This is a timeline of our social media posts, copied directly to this page

• May 1 – Interview with Dean of Admissions, Alex Patterson

  Brontë: OK, so, the news is out. Northland is staying open. How are you feeling today?

  Alex: Yeah, I mean,, it feels like a lot of hard work has come together and you know, we’ve been able to do something that unfortunately a lot of other colleges haven’t been able to. Right now is a very turbulent time and higher education. Many of our sister schools are closing and instead of celebrating that news with others, we’re able to just be positive and celebrate in our own well-being and our own excitement. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we’re very fortunate and lucky to be celebrating here today when so many others haven’t been able to do what we were able to do here.

  Brontë: Yeah, absolutely. I believe I read an article recently that said that many colleges or colleges, were kind of closing this year at the rate of one a week. Which is pretty astonishing. So do you like, what do you think makes Northland different?

  Alex: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of things that make Northland different or stand out in a way that was allowing us to be successful here. Primarily I mean it’s that word we always use which is community. You had a lot of very smart people and very dedicated people coming together to really rally around Northland and come together and say we have something special here, let’s make it happen. And I think that when you combined all of the different angles and perspectives that came forward, whether that was through staff, faculty, alumni groups, administrative groups, or the board at large, we were all able to take combinations of those pieces and really create a plan that we were all able to feel confident in moving forward with, and I don’t know that a lot of other schools have been afforded that opportunity or really come together in the same way that Northland has.

  Brontë: Yeah. I think there’s been a a huge amount of work done over the last couple of weeks, even month and 1/2. From everybody, so many people have put their nose to the grindstone and pulled off what I think is a pretty incredible feat.

  Alex: Yeah, sleepless nights for a lot of very dedicated people.

  Brontë: Oh my gosh. Yeah. I have a feeling that some people are not going to be getting out of bed for like 3 days after tomorrow. So I know that you were in huge part of this. You were on the budget committee that really helped shape a lot of this possibility and I have a question for you about that. In the e-mail that was sent out to the campus members, Chad states that there’s $7,000,000 in saving coming and where does that figure come from as much as you’re able to tell me?

  Alex: Sure. So I have to thank a lot of people for making that happen. We brought together a lot of campus partners, budget leaders, faculty leaders and really just took an opportunity to look at our operational expenditures and through a lot of dedicated work and research and just retooling of department structuring, we were able to identify that savings as well as you know, of course, continuing to bring in donations to the institution around some of that to help close that deficit. Examples of that are refocusing travel expenses and being more strategic in the areas in which we are traveling as an institution, or for recruitment and things of that nature. Looking at contracted costs, working through different opportunities there to save money and of course continue to support students in the ways that they need to be supported. So it really just came from a lot of tireless evenings working through the budgets and identifying any opportunities to save money without sacrificing personnel or really critical services for students. You know, those were kind of non negotiables as much as possible. Recognizing obviously this is a very in depth and comprehensive project. But we feel good about about how that landed. So it really is just a combination of a lot of cost savings, renegotiation of contracts and just stepping back and looking at the operations of the institution and looking for collaborative opportunities to share resources.

  Brontë: Gotcha. OK, so from what I’m hearing you’re saying, students coming back next year, they’re not going to see a significant reduction in campus life.

  Alex: No, and actually one of the biggest things that came out of this is continuing to reinvest, for example, in student affairs. That’s critical, we need a Dean. We need to stabilize residential life and bring back some of these critical support roles that students have experienced challenges with here in the recent years. That’s not lost on Northland, it’s not lost on the board. You know anybody. And so what I would say is you’ll probably see more reinvestment in those critical areas. While being more effective in how we deliver those services. But yeah, for our returning and our incoming students, the Northland experience is who we are and we don’t want to see that change. You know, unless it’s a change for the better, which is what I would anticipate.

  Brontë: That sounds incredible. It sounds like there have been some long standing issues and this is a good time to address those, you know?

