Northern Michigan University presidential candidate Mike Godard, Ph.D, speaks at a student forum Thursday. (Journal photo by Brennan White)

MARQUETTE — The fourth and final Northern Michigan University presidential candidate Dr. Mike Godard spoke at a student forum on Thursday.

The candidate answered questions covering a number of topics. In addition to the forum, Godard toured the NMU campus.

He also met with university leaders, union leadership, deans, and department heads and student leaders.

Godard said NMU fits his personal philosophy of helping students realize their own success.

“One thing that I investigated before I even decided that this was something that I was interested in — being president here — was the full commitment here from faculty and staff to help students be successful,”Godard said.“Oftentimes when you look at where Northern is — more of a rural community — how does the institution integrate into the community to make sure that students feel welcomed as well? That’s something that I thought occurred here and fits in alignment with what my overall passion is, making sure that I can help people be successful.”

Godard is currently the provost at Southeast Missouri State University. SMSU averages 10,000 students and provides 150 possible areas of study.

He is primarily responsible for leading the overall administration and promoting academic excellence within both the faculty and academic programming. Godard also guided the university through the development of its new strategic action plan.

Godard, along with three other candidates, Brock Tessman, Meera Komarraju and Debra Larson, will have individual interviews with the full NMU Board of Trustees starting Monday.

For more information, visit nmu.edu/boardoftrustees/presidential-search

Brennan White can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248. His email address is bwhite@miningjournal.net.