac and of course MARAD. (IE1, IE2, IE3, IE4, IE5).
  • The Science/Math area held a 2-day workshop August 10-11 to work together on the new syllabus format, course outlines, writing outcomes, lecture capture, light board lectures, and MAP (My Academic Plan) training. (IE1)
  • Deb Pharo edited an OER textbook to exactly match the content of the MTH 120 course, and Mary Burget was the proofreader for the OER edit. (IE1)
  • To assist students in their academic planning, and promote student retention and completion, the Advising Center has collaborated with Information Technology, the academic department areas, and the Records & Registration office to develop ‘Plans’ – the next phase of My Academic Plan. This electronic resource allows advisors to work with students to develop a semester-by-semester academic plan specific to the student. Templates for both AAS and a select number of ASA degree programs were developed, and are being reviewed by academic areas, to help guide students in creation of their Plans. Training sessions for faculty advisors, conducted by Records & Registration and the Advising Center, have begun and will continue this semester with a goal of having all professional and faculty advisors use Plans with first semester students at NMC. Used in tandem with the degree audit tool, MAP (My Academic Plan), this resource will allow students to create an academic plan showing them the path toward certificate/degree completion and/or transfer. (IE2, IE3, IE5)
  • Led by our Early College partner, Meredith Schmidt from TBA Career Tech Center, Kim Schultz, academic & career advisor, participated in a special course orientation for TBA Career Tech Center Early College students, in cooperation with Victoria Willson, communications instructor. Held at the TBA Career Tech Center, this orientation was aimed at improving student engagement and success in the online ENG107 – Academic Study Methods course. The session included hands on practice logging into students’ MyNMC portal, an overview of the course and using Moodle with the instructor, and information about academic advising and other NMC academic support resources available to students. (IE1, IE2, IE3, IE5)
  • Bookstore customer service improvements—they heard repeated feedback from students saying their experience was easier, quick, and books were less expensive than expected. The bookstore had more rental choices and the students appreciated this, which led to a $20,000 increase in rental sales over last August. Course material requisitions are being submitted once a year, which enables for the students to be informed on future spring classes that would be using books being purchased, prospective buyback options, and better information on rentals. This knowledge provided the ability to purchase more books, which in turn provides more competitive prices. (IE5)
  • Procured $21 million bond for construction projects. Secured Standard and Poors rating service—NMC is AA, very strong financially. (IE5)
  • Playground equipment for the apartments/daycare center has arrived, funded by a BBQ grant, and will be installed over the next few weeks. (IE5)
  • Karen Ruedinger completed a financial analysis of the Commitment Scholarship Program which will help with program sustainability. (IE5)
  • The Hagerty Center successfully created a relationship with the Traverse House for supplemental employment. We currently have one person employed with the hope of adding several more in the future. (IE5)
  • The Hagerty Center increased net profit for FY16 by 17%. (IE5)
  • The NMC Foundation successfully implemented another amazing scholarship golf outing for 2016! Despite extreme temperatures out on the course, more than 250 golfers teed off to support honors, academic area, Presidential, and Founders scholarships for NMC students. The event has raised more than $100,000 per year for each of the past three years thanks to tremendous work by the staff, a dedicated volunteer committee (approx 20 members), and the support of generous sponsors and golfers. Thanks to all who were involved! (IE1, IE2, IE3)
  • Nancy Parshall, faculty member in the Communications Academic Area, has just had a new story published in Issue 6 of Kyso Flash. Read her short story entitled, WHERE THE PIANO STOOD at Kysoflash.com. (IE1)