  Alex: Absolutely.

  Brontë: So Speaking of students, I know it’s really early for this, but do you have any idea about returning students or what number of students will be at Northland next year?

  Alex: Sure. So it’s still obviously early to know exactly what that’s going to look like. Although we’re hopeful and have some backing that we’ll see a fairly strong return of students as well as an incoming class to support this based on the academic curriculum that’s outlined in the most recent announcement. Obviously Northland will be smaller than it is sitting here today. Students need to, you know, take care of themselves and many students have already chosen to do that. And of course we respect and completely support that decision and understand that that’s the right decision for them. I know over the next couple of weeks here the academic registration is continuing to move forward and now with the confirmation of staying open, we’ll be able to get a better sense of the exact number of students that are returning based on those updated registrations as they come in, as well as we’ll be able to push out financial aid for prospective students now. I would say here in the next couple of weeks we’ll have a better answer and I’ll be able to more definitively say, here’s the number. What I’m fairly confident with based on what we were able to do here with the curricular pieces and what the faculty were able to bring to the table there, is that a lot of our students can feel confident that their educational path will continue.

  Brontë: Awesome. I know that part of the budget was a target student number. Are you able to share that with me?

  Alex: Sure. For this upcoming fall, right now we’re anticipating around 385 students. Now that’s a conservative number. But again, we want to be intentional about how we move forward as an institution and we want to make sure that we’re not overestimating and under delivering, for example, also a lot of our junior class would also be able to potentially be taught out  with faculty and things like that. So there’s some room in those numbers for those students to help in that. That’s kind of a rough idea. Now again, we also all recognize that there’s room for plus or minus in that because it’s obviously a moving target. So I don’t necessarily want you to come away from this thinking, “Oh, yeah, it’s gonna be exactly that number”

  Brontë: Yeah, that’s the target identified as a good number, but obviously as much work will be done to make it as big as possible. OK so. I know that there are a lot of parents following this news. There’s a lot of students following this news. Do you have anything to say as a message of hope to those people who are still maybe distrustful? . I mean, it was a difficult process and a lot of people are feeling hurt. Do you have anything to say as a  message of hope to those people who are like, should I come off the sidelines, to either donate or to sign up for another year?

  Alex: Yeah, I think that to me, especially speaking as an alumni myself of Northland, Northland at its core continues to move forward and that is something that a lot of institutions can’t say. And knowing right now that there’s a lot of really good people that have clearly shown their dedication to this institution, you can feel confident knowing that the right people are behind this to see this be successful. They’re invested, they’re excited, they want to see our students be successful, but doing so in alignment with the mission and vision that has always been Northland. Whether that’s continuing on your team, continuing in your programs, recognizing that it might look a little different especially in some of the academic areas. But  Northland is still Northland, we’re still here on the lake. We’re still doing all of those critical things that for over 130 years have brought students to the shore of Lake Superior.

  Brontë: Yeah, absolutely. So last question here and that is like you said, Northland is changing, but it will still be Northland. What are you excited about for sort of the new Northland, you know the different opportunities and investment like you said, is there anything that you’re just like “hey I’m pumped for this.”

  Alex: I really appreciate that question. I think sitting in my role in particular, I’m excited at the opportunity to really refine our message and find those really dedicated students that want to make a difference in the world. And Northland has always done that. But to be able to do that in a way that’s more refined and just altruistic in the way that we approach finding students and supporting them with Northland and getting them connected with our research. Again, maintaining that close connection with faculty in a way that’s very dedicated is something that I’m really excited about and and continue to be excited about as we move into this new model. I’m also really excited just to see the new energy that comes out of this and frankly I think that this process has brought together the Community in a way that Northland hasn’t seen in a long time. And so I’m excited to see now how we all rally together around this new Northland and really just as a broader connected community of alumni, staff, faculty, Ashland Community members. How we all work together in this vision and lockstep together. I just think that it’s such a cool opportunity that has been afforded to us now that we know that we’re staying open and can continue forward.

