Strategic Plan

Northern Michigan University has welcomed 40 new international students this fall, including exchange program participants and new freshmen, transfers and graduate students. Combined with returning students, the total international enrollment is 88 from 40 countries—the most NMU has had in recent years. While all of these students help to enhance diversity on campus and contribute their unique global perspectives, seven are employed as graduate assistants who actively support NMU faculty in various departments.

Northern Michigan University's School of Clinical Sciences is hosting its second annual Open Lab Day. The event is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, and takes place in rooms and labs around The Science Building.

Northern Michigan University's Carbon Neutrality Task Force is gathering input on its draft plan outlining NMU's path to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 or sooner. A flipbook of the plan and feedback survey are available online at nmu.edu/president/carbon-neutrality-task-force. Also, information sessions are scheduled as follows this month:

North Carolina-based artist, curator and author Endia Beal will visit Northern Michigan University, where she will give a keynote presentation at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 16, in Art & Design room 165. Those who register to attend can also sign up to participate in a two-hour workshop with Beal at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 18, in the Peninsula V room at the Northern Center.

Northern Michigan University's Native American Student Association will host four events on Indigenous Peoples Day Monday, Oct. 9. Activities include morning and evening celebrations, a healing march and a reception. 

The investiture of a university president is an enduring tradition in academia, typically held during or at the conclusion of the individual's first year in office. Northern Michigan University's 17th president, Brock Tessman, was formally invested with the rank during a ceremony this afternoon. The event provided an opportunity for the campus and community to welcome new leadership and celebrate successes early in Tessman's tenure that signal Northern is on an upward trajectory.

Northern Michigan University held a rededication ceremony and open house for the newly renovated Jacobetti Complex. The facility and its labs are equipped to provide students in STEM and technical programs the required tools to be successful in industrial, engineering and service-related fields that are critical to the support of economic growth in the region and state.

Faculty and students from Northern Michigan University's Upper Michigan Brain Tumor Center (UMBTC) and the medicinal plant chemistry program are engaged in collaborative research on a U.P. plant's potential to slow the growth of brain tumor cells. Faculty representing both areas gave a presentation on the project to the NMU Board of Trustees during its formal session on Friday.

Northern Michigan University students, a faculty member and an alumna recently completed a 10-day immersive experience in Puerto Rico. The trip complements a course that explores community resilience in the face of adversity and the intricate interplay of human needs, services and communications systems.

NMU resumed its faculty-led study abroad program to Spain this summer after a four-year interruption due to the pandemic. Twenty students participated in the four-week session, studying at the prestigious University of Salamanca, founded in 1218.