NMU's Brock Tessman: How Is He Dealing with the Enrollment Decline, the Covid Hangover, Curriculum Challenges, Possible Layoffs, a Housing Shortage, and a Strained Budget?

The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell

FROM A DISTANCE, you might mistake him for a young professor at NMU, maybe someone who only recently earned his doctorate. But no, 47-year-old Brock Tessman is NMU’s president, now almost six months on the job.

He’s engaging, affable, thoughtful, and articulate. He actually does have a doctorate in international relations and political science, and besides that, he’s spent the last two decades as a university administrator and professor.

Now, despite his youth, he’s been entrusted with shaping the future of Northern Michigan University—an institution that has experienced a precipitous enrollment decline in the last decade, was battered by Covid, and now has its fourth president in the last eleven years.

Unstable, to say the least, and facing numerous challenges, the most prominent of which is…

ENROLLMENT DECLINE…The numbers tell the story: nearly 10,000 students enrolled in 2006, but fewer than 7000 in this latest academic year…Tessman’s not dismayed. “We’re in a good spot,” he says. “Our incoming class is up about nine percent over what it was last year.”

It’s a good start.

“We need to market ourselves around our advantages—affordability, quality of academic programs, and the natural beauty of the area…But we need to lead with our distinctive academic program opportunities—in both content and style.” That style being…

IMMERSIVE LEARNING…This could be the key to NMU’s future. For many of us, attending college meant going to class, listening to lectures, taking notes, studying for exams, and then taking exams. That was it…For NMU increasingly, the idea is learning by doing—that means internships with companies and nonprofits, working on medical devices in labs, making actual “pitches” in the College of Business, tracking salamanders at Presque Isle, and engaging in entrepreneurship at Invent@NMU.

And getting on stage. “Our theater and dance students,” Tessman says, “they get a chance to be on stage in our productions in their first or second year. At other universities, you’re buried under several layers of older students. You’re sitting backstage.”

CHANGING CURRICULUM…Remember several years back when Medicinal Plant Chemistry (a euphemism for marijuana) was all the rage at NMU? It’s still popular but other majors—including the health professions, biology, business, and cybersecurity—will likely be more important in the future.

“Some of our donors say, ‘Look at the programs that are growing and invest in those! And the programs that are declining, get rid of faculty there!’” Tessman says. “I push back on that. We are a regional, comprehensive university. We have a responsibility to offer an entire range of academic programs.”

That means, he says, that English and Philosophy still have an assured future at NMU, even when other majors are more trendy and potentially more lucrative.

VALUE OF A COLLEGE EDUCATION…College enrollment nationwide has been declining in recent year years as some high school graduates and their parents question whether it’s truly a good investment. After all, you’ll find some college grads, saddled with debt, working retail jobs as they search for an opportunity to start their careers, while some debt-free 18- and 19-year-olds are making $25 an hour as apprentices in the trades.

“I’m not a believer that everybody needs to go to college,” Tessman insists, “but I do believe it is a great investment. It means about an extra million dollars in salary over the course of your career.”

And it’s more than just money. College is important for personal and civic reasons, as well. “Something feels broken about our society now,” Tessman says. “Whether it’s political polarization, or our reliance on technology, or our interpersonal exchange, you have to think of ways to counter that trend. The college atmosphere can counter that, and help you buy into something that’s larger than yourself.”

NMU’S COMPETITION…The first competitor, Tessman says, is the “no college” option. NMU has to offer those students reasons to enroll—easy access, affordability, the promise of interesting classes, and potentially lucrative future…The second competitor(s) is the smaller regional colleges and universities, with similar affordability. “I’ll take us over any of them any day because of what we have to offer here,” he says.

The third competitor, and it’s attractive, is Michigan State University. “It’s about the brand,” Tessman says, “the big size, the Big Ten experience where someone wants to get out of the UP and have that kind of experience. That’s the right decision for a lot of students, but many of those students come back after a year or two because they miss Marquette.”