  Brontë: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for your time and for all your work. It has been truly amazing to have you on board.

  Alex: Absolutely, thank you for all that you’ve done. Thank you to everybody that put in a lot of hard work and a lot of tireless evenings making this happen. It is truly a community effort and I’m just really happy to be a part of that.

  Brontë: Great. Well, thank you so much, Alex.

  Alex: Of course. Well, thank you.

• April 26– Interview with faculty

  It’s been a tough week, with even more uncertainty on the horizon, so one of our members sat down (okay, it was a phone interview, but he sat at one point) with Dr. Angela Stroud to get some updates and hope on the situation. And it’s good news – we hope you think so too. The interview is as follows:

  Brontë: Hi Angela! Thanks for talking with me today. So, obviously, the news dropped earlier in the week is that Northland is not closed – yet. Would you tell me about the faculty’s reaction to the latest delay by the board?
  

  Angela: Hearing that there would be another extension was of course, disappointing. Anything that keeps us open and avoids closure is good, but we’re worrying about the effect on students.
  We’re all dealing with a lot of uncertainty right now, but students in particular – they’re trying to figure out where they’re gonna be in the fall, and there’s a lot of consequences for that, like
  housing, their work, their whole lives are up in the air. That’s a really hard spot to be in, and we’re worried about them. But the news that we’re still open and that more fundraising was done is a little window of hope that we keep walking through every time we aren’t getting closed. We’ll take it.
  

  Brontë: Every announcement that isn’t closure is a good thing, even if it’s tough on the campus community.
  

  Angela: Right. But we have to get this wrapped up. We can’t do this again! People need to know what’s happening, so hopefully that was the last delay and we can get this figured out as quickly as possible.
  

  Brontë: The delays, though difficult, have been substantive – the ball has moved each time. Would you say that is true?
  

  Angela: Yes. I think it’s true. Just before the original deadline, we were able to convince the board that there was a way forward. That was critical, and we spent that time building a curriculum and looking at budget options. We submitted that curriculum, and a budget committee submitted their work.. It seems promising that the response we got back is that we needed to make some tweaks to the curriculum and line it up with the budget. That is the work that we have been doing this week.
  

  Brontë: So you have received feedback from your proposals with the board.
  

  Angela: Specifically with the curriculum, yes. We submitted an Environmental Leadership curriculum that had some named majors in the sciences and had two interdisciplinary majors,
  one social science and the other in humanities. We were super excited because it’s sort of a choose-your-own adventure model. There’s so many reasons that’s a good idea because there’s so many students who fall in love with thinking through the lens of the humanities, for example, but you don’t need to major in English, or History. You can major in whatever you want, but if you are drawn to a particular subject, you can navigate this choose your own adventure, and that is a lot of progress.
  

  Brontë: So that was in the original curriculum you sent forwards.
  

  Angela: Right. The feedback that we got was that we needed more named majors that would be recognizable to prospective students. Whereas we had those in the natural sciences because
  we were very aware that was important – the natural science faculty said this is critical. The students who go to work for the DNR right after graduation, they have a Natural Resources
  major. Part of the feedback that we got was also that we need Business and Psychology as named majors. In the proposal that was returned, the two interdisciplinary majors were dropped. Our reading of that is that there was not an understanding of the larger issues related to being a liberal arts college, and needing to have a General Education curriculum for our accreditation agency. The work that we did yesterday was to bring those back into the picture and let the board and college leadership who have been working on this know that they have to be there. They’re critical. We can do these things and still hit the actual big issue which is that we need a smaller faculty.
  

  Brontë: Gotcha.
  

  Angela: These things are all possible. We can have a curriculum that’s required to live up to our mission as a liberal arts college and offer a general education programs and have a much
  smaller list of named majors while still retaining a interdisciplinary options in the Social Sciences
  and Humanities and still hitting that smaller size of around 28 total faculty.
  

