Strategic Plan

Northern Michigan University is emphasizing a holistic, integrated approach to student and employee wellbeing as it identifies priority goals and strategies for the coming year. Abigail Wyche, who transitioned in June from social work department head to a 12-month appointment as special adviser for mental health and wellness, detailed some of the plans at Wednesday morning's fall convocation.

A collaborative effort to increase Upper Peninsula residents' access to health care by expanding relevant workforce training, education and employment in the region has received a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The project is called U.P. WIN, short for the Upper Peninsula Workforce Innovation Network.

A new website dedicated to the symbiotic relationship between the Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University will be launched with a free public event at 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18, in Ballroom I of the Northern Center at NMU. The website was created by the Beamier U.P. Heritage Center and funded by a donation from NMU History Professor Emeritus Jon Saari.

The Upper Peninsula has higher rates of substance use than most areas in the state, yet by virtue of its population, a smaller workforce to adequately treat individuals struggling with related disorders. To address that gap, Northern Michigan University will offer a new substance use academic minor this fall. 

Northern Michigan University has established a new partnership with Eastpointe Community Schools that will provide an online pathway for eligible ECS staff to obtain teacher certification in exchange for a three-year commitment to teach in the district upon completion of the program.

The history of Indian boarding schools was formally investigated and documented for the first time in a sobering report released in May by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Thousands of Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in residential schools—including five in Michigan—with the goal of assimilating them into white culture and, consequently, taking their territories. Northern Michigan University, which offers the state's only bachelor's degree program in Native American studies, has offered a course on the subject for more than 15 years.

The Upper Peninsula Digital Network (UPLINK) will present a two-day public event hosted by the Ontonagon County Historical Society that features a presentation on the importance of preserving local history and an opportunity for community members to digitize family memorabilia, photographs and cassette recordings. The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 14-15 at the Ontonagon Village Housing Commission at 100 Cane Court.

This winter, the Northern Michigan University Center for Rural Health brought Upper Peninsula universities together for the second annual Fight the Flu competition. Students, staff and faculty from Finlandia University, Michigan Technological University and Northern Michigan University competed to see which school could get the highest percentage of its total population vaccinated against the flu. Based on the self-reported statistics, the winner for the second year in a row is Finlandia University, coming in at a 17.6% vaccination rate.

The Northern Michigan University Board of Trustees and senior administrators participated in an All-Student Forum hosted by ASNMU student government on Tuesday, March 15. They fielded student-submitted questions via Zoom for nearly two hours.