NMC hires consultant for strategic planning
Feb. 25—TRAVERSE CITY — Northwestern Michigan College will spend $90,000 to hire a consultant to update its strategic plan.
The NMC Board of Trustees gave the go-ahead on Monday for the college to enter into a contract with the Florida-based CampusWorks Inc. The company will be paid $90,000, plus an additional $8,000 for travel, if needed.
The money will come from the board designated transformation fund.
The college-wide strategic plan will help inform program offerings and priorities moving forward, said Trustee Rachel Johnson, who was on the team that interviewed CampusWorks.
"We are undertaking this now because we know that the needs of our students and community are evolving and we want to make sure the college is ready to serve those needs," Johnson said.
The college has had a strategic plan in place for several years that gets updated regularly, said Diana Fairbanks, executive director of public relations, marketing and communications. It has been about 15 years since NMC went through a robust strategic planning process with a consultant, she said.
NMC posted a request for proposals for planning services in January, with eight companies responding and four interviewed. CampusWorks did not submit the lowest bid, but the interviewing team liked that they were focused on students, had experience with community colleges and kept stakeholders engaged during the whole process, said Vicki Cook, vice president of finance and administration.
"That was really important to us and we heard that from you as a board, that keeping community members engaged and really listening to what they have as their needs was important," Cook told trustees.
Johnson agreed.
"They're going to do a really good job of representing us to the community and our stakeholders as well in a really professional way," Johnson said.
A low bid of $72,000 was submitted by Greenway, another consulting company.
In other business the college reported the final spring enrollment numbers show a 15 percent decrease in contact hours compared to spring 2020.
The decline is mostly because of students are choosing not to continue with schooling at this time, as well as a decrease in the number of contact hours students are taking, said Todd Neibauer, vice president for student services and technologies.
The decrease caused a drop in tuition income of about $1 million from one year ago for the same semester. It's a drop the college planned for, having budgeted for a 15 percent decrease in contact hours in both the fall and spring semesters, Cook said. In the fall a 9 percent decrease in contact hours was seen.
"Fall was ahead, so we don't see a significant change in our year-end projections," Cook said.
The college also planned for a 15 percent drop in state appropriations, but Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's proposed budget has 2 percent increase from last year. The increase would be contingent on colleges keeping tuition increases below 4.2 percent.
NMC President Nick Nissley reported that of the $4 million that was received in federal CARES Act 2 funding approved by Congress just before Christmas, about $900,000 million has been disbursed directly to 900 students at an average of $964 per student.
"That means their hardships putting food on the table, their hardships dealing with unemployment, their hardships paying for tuition are all a little lighter," Nissley said.
Of the funding, $3 million was earmarked for the college and $1 million for students.