  Brontë: So that’s what you’re sending back to the board for them to review, is those revisions. They wanted a response by April 30th.
  

  Angela: We’re actually trying to get that to them today. Our argument is that this needs to happen ASAP. Every day that we lose, who knows what number of students gets lost in that
  time. The day after the email reached our ears we had an informal meeting, and then a full faculty council which went from 4 to 6 and then a volunteer group stayed after that to work on a
  proposal stayed until 9:30 last night.
  

  Brontë: Oh my gosh.
  

  Angela: Yeah. They shared their proposal with the whole faculty today, there’s been some revisions, and then we’re having another meeting today at one. We’re working as fast as we
  can, because students need that, you know? The curriculum building, that’s moving about as fast as possible, then, isn’t it?
  Angela: It is moving forward as fast as possible. We’re confident that the information will reach their desks before the weekend. There really isn’t that much difference between what they gave
  us and what we are gonna give back. So, in many ways, we are pretty close to being on the same page. It’s unfortunate that it’s taken this long already, but we’re closer than has been imagined.
  

  Brontë: That’s heartening news.
  

  Angela: On the curricular side, yes. The budget has some things the faculty are concerned about. There is a budget committee that faculty representation was named to, but unfortunately
  the faculty didn’t get to have any eyes on the budget before it went to the board. We are a little concerned about a few things on the budget that we are going to share our thoughts on those
  things, for sure. It’s really, really critical that we collaborate well because we see the connections between the curriculum and the different operations on campus that from a different
  vantage point, you just might miss it. You might think “Oh, here’s a point where we can realize savings by cutting this program or part of operations,” but faculty, who are so deeply connected
  with the student experience and see, actually, what you see as useful savings just isn’t worth the cost to the curriculum, experience, and student retention.
  

  Brontë: Right.
  

  Angela: That’s where we have to be collaborative. In isolation, you can make a decision thinking its a good one, but then you hear from someone that oh actually, here’s how that costs us
  money in the long run. We have to find savings right now – no one has any illusions about that. But if we don’t do it collaboratively, we will end up hurting ourselves more than helping.
  

  Brontë: I’m glad that’s moving forward, even if there’s been some hiccups. The ship is still moving.
  

  Angela: Yeah, we’re still afloat, for sure.
  

  Brontë: Changing topics a bit, but I know that you were one of the big authors of the True Northland plan. Do you see that being reflected in the talks still, in some ways?
  

  Angela: Hmm. I think there are tiny elements – we see for example, in the budget, there’s a little revenue for renting campus spaces or opening community housing. The programming that would exist around that to not make it just a revenue line but a robust part of a coherent vision of what we could be come – that’s not reflected in a budget. But I have been part of NC long enough to know that good things happen because passionate people make them happen.
  

  Brontë: Right.
  

  Angela: It may be the case that there is no one stopping anyone from saying “We are going to develop community education in a co curricular way that is really outward facing, in order to
  invite people onto our campus. It might not be showing up in budget lines, but that doesn’t mean we don’t do it. It doesn’t’ preclude us from building towards these initiatives and ideas. In a lot of ways, it’s just growing what we’ve already done. We have always had our classes open to the community, but the community doesn’t always know that that option is there. We don’t market it, we don’t price it right, but we do it. Marketing our classes isn’t a radical departure from what we already do. What True Northland did do really well was that it opened our awareness of what we really can do. I don’t mean to sound obnoxious, but there isn’t a lot that we need to ask permission for. I can invite people into my classes. I have the ability to do that. I can develop community based classes. It’s revenue generating, there’s all kinds of plusses. It might not be
  the big picture, comprehensive idea that is captured in True Northland. Probably not right away. But these plans never work out that way – it’s something that you work towards.
  

