Around NMU

Northern Michigan University has successfully renewed a competitive U.S. Department of Education grant to continue the Upper Peninsula's only Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program, which provides disadvantaged college students effective preparation for doctoral studies through research and other scholarly activities. NMU will receive about $1.3 million over five years.

As vice chair of the NMU Board of Trustees, Alexis Hart interacts regularly with a number of Northern students. One bit of advice she shares with them is that they should avoid getting locked into a restrictive career path simply by virtue of the degree they earn and focus instead on developing the skill set to be adaptable when exciting opportunities surface, or it becomes necessary to pivot and pursue a new profession. She has learned that through her experience in the human resources field.

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.

Northern Michigan University's DeVos Art Museum will open an exhibition Aug. 15 that features three groups of new acquisitions from the permanent collection on display for the first time. The exhibit is titled “New to the Collection: Kinngait: Artists' Reflections in Print, Lundmark and the Lake, and Selections in Contemporary Illustration.”

The Upper Peninsula Cybersecurity Institute (UPCI) at Northern Michigan University will host a cybersecurity symposium Tuesday, Aug. 30 through Thursday, Sept. 1. This inaugural event will bring together multiple state, federal and civilian cybersecurity resources to connect with regional cybersecurity practitioners and decision makers. The UPCI is able to offer the event free to participants, thanks to funding from the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

NMU reinstated a mask mandate for in-person classrooms and labs, effective Aug. 1, in response to an uptick in local COVID cases that has elevated Marquette County to the CDC's "high transmission" category. President Kerri Schuiling provided an update of NMU's pandemic protocols heading into the fall semester in an email to the campus community.

J.D. Phillips is drawn to “the intellectual beauty and depth of pure mathematics.” He describes mathematics as closer, in some ways, to poetry, painting and musical composition than to the laboratory sciences.

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's master of social work (MSW) program is now fully accredited through the Council on Social Work Education's Commission on Accreditation, after three years of candidacy. NMU's bachelor's degree in social work (BSW), which has been continuously accredited since 1974, was reaffirmed for another eight years.