Fritz Erickson, president, Northern Michigan University

MARQUETTE — Due to COVID-19’s projected impact on Northern Michigan University’s finances, NMU President Fritz Erickson announced an immediate 10% salary reduction for NMU Executive Council members. He also asked division leaders to begin developing contingency plans for reducing NMU’s budget by $8 million.

The NMU Executive Council includes the president, vice presidents, NMU Foundation CEO, the dean of students and assistant to the president. Their 10% salary reduction will continue through at least the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends June 30.

“This is an action we can implement quickly while other budget-reducing options are being worked on,” said Erickson in a Tuesday email to the campus community.

Erickson said NMU was asked to submit a document to state officials on Monday that included details on what projected enrollment losses would cost. NMU stated that a 10% decline this fall could mean up to $8.7 million in lost revenue.

“The American Council on Education and other higher education associations are advising institutions to plan for a possible 15% drop in overall student enrollment for the upcoming academic year,” he said. “This reflects only revenue lost to enrollment decline and doesn’t take into account a drop in state funding. With revenues so low in Michigan due to the state of emergency, it is very difficult to predict what state funding to Northern (Michigan University) will be.”

To address a potential significant shortfall, Erickson initiated a request for division leaders to start looking at how to reduce NMU’s budget. He will update the campus later this week on target financial figures and provide a timeline for contingency planning. Erickson said the goal at this point is to put together options for addressing the budget shortfall.

“We are not at the point of making decisions,” Erickson said. “However, it is important at this time that we have the tough conversations, develop and vet options, and have plans we can implement as needed.”

The list of options, he said, does not represent final decisions since there are still too many unknowns, but NMU faces the financial situation caused by the COVID-19 crisis on solid financial ground compared with many other regional and U.S. colleges and universities.

Residence halls at low capacity

With the switch to distance learning, only 360 students are housed in Northern Michigan University’s traditional residence sections, which are now at 15% capacity.

NMU Chief Marketing Officer Derek Hall on Tuesday said students also live in apartments, but he cannot be sure of that number since they comprise a more independent population.

As of Monday, no NMU student or employee has tested positive for COVID-19, he said.

Precautions, though, are being taken.

“We have identified and prepared possible quarantine areas since the beginning of the crisis,” Hall said in an email. “We continue to have space and plans identified if needed.”

Hall said that early on, NMU identified some available apartments. However, with dorm capacity at less than 20%, several isolated spots in the residence halls have been chosen and cleaned.

With May graduation postponed, Hall also said graduates were surveyed, with most saying they are in favor of having a ceremony later in the summer. So that is the current plan.

Wildcats Mean Business

NMU has launched a #WildcatsMeanBusiness campaign to encourage the NMU and Marquette communities to support businesses that sponsor NMU events and programming, as well as alumni-owned local businesses.

“Whether it’s purchasing gift cards from businesses that are temporarily shuttered, grabbing takeout for a meal at home or helping businesses that are courageously pivoting their operations to support health care workers, we can all do our part,” Erickson said in a campus-wide email.

Erickson said many have the opportunity to make an important difference for businesses during this challenging time.

“If you think about the last time you attended or participated in an event here on campus, chances are that experience would not have been possible without the support of a business in our community,” Erickson said. “These people are our friends, family and neighbors. They are Wildcats. … Now, during this unprecedented time and through the weeks and months ahead, many of these businesses need our support.”

Dave Nyberg, director of corporate engagement at NMU, said in a news release that collaborative partnerships and service throughout the community and region are hallmarks of NMU’s core values.

“Through the #WildcatsMeanBusiness campaign, Wildcats are rising to support the business and community partners that have continued to support student scholarship and the athletics, art and cultural programming that are essential to our campus vitality and community identity,” Nyberg said.

Visit https://www. nmu.edu/covid/wildcats-mean-business to learn about Wildcat businesses during the challenging circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.

People can support sponsors of NMU and Wildcat-owned businesses that provide businesses and professional services, food and beverages, health and wellness, hospitality, retail and consumer goods, and others. For example, they can accomplish this through gift cards and purchasing takeout meals.

Invent@NMU offering free services

Also, in response to the economic impacts posed to the Marquette community by COVID-19, Invent@ NMU will now offer free services to local small businesses. This effort is part of the #WildcatsMeanBusiness initiative in collaboration with Innovate Marquette SmartZone, LucidCoast and Campfire CoWorks.

Businesses that wish to learn more can visit https://invent.nmu.edu/covid-19.

“Due to the severe impact of COVID-19 on our local economy, we’ll be providing free services to those who have been impacted the most, our local small businesses,” Invent@NMU stated.

Those free services include opening online sales, point of sales systems, website creation, landing page development, social media creation/audit, general marketing and marketing auditing.

These services can be requested through its “help request form” at www.tiny.cc/ inventcovid.

Christie Mastric can be reached at cbleck@miningjournal.net.