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.
- First offering of new Digital Marketing class was full for Fall 2016. In this course students will learn how to develop a digital marketing strategy, which may include display ads, search marketing, content marketing, email marketing and social media marketing. (IE1)
- Kristy McDonald, Business Instructor, offered a Mindfulness Initiative this fall semester on Tuesdays in HS 101 from noon to 12:30 for students, faculty, staff and the public. This was based off of her sabbatical research in India. (IE1, IE4)
- The CIT Department held a successful Industry Night Out at Inforth Technologies on October 20. Students in the CIT program are invited to attend a night out at a local company where they receive a tour, find out what the company does, and see how the industry works. This is an opportunity for students to supplement what they are studying in class. (IE1, IE5)
- The CIT Department held open advising sessions for students to get signed up for Spring 2017. (IE1, IE2)
- George Beeby’s Business 101 student team was a semi-finalist at Accelerate Michigan Competition on November 3. (IE1, IE2)
- Seven business students attended the Traverse City Area Chamber of Commerce Economic Outlook Breakfast on November 8. (IE1, IE2, IE5)
- The NMC Tutoring Center received their 3-year recertification with the CRLA (College Reading & Learning Association) for Level I, II, and III Tutor Training. CRLA is an international certification for programs that demonstrate the following high standards:
- Certification provides recognition and positive reinforcement for tutors’ successful work.
- Certification sets professional standards of skill and training for tutors.
- Certification augments program credibility for administrators and institutions. (IE1, IE2, IE3, IE4)
- Deb Maison and Taylor Nash, both professional academic and career advisors, held evening advising hours in East Hall to meet the needs of student residents as they prepare to continue their education at NMC for Spring 2017. With the help and cooperation of the Residence Life team, East Hall and Hawk’s Nest students, who had not yet met with an advisor, were given the opportunity to create an academic plan for spring semester and beyond, learn how to use MAP (My Academic Plan), and receive guidance in making academic and career decisions. (IE2, IE4)
- In cooperation with the Records and Registration Office, the Advising Center has created and executed a communication plan for students to encourage them to connect with their academic advisor, utilize NMC’s degree tracking tool (MAP – My Academic Plan), and to register for the coming semester. At specific intervals students received email messages to their NMC accounts with specific action steps for registration, messages were displayed across all campus monitors and on posters in buildings and classrooms, front-line staff wore buttons to encourage registration, and faculty made announcements in their classes regarding advising and registration. (IE2, IE4, IE5)
- Physics and mathematics instructor Taoufik Nadji’s article “Twitter and Physics Professional Development” appeared in the November issue of The Physics Teacher (TPT) magazine. Nadji was interviewed on Forbes Podcasts about changing his STEM courses into STEAM courses by incorporating the arts in his pedagogy. (IE1)
- For the first time ever, 100% of ENG 111 and ENG 112 classes received information literacy instruction at the library. Instructional librarian Ann Geht, and teaching librarians Michele Howard, Mary Beeker, and Tina Ulrich, provided instruction on how to find, evaluate, use and cite high quality sources of information from the databases and the web. Our goal is to have NMC students leave with the ability to spot unreliable information and find excellent sources for both their schoolwork and their personal lives. (IE1)
- With the help of librarians and Educational Media Technology staff, 29 NMC faculty saved their students over $150,000 in textbook costs for fall semester by teaching with open textbooks that are freely available online. Introduction to Sociology and Introduction to Psychology with a total of 582 students had the biggest impact. The choice of alternative textbooks has saved students over $350,000 since Fall 2015. (IE1, IE3, IE5)
- The library, along with the Writing and Reading Center, Tutoring, Student Success Center, and Student Life, hosted the “Long Night Against Procrastination” on December 1 to help NMC students study, write papers, and finish final projects. The library stayed open until 2:00 a.m. Free coffee, pizza, and snacks, along with WRC staff, tutors, and librarians, were available all night. At 10:00 p.m., there were 109 students studying in the library, with 30 still there at 2:00 a.m. Students expressed appreciation for the longer hours and free food. (IE1, IE3)
Activities of Note:
- Thank you to Kennard Weaver, Ross Childs, and Chris Bott for joining me, as well as several NMC staff and students at the Economic Outlook Breakfast, hosted by the Chamber of Commerce on November 8. The College also had a booth in the Chamber Business Expo that day at the Grand Traverse Resort.
- Congratulations to Chris Bott and Michael Estes who were elected to fill two open seats on our Board of Trustees. After being appointed to fill a vacancy in April 2015, Chris Bott has now been elected to a six-year term on the Board. The terms of both Bott and Estes will expire on December 31, 2022.
Steve Rawlings resigned from the Board on November 10, 2016, due to increased responsibilities and travel for his job. He shared that he “will forever remain in awe of NMC, its inspiring students, devoted faculty, committed staff and administration, fellow board members and donors alike- each of whom, dedicate so much time, treasure and talent to the betterment of our community.” Rachel Johnson, who received the third highest number of votes in the November 8 election process, was unanimously appointed to fill Rawlings’ position at a special board meeting on November 14, 2016. Her term will expire on December 31, 2018, at which time an elected candidate will complete the remainder of Rawlings term, which expires on December 31, 2020.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to both Bob Brick and Steve Rawlings for their service on the Board of Trustees. Bob was on the Board of 12 years and served in all officer roles and on numerous committees. While only on the Board of Trustees for 2 years, Steve Rawlings was a very dedicated trustee, serving as vice chair, and on several committees. Prior to his service on the NMC Board, Steve volunteered on the NMC Foundation’s Annual Campaign, was an NMC graduate of the Aviation program and an Outstanding Alumnus. Both Bob and Steve will be greatly missed as NMC trustees.
