TRAVERSE CITY — Northwestern Michigan College approved $13.5 million in funding for a new Student Services Hub.
The Board of Trustees voted unanimously in support of establishing a project budget of $13.5 million – including $10 million from the Boardman Lake Campus sale – for renovation of the Mark and Helen Osterlin Building on the main campus to house a Student Services Hub and to proceed with requests for proposals for design services and construction management. Vice Chair Jody Lundquist was not present for the meeting.
The hub will bring student services, such as admissions, financial aid, advising and tutoring, under one roof.
“Even though it is a renovation, it’s a student success project because we know that that one-stop shop is going to help us support greater student success,” President Nick Nissley said.
The Student Services Hub is part of the reorganization of departments and offices across the campuses, partially due to the sale of the Boardman Lake Campus, and is a “critical domino” to put everything in place, increase efficiency and better serve students, Troy Kierczynski, vice president of finance and administration, said.
The renovation is “arguably the most important project” in the 2024 Master Plan with “direct benefits to our students and operations,” he said in a letter to Nissley.
Kierczynski said the only barrier had been funding, which changed significantly after the sale of the Boardman Lake Campus.
The college has been trying to secure capital outlay funding for the project from the state since 2021, with the submission ranking reaching a peak of #3 on the state’s list last year and dropping to #6 this year.
They have sought grant opportunities, hired legislative advocates from Kelly Cawthorne for the past two years, and submitted requests from legislatively directed spending items – all without success, Kierczynski said.
With construction costs rising, the continuing need for a new service model for students, and the deterioration of the Osterlin Building, he said, “the time to move forward is now.”
The costs of the project include 3.8% for inflation and implies a $281 per square foot (with 48,100-square-feet) renovation cost. The project will be self-funded with $10 million from the $27-million sale of the Boardman Lake Campus, $1.5 million from the New Capital Projects Fund and $2 million from NMC Foundation fundraising.
“I’d say ‘thank you (to the board)’ because if it weren’t for the Boardman Lake campus sale, we wouldn’t be sitting here today,” Nissley said. “We’d be again trying to figure out how do we go back for another bite at the apple which hasn’t produced anything for six years.”
He also thanked the NMC Foundation, saying that NMC is “one of those few colleges that can lean so heavily upon a foundation because they are so supportive.”
Treasurer Andy Robitshek asked how funding disbursement decisions had been made and if the advantages and disadvantages of using sale funds and Foundation dollars had been considered.
Kierczynski said that the NMC Foundation reached out to donors to see what they were interested in supporting and said there was interest in contributing to this project because it was a student success project.
“There was not the same level of interest even for a renewable energy project, like the geothermal. So, we didn’t rely on donor funds for that project,” he said.
They thought $2 million from the Foundation was “realistic” with their campaign and “that’s why we included that as part of the budget,” he said.
The Student Services Hub will be part of the new geothermal system currently under construction, but its mechanical and electrical upgrades were not part of the project’s budget.
They will be updated as part of the renovations, with $3 million budgeted for HVAC upgrades to transition the building to geothermal. The Osterlin Building is currently being used as flex space while other buildings go offline for the project.