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

• 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.