Russell Magnaghi, Northern Michigan University historian and professor emeritus, is updating his encyclopedia of NMU, which will be available online. Also in the works is a new book by Ted Bays on the first five presidents of NMU. The projects coincide with the university’s 120th anniversary. (Journal photo by Christie Bleck)

MARQUETTE — Northern Michigan University is marking its 120th anniversary this year — specifically on April 28 — and that involves a lot of looking back and reminiscing.

Russell Magnaghi, NMU historian and professor emeritus, is updating his encyclopedia of NMU, which includes numerous facts about the university.

Not only that, but the project’s goal is to make “A Sense of Time: The Encyclopedia of Northern Michigan University” available online for public access.

“It seems like yesterday that we did the centennial,” Magnaghi said. “Twenty years passes fast.”

NMU saw a progression from a small teachers’ school — a “normal school” — which Magnaghi noted involved awarding certificates to new teachers who basically were just out of high school, to an institution where more advanced degrees were given.

“Then, as the years passed, as you got into the 1920s, Northern then started giving bachelor’s degrees,” Magnaghi said. “You went from a school having primarily women — I think the first class had one male student — to, I think in the 1930s, the male students began to increase.”

Now the ratio is 54.9% female and 45.1% male as of fall 2018, according to NMU statistics.

Not only has the student population changed, faculty members have too.

“Few of them started out writing books and articles and so on,” Magnaghi said, “and today you have quite an academic development among the faculty.”

However, it’s not all four-year degrees and scholarly works.

The Jacobetti Complex, NMU’s facility for career technical education, is expected to undergo a major renovation.

“Only about 25% of the nation’s population of young people goes on to college, and the 75%, what do we do for them?” said Magnaghi, who pointed out NMU wants to attract students who aren’t looking for a bachelor’s or graduate degree but need training for available jobs.

Student enrollment has changed a great deal since the university opened in 1899 as Michigan State Normal.

“We’ve gone from some 60 students now to over 7,000, and I think one of the important things is that the university has constantly grown and expanded with the different presidents,” Magnaghi said.

Author Ted Bays, who wrote “First Five: Northern’s Leaders 1899-1956,” said he used the word “leaders” in the title because a normal school had principals.

That type of school, he said, was designed to “normalize” education across the state in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Bays said his favorite NMU president was John Maurice Munson, who served in that position from 1923-33.

“He has an accountability for students and faculty and is a meticulous micromanager,” Bays said.

It could be said Bays was meticulous in his research as well.

“What he’s produced there has been a very difficult process because we don’t have a lot of papers from the early presidents,” Magnaghi said.

Bays said he received help from NMU archivist Marcus Robyns and his work study students, who supplied him with a lot of materials.

Writing the book also gave him the opportunity, he said, to see the handwriting of John Munro Longyear and Peter White, two Marquette pioneers and benefactors.

The goal is for a series of books on NMU presidents to be published as time goes on, allowing the public or a member of the NMU Board of Trustees to read about a past leader, Magnaghi said.

“It’ll be something that will allow a person to connect with the past,” Magnaghi said.

Another project with a similar purpose is an update of the NMU encyclopedia, which he expects to come out in early June along with the presidents’ book.

It’s an exhaustive process.

“I’ve had students work on it, alums work on it,” Magnaghi said.

The volume currently has 400 pages while its electronic form contains 800 pages, he said.

There are at least a few differences between the centennial version and the latest update, one being that the newer encyclopedia will be online.

“It’ll be available to anyone on the planet,” Magnaghi said.

The encyclopedia also will have a built-in index.

“You can put a term in, a person’s name, and it will give you all the citations,” Magnaghi said.

The project could be valuable in another way.

“Today the programs and so on in the university are available, but you don’t have a date,” he said. “When did this start? That’s kind of the role the encyclopedia will play.”

Magnaghi acknowledged not everything can be accomplished at once. So, NMU is looking at an inexpensive history of using photographs of the university.

That project, however, will come after the encyclopedia and book are finished.

“We’re kind of using the 120th anniversary as a time to pull a lot of these projects together and have them available,” he said.

Magnaghi said it’s possible the encyclopedia could be released in hard copy as well should there be a demand for it.

Current trends, though, might discourage that.

“I think in today’s world most people like to have the online copy that they can tap into,” Magnaghi said.

The encyclopedia could come in handy to research a topic such as the dimensions of a building.

“The average person is not going to be interested, but God help you if you’re looking for that,” he said.

Another advantage to having an online encyclopedia is that it can be updated with “just a few buttons pushed,” he said.

That adds to the project’s timeliness.

“We won’t have to wait 20 years to then go through the whole process of bringing this up to date,” Magnaghi said. “We can do it four times a year.”

He believes it helps to make the community aware of the university in many ways, including the recent architecture tour on campus, Walking Through the Past: 70 Years of NMU Architecture.

“It’s just a good time to have all of these improvements and make students and alums and everybody aware of the history of the university,” Magnaghi said.

Christie Bleck can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250.