  Brontë: I feel like a lot of the most successful Northland programs have started in the same way, with people saying well, I can do this much. Digging up part of the lawn in the middle of the night and planting a garden grew into, I think, the entire food center. This is just a reaffirmation of the idea that anyone can get it started, it doesn’t need to be reflected in the budget, it needs to be reflected in the minds of the people who can make those small changes that work towards the goal.
  

  Angela: Exactly! That’s how Northland has always done it. That’s our key to it being successful. It has to be from the bottom up, not top down, and that’s how northland has always done it. It
  doesn’t bother me that I don’t see any affirmation from up top, because I wonder – would that be healthy? Would it even be helpful?
  

  Brontë: Yeah. Absolutely. Last question here – do you have anything to say to those people who are starting to lose hope in the process or the future of Northland?
  

  Angela: Honestly, I think it’s okay to lose hope in the process. The process has been bad from the beginning. I would never tell anyone to feel different about that. I myself have lost hope in
  the process. But I haven’t lost hope in what makes Northland a spectacular place. I mean what we have seen since March 11th is the love, the passion, the creativity, the energy that makes us
  Northland. We have one faculty member who has already resigned who keeps coming to meetings to help build the future. We have another faculty member who knows for a fact that
  they are going to be cut who is spending hours in meetings trying to create a curriculum because they love this institution. We have students sending us messages and thank you cards, we have alumni reaching out and connecting. The love and the passion for this incredible community and college has in some ways never been stronger. When you have a near death experience, you realize what your purpose is, you recognize how much you had to lose. All that pain and frustration and anger about the process – that’s real. We should feel it. But the love and the passion for Northland – that’s never been stronger. If we can hold on in this moment, we are learning so much about what we need to change, how to become more who we are, and how critically important this beautiful college is.

• April 13– EXIGENCY UPDATE

  Many of you likely got an email yesterday regarding an official update from the board detailing what all has been happening this week at Northland. You can read that and more on Northland College‘s page.

  To say that it has been a monumental effort would be an understatement.

  With the announcement of exigency, faculty were given the task of redesigning the curriculum for the school, heads of departments were tasked with re-assessing their operational budgets, and staff were tasked with… continuing to operate almost as normal (keeping the college running with the additional stress of continued uncertainty). We at Northland Forever have been coordinating food and coffee donations to the faculty meetings, which have been held every day this week outside of normal class hours. We’ve also been helping support the students on campus with exigency questions and keeping general morale high.

  At the end of the first week of exigency, we’re excited to be able to share a working draft of what will be shared with the Board of Trustees early next week.

  **For a preview of the work the faculty have been doing, please take a look at an email sent from the Exigency Committee to the Faculty as a whole below:

  Members of the Faculty,

  On the basis of the feedback that you provided in our Faculty Council meeting yesterday afternoon, the Exigency Committee recommends that the following proposal be shared with the Board of Trustees to demonstrate how the curriculum of the College could be revised to more effectively realize Northland’s mission.

  •First, the College’s academic program as a whole would be described and marketed as an Environmental and Community Leadership curriculum.

  •Second, the College would offer six majors tentatively titled as follows:

  Biology

  Natural Resources

  Teacher Education (a licensure program)

  Environment, Culture, and Place

  Climate and Water Studies

  Sustainable Communities and Justice

  •Third, students would have the option to define and pursue individual paths through the curriculum that would be refinements of or alternatives to the six defined majors.

  •Fourth, the general education program of the College would develop foundational skills and be rooted in disciplines of the liberal arts.

  If the Board of Trustees responds positively to this proposal, and if the College remains open, the Exigency Committee anticipates that the proposal above would need to be further refined and fleshed out by the Faculty prior to formal adoption.

  One caveat. It is the Exigency Committee’s understanding that the Board of Trustees expects the College to maintain a student-to-faculty ratio of at least 10:1, and ideally, for financial reasons, a ratio closer to 12:1. Given this, once enrollment projections for the next few years are established, the proposal above may need to be adjusted, including the possibility of offering fewer majors.