Activities of Note: Tim

  • Fall semester has begun! The college is busy with students and faculty back in classrooms. Thank you to all faculty and staff for all the work that went into making the beginning of the fall semester as smooth as possible for our students. All of you contribute to the success of our students!
  • We celebrated the Dennos Museum Center Groundbreaking on August 15. There were 17 regional artists who designed shovels used in the ceremony. Most of those artists were present, along with many other special guests, including Diana and Richard Milock, Barb and Dudley Smith, and Lou Anna Simon, President of Michigan State University. The museum expansion is scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2017.
  • The college-wide picnic on August 19 was a great opportunity for getting everyone together and meeting new members of NMC. Over 150 people attended and our Sodexo catering staff did a wonderful job with the food. Luckily, the weather cooperated for the most part and we only had a brief rain storm, which brought us all in under the tent to meet new employees.
  • Todd Neibauer, vice president of student services and technologies, and I had the opportunity to meet with the East Hall RAs before the semester officially started. I shared my personal experience of being in charge of the dorms in the 1970s.
  • Nancy and I, along with Kennard and Judy Weaver and many other museum staff and friends, attended the Michigan Legacy Art Park Gala to celebrate the presentation of the 2016 Legacy Award to Gene Jenneman and the Dennos Museum Center. It was a wonderful evening honoring Gene who was hired by NMC in 1988 to supervise the planning, construction and direction of the Dennos Museum, which opened in 1991, with Gene as its founding executive director. Gene is also a founding board member of Michigan Legacy Art Park.
  • The Faculty Professional Development Day was held on August 22 at the Hagerty Center where Peg Weissinger of Georgetown University led NMC faculty through a 1 ½ day workshop entitled “Designing Courses for Significant Learning.” The focus was on enhancing or designing courses—from daily activities to assignments to assessments to outcomes—to encourage deep and sustained learning. The goal was to have new active learning strategies to try, ways to strengthen assignments, and ideas for developing outcomes that include key habits, skills, and concepts students can build on throughout their lives.
  • On August 30 we welcomed several Michigan legislators for a campus tour and reception. Nancy Jenkins, Triston Cole, Phil Potvin, and Larry Inman attended from the Michigan House of Representatives and State Senators Darwin Booher and Wayne Schmidt were also in attendance. The tour portion of the event focused on our current and future construction projects on main campus.
  • We hosted an NMC informational session for the six candidates vying for the two board of trustee positions on the November election ballot. Candidates Chris M. Bott, Carolyn Collins, Christopher Dailey, Michael Estes, Michael B. Haynes, and Rachel Johnson all attended and seemed grateful for the opportunity to learn more about NMC.
  • A huge crowd of approximately 500 celebrated the life of NMC’s Sonja Olshove at the Hagerty Center on Sunday, September 11.
  • The 12th Annual Wayne and Terry Lobdell Scholarship Dinner was held at NMC’s Lobdell’s A Teaching Restaurant last Friday evening. The dinner was a sold-out event that provides scholarships to NMC’s Culinary students.

Legislative Issues

  • On Tuesday, August 30, NMC welcomed several of our state elected officials to campus for the third in a series of legislative roundtable discussions that NMC is hosting this year in an effort to better engage with our state and federal elected officials. Attending were State Senator Wayne Schmidt (R-Traverse City), State Senator Darwin Booher (R-Evart), State Representative Larry Inman (R-Williamsburg), State Representative Triston Cole (Mancelona) and State Representative Nancy Jenkins (R-Clayton). The tour included briefings on the Dennos Museum expansion project, the use of simulation technology in NMC’s nursing program, an update on the West Hall Innovation Center and discussion about investments in new student housing and other facilities. The goal of the event was to provide legislators with an understanding of how NMC’s infrastructure investments are tied to our mission, vision, values and strategic objectives. Based on the feedback that we have received to date, this goal was achieved with legislators expressing their appreciation for the opportunity to see firsthand how these projects meet the needs of our learners. We look forward to continuing to engage with our elected officials through this ongoing series of discussions.
  • We continue to work on several items related to the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, including working with Senator Stabenow’s office and the Northwest Regional Fire Training Center to obtain surplus Marine Administration fire training equipment for use in training GLMA Cadets. We also appreciate the efforts of both Senator Stabenow and Senator Peters who co-sponsored an amendment to the federal Water Resources Development Act that would benefit the marine infrastructure of the Great Lakes Campus.
  • With the state and federal legislature returning from summer recess for a short period before election day, we will continue to monitor legislative issues impacting NMC that may be taken up either before November 8, or in a potential lame duck session.

Miscellaneous

  • The League of Women Voters is hosting a forum for NMC Board of Trustees candidates on Tuesday, October 18, from 7:00-8:30 p.m. at Milliken Auditorium.