Around NMU

Northern Michigan University's Continuing Education & Workforce Development is partnering with cannabis education and training leader Green Flower to offer non-credit online certificate programs beginning July 1. The four program options include the business of cannabis; cannabis agriculture and horticulture; cannabis law and policy; and cannabis health care and medicine.

Leslie Warren, Northern Michigan University's dean of library and instructional support, has been selected to serve on the American Library Association's Rural, Native and Tribal Libraries of All Kinds Committee. Her term begins July 1 and continues through June 30, 2022.

Northern Michigan University English professor and visual artist Russell Prather is the 2020 Peter White Scholar Award recipient. The funding will enable him to create new works, participate in three solo and three group exhibitions, deliver a scholarly paper and complete a two-month artist's residency. 

Northern Michigan University has announced the cancellation of all on-campus camps, clinics and non-NMU course activities that were scheduled to take place through July 31. Full refunds will be automatically processed for participants who previously registered for these activities.

Northern Michigan University will implement three types of employee furloughs—voluntary, five-day and continuous—to counter a projected $8 million or more budget shortfall related to the COVID-19 crisis. The plan will remain in effect through July 31.

Northern Michigan University will provide emergency grants of up to $700 to eligible students who have been financially strained by the COVID-19 crisis. NMU is using its share of the recently approved CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund monies for this purpose. The application period ends May 25. The grants will be awarded after that date.

Northern Michigan University has been named a “Gold-level Veteran-Friendly School” by the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency. The program recognizes academic institutions committed to supporting the needs of veterans and military-connected students with gold, silver or bronze status, based on their services and programs.

The Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center is accepting nominations for the 2020 Upper Peninsula Folklife Awards through June 1. The annual awards honor individuals and organizations for their notable efforts in preserving and promoting the folk culture of the region. 

The Beaumier U.P. Heritage Center recently received a gift of $25,000 to create a new multi-media web project based on the relationship between the Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan University. The website will feature expansive content detailing how the U.P. defined NMU and, in turn, how NMU helped shape the future of the Upper Peninsula.

A number of NMU academic departments are celebrating their graduates virtually, in lieu of the university's formal commencement, which was postponed by COVID-19. Two examples are the School of Nursing, which will hold an online BSN ceremony on Friday, May 8; and the Department of Earth, Environmental and Geographical Sciences (EEGS), which offered a live-stream ceremony May 1.