Northwestern Michigan College’s Board of Trustees approved a new strategic plan, called NMC Next, on Monday.
The plan will guide NMC through 2025.
According to NMC, the unanimous vote is “the culmination of NMC’s most comprehensive strategic planning process in decades, which began in February 2021 and drew input all college constituencies.”
“It’s about serving these students who have dreams of their future,” said Northwestern Michigan College President Nick Nissley. “It’s supporting our faculty and staff who try to enable those dreams.”
They say from community to students and trustees to faculty and staff, over 1,000 participants gave input to the process. This includes answering surveys, participating in focus groups and feedback sessions, and serving on the work team or steering committee.
“A lot of people put a lot of time and effort into it, and we’re really, really excited because it essentially sets the future of the college and what areas we’re going to focus our resources on,” said Rachel Johnson, Chair of the NMC Board of Trustees.
“The voices and critical insights of the entire NMC community are central to the success of NMC Next, and I’m so gratified by how generously out many stakeholders have shared their time and talents,” stated Nissley. “This data-driven plan positions us to meet the needs of the region, be a community college leader, yet also agile enough to adapt to changing conditions in higher education.”
NMC will now start measuring progress on the plan’s 24 objectives and action items. These fall under five strategic goal areas, which include:
- Future-focused education
- Student engagement and success
- Diversity, equity and inclusion
- Community partnership and engagement
- Institutional distinction and sustainability
“We’re getting more adult learners, not as many traditional 18-year-olds,” stated Nissley. “Those adult learners want shorter times on campus. So maybe you’re going to see things like a traditional 15-or-16 week semester being cut down to seven or eight weeks.”
NMC states Jason Slade, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, will oversee the plan implementation.
According to Slade, each area will see activity this year, involving the whole college. “We’ll need everybody’s help in getting to those goals,” said Slade.
Furthermore, NMC says they say they have already achieved one objective by hiring Marcus Bennett as a special assistant to the president for diversity, equity and inclusion.
“One of the things is they’re going to help build a stronger sense of belonging on campus because we know how important belonging is to organizational success and to student persistence and retention,” said Nissley.
NMC states that they will also hold themselves publicly accountable by maintaining online progress trackers in each area.
“I have no doubt that as we go forward with this plan, we’re going to make NMC a better place, an even better place for students,” said Johnson.
You can view NMC’s strategic plan by
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