By the way, about one third of NMU’s students come from the UP, a third come from downstate, and the remaining third come from the upper Midwest, although increasing numbers are starting to come from other states.

COVID IMPACT…Tessman knows this subject well—he was in charge of orchestrating the response of all of Montana’s colleges and universities to the Covid crisis.

“We won’t get over it for some time here at NMU,” he says, “but I think what we’ve learned as we’re coming out of Covid is that it plays well to Northern’s strengths, which is the quality of the human experience.”…In other words, Northern, with its educational style, emphasizes person-to-person contact, something that we all sorely missed during the Covid years.

LAYOFFS…"I’ve got to be careful about what I say here,” Tessman says, and he pauses, “but I don’t see any need for layoffs in the foreseeable future. This university has weathered declining enrollment with responsible financial management. I haven’t had one moment yet where I’ve said, ‘Well, if this doesn’t work out, where will we have to start cutting back on people?’”

NMU’S WEAKNESSES…He cautions that he’s been here less than half a year, but one seeming flaw does come to mind: “I’m surprised, given our central location, that we don’t have more involvement with the community. I think there’s a hunger for that.”

It goes both ways—inviting the community on campus, and getting the students out into the town.

NMU’s sponsorship of the UP200 is a start, and the Theatre and Dance Department’s robust scheduling of popular shows has helped, but Tessman would love to see closer relationships between the university and Marquette’s businesses, especially with job placement.

WHAT DO STUDENTS LIKE/DISLIKE?…Again, Tessman hasn't been here all that long, but he does meet with students regularly and he senses that some aren’t thrilled with the university’s bureaucracy and some of its rules and regulations. What they seem to like are their professors, the university’s setting, the food choices, and the updated dorm rooms.

“When I went to college,” he tells you with a laugh, “I had my dad’s Army duffel bag, and I looked in at my dorm room, and it’s cinder blocks, a cot, a broken desk, a waste basket, and some sort of linoleum floor.”

WHAT DO PROFESSORS LIKE/DISLIKE?…“They’re here because they love to teach,” Tessman says. “We have some really great researchers on this campus—actually pockets of global excellence—but primarily professors are here to teach and work with their students.”

Problems? “They feel that they’re stretched thin,” he says. Not enough time to prepare for classes, to meet with students; too much time spent with committees.

STUDENT HOUSING…“We have barely enough housing on campus for first and second year students, but not enough for upper division students,” Tessman explains…And off-campus housing rentals in Marquette have become extremely expensive. So that’s a problem, especially if the university is hoping to expand its enrollment.

A hope for the future lies in the old hospital property adjacent to the campus…Plans are now underway to transform those 23 acres into a primarily residential neighborhood, maybe with some rental options for older students…But that likely won’t happen for at least a few years.

BUILDING PLANS…Yes, even with the enrollment decline, NMU is building…“In the basement of Harden Hall (the library building), we’re going to build that out as a student union space and a meeting space for student organizations,” Tessman explains. “So commuter students will have a wonderful landing spot when they arrive on campus.”…Construction to start in January.

Other projects, none of them extravagant: Changes at the Berry Event Center, Vandament Arena, and new laboratory space.

10 YEARS INTO THE FUTURE…Tessman reiterates that enrollment will have substantially increased (he won’t give a specific number) by that time, and that the physical layout on campus will look different and better…

What he’s particularly enthusiastic about is NMU’s recent signing of the Okanagan Charter—the 17th college in the country to do so. Essentially, it’s a commitment by the university to nurture physical and mental health among its students and employees, provide a healthy campus culture, and encourage sustainability.

“We’ll be the best at implementing the principles of that Charter,” Tessman assures you, “and we will be known for that. And we’ll help create a new way of thinking about a healthy community.”

Brock Tessman is a young, ambitious, and idealistic president, likely to be here for at least the better part of a decade. He’s good with words, he’s full of promises. Will his vision of a growing, prosperous, and attractive NMU, well integrated into the community, become reality? That’ll be up to him.

POEM OF THE WEEK

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

—Langston Hughes

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