- Veterans Day was celebrated November 11 with several events—veterans breakfast at the Hawk Owl Café, walk of honor, ceremony at the flagpole, and cake and coffee served in the West Hall lobby. Thank you to everyone for supporting our veterans that day and every day at NMC. A special thank you to Doug Bishop, a veteran himself, for sharing a few words with the crowd at the flagpole.
- I traveled to Frankenmuth on November 17 to speak at the Michigan Association of Collegiate Registrars & Admissions Officers (MACRAO) conference on legislative topics related to higher education. As I shared with them, a new federal administration will most likely bring many changes to the national educational structure.
- In place of a town hall meeting this semester, small group forums were held at each campus to address questions related to the Fall Update sent out in October and the state of the college. Most of these small group sessions were well attended and allowed for thoughtful discussion.
- Thank you to those able to attend the Mariners Memorial at the Great Lakes Campus on November 10. It was an unusually beautiful fall day for that event to remember and honor mariners who have perished on the Great Lakes and oceans. The Student Propeller Club, Port 150, of the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, sponsors the memorial.
- I am honored to have been appointed by the Governor to Michigan’s Building the 21st Century Economy Commission, and I participated in the first meeting on November 22. The commission serves as an advisory body within the Executive Office of the Governor and is charged with identifying priorities over the next 20 years along with short-term and long-term action items to achieve the vision of Michigan’s economic future. The commission will issue a final report to the governor by June 30, 2017.
Legislative Issues
The State legislature this month convened for what some veteran capital observers have termed a “lame – lame duck” session where numerous legislative items were brought forward, only to wither and die before gaining final passage. This included several bills that would have impacted NMC that include the following:
- The MPSERS legislation (Senate Bills 102/1178/1179), introduced by Senator Phil Pavlov (R- St. Clair) would have effectively closed the current hybrid system that provides some pension benefit and some defined contribution benefit to new members. The legislation would have instead replaced the system for new employees with a defined contribution plan with the same provisions as the State Employees Retirement System—a mandatory 4% employer contribution and a 100% match of employee contributions up to 3%. However, after being narrowly reported out of the Senate Appropriations Committee, facing an uncertain future in the full Senate and not having the support of the Governor, these bills were eventually scrapped for movement this year. However, it is expected that this legislation will be taken up next session.
- The House Commerce and Trade Committee reported two bills with implications for community colleges. Senate Bill 280 (Knollenberg) would prohibit community colleges from collecting union dues, as is already the case for K-12 schools. In addition, the bill retains language that would prohibit any public employer (including a community college) from paying for release time for employees to conduct union business. Senate Bill 279 (Knollenberg) would sunset the ability of Michigan Public School Employees Retirement System (MPSERS) members to accrue pension time during professional services leave or release time, even if the member reimburses the system for payments during that time. Following passage in the Senate, both bills died in the House.
While these pieces of legislation were never enacted, there were a few bills that did pass in the final days of lame duck that will impact NMC, which include the following:
- Noncontiguous annexation legislation, HB 4265 introduced by Rep. Amanda Price passed both the Senate and House and is now on its way to the Governor’s desk for his signature. This legislation would allow for the board of trustees of a community college district to initiate annexation of areas not geographically contiguous to a current community college district. The Community College Act already allows such an action in the Upper Peninsula.
- National Guard tuition assistance legislation, HB 6013, introduced by Rep. Bruce Rendon also passed both the House and Senate in the final days of lame duck. This legislation is a technical correction bill that would allow the Adjutant General of the Michigan National Guard to make a tuition assistance distribution to an eligible person or institution and deletes a provision specifying that the tuition assistance program applies, regardless of other educational benefits received by an eligible person.
- SB 992 also passed the legislature and is headed to the Governor’s desk for signature. This legislation would create a new act, the Unmanned Aerial Systems Act, which creates a regulatory framework for the use of unmanned aircraft in the state. This includes setting allowable use and prohibited uses and penalties. The legislation also sets out the development of an Unmanned Aircraft Systems Task Force to develop statewide policy recommendations on the use and regulation of unmanned aircraft systems in Michigan.
On the federal side, the U.S. Congress also convened for a “lame duck” session post-election and passed a short term funding bill that continued FY16 levels of funding, with a small decrease, through April 2017. Unfortunately, the previous short term funding extension that passed the Congress in September also saw a cut to Perkins Loan funding, important for NMC students. Because of the way Perkins funds are budgeted and dispersed, the cut (a total of $5.5 million dollars overall) impacted Perkins Basic State Grant advance funding that began flowing to states October 1. For Michigan this resulted in a cut of $196,480. This cut could be restored if Congress approves a full year funding bill in April. The short term funding bill also did not include several other of our federal priorities, the funding of year round Pell grants and an increase in funding for student loan servicing.
The Presidential transition also continues to move forward with the recent naming of Betsy DeVos as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary. You can read more about President-elect Trump’s pick here in this article from the American Association of Community Colleges.
Miscellaneous
- Happy Holidays! Enjoy time with family and friends, and safe travels to those traveling.