Gov. Rick Snyder's recent performance funding proposal aims to make Michigan's 15 public universities more accountable for its finances. In other words, the better the performance, the more money a school will receive.
MARQUETTE -- NMU's Board of Trustees wrapped up its last meeting of 2011 on Friday with a little uncertainty of what the future state funding pot may hold.
Gov. Rick Snyder's recent performance funding proposal aims to make Michigan's 15 public universities more accountable for its finances. In other words, the better the performance, the more money a school will receive.
"Performance funding has really started now because rather than asking for specific metrics they wanted to know the conceptual areas that at some point would generate those," NMU President Les Wong said.
For NMU the choices lie in the school's strengths: the way it utilizes its rural surroundings, its relationship with Marquette General Hospital, and the local government. Among all, the formula would also heavily depend on graduation rates, which could make admission requirements stricter.
Something Dr. Wong said needs to be heavily researched before a decision can be made.
"I think it's going to be a mixture of their ideas and our ideas coming together," Dr. Wong said.
Next year is also the year NMU aims to reinvent itself. A study is underway to determine a unifying thought that sums up what the school stands for.
"You want to do a branding study periodically to make sure that what you're saying, the messages you're putting out there, they truly are the experience the student is having, and so we talk about brand promise and it's what does all of your constituents or stakeholder groups feel that is the experience of a Northern Michigan University education," Cindy Paavola, director of Marketing at NMU, said.
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