NMU seeks access to Michigan’s Community College Guarantee program
Trending
MARQUETTE -- In a recent Bridge Michigan article titled "Michigan's free community college shuts out rural universities. They want in," Northern Michigan University president Dr. Chris Olsen joined presidents from other rural Michigan universities in calling for access to the state's relatively new Community College Guarantee program.
Community College Guarantee was implemented by Governor Gretchen Whitmer and put into action in fall of 2024. The program provides free tuition to community college students living within that community college's district. The program works well over much of the state, but for more rural areas that lack community colleges, students are currently out of luck.
In the Upper Peninsula and rural Northern Michigan, 4-year universities such as NMU have been stepping up in the absence of community colleges to provide associates degrees for over 50 years now. NMU is one of 4 4-year universities that offer similar programs, joining Ferris State University, Lake Superior State University and Michigan Technological University. While these schools offer community college services, students enrolled in associates degrees at these institutions do not currently receive the Community College Guarantee. Dr. Olsen is looking to change that.
"The way the law is written, community colleges serve districts," said Olsen in an interview with the Mining Journal. "(NMU's) district is Marquette and Alger Counties."
"…As soon as I became president, people in the community, people on campus (would ask), just wondering why, when (NMU) served that community college function, why ... our students weren't eligible for (the Community College Guarantee)."
The U.P. has several community colleges, but the current Community College Guarantee program requires recipients to be residents within the district of their community college to receive financial assistance, leaving many U.P. residents out.
"…The 2-year colleges here in the U.P. do a fantastic job," said Olsen. "(NMU has) partnered with Gogebic (Community College), and Bay (College), and Keweenaw Bay (Ojibwa Community College) and Bay Mills (Community College), we have a lot of agreements, and they're terrific. It's just that most of our students can't travel that far.
"And they wouldn't get the full tuition covered because they're not in-district for those schools. So they either have to change their residency or they have to go back and forth, which can be difficult for some students."
According to Bridge Michigan, 5% of associates degrees awarded in the state of Michigan in 2024 came from Ferris, NMU, LSSU or Michigan Tech. That's over 1,000 who could have received financial assistance through Community College Guarantee, but didn't. Two hundred forty five of those degrees came from NMU.
"For me, it's not really about Northern," said Olsen. "It's about the students in our district. As President (Dr. Bill) Pink at Ferris State has made the point many times, it really affects rural Michigan more.
"Once you get down south there they have a lot of community colleges, and it's just a different population density and so on. But in the rural parts of the state, it just makes it hard for a lot of students to take advantage of that."
Part of the problem with expanding the program is cost. Four-year universities like NMU do not bill credit hours separately if a student is seeking an associates degree vs a 4-year degree, so that, according to reporting done by Bridge Michigan, 30 credit hours at a 4-year school could cost upwards of 3 times more than what it would cost at a community college. That could add up to millions or even tens of millions of additional dollars that the state would be paying into the program.
Olsen, though, said that NMU is potentially willing to be flexible on those tuition costs in order to get access.
"We just have to keep talking to folks at the legislature," said Olsen. "This is only the 3rd year of the Community College Guarantee ... People can't anticipate everything that's gonna come up. It may be that it just needs a little bit more discussion to decide where we go next."
The original Bridge Michigan article can be found at https://bridgemi.com/michigan-education-watch/michigans-free-community-college-shuts-out-rural-universities-they-want-in/.
Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.