Pulse of the Bay: Episode 2

Northland College and Its Future

March 14th, 2025

Host:  Fred Clark 

Guests:  Dr. Elizabeth Andre, Dr. Tom Fitz, and Dr. Emily McGillivray 

Show Summary:

This conversation explores the challenges faced by Northland College in Ashland, including its impending closure, the importance of community support, and the 132 year old legacy of the institution. The guests, Dr. Tom Fitz, Dr. Elizabeth Andre, and Dr. Emily McGillivray, reflect on the college’s unique mission, the relationships formed within the community, and their collaborative efforts along with faculty, students and alumni to envision a sustainable future for Northland. 

They discuss the emotional impact of the pending closure of Northland College on students and faculty, and the ongoing support for those affected as they navigate their next steps. The conversation revolves around the challenges faced by Northland College in 2024, the impact on the community, and the formation of the new Northland Collaborative” for Environment and Community.  

The speakers discuss the importance of community engagement, the management of campus assets, and the vision for a collaborative future that embodies the Spirit of Northland. They emphasize the need for community involvement and ideas to ensure that the values of environment, community, and justice continue to thrive beyond the college’s closure.

Links referenced in the show:

Northland College 

Northland Collaborative on Facebook:  

Dr. Emily McGillivray’s Project: Mapping Slavery in Detroit 

Pulse of the Bay Episode #2 – Transcript 

Northland College and Its Future

Fred Clark (00:00)

Well, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Pulse of the Bay, the news and public affairs show from 97.7 FM WVCB LP in Ashland, Wisconsin. We are the voice of Chequamegon Bay. WVCB radio is community radio. Our programming, music, news, documentary and discussion strengthens our sense of place and the connection among the communities along the south shore of Lake Superior.

I’m Fred Clark and I’m just one of your hosts for Pulse of the Bay. Pulse of the Bay is the program for sharing news, events, and in-depth discussions with interesting people of all kinds throughout the south shore of Chequamegon Bay. And I’m here today, March 14th, to talk with three of the best people in this area about Northland College and its future, its importance to this region, and its imminent closing.

And especially we’ll talk about ways in which folks invested in Northland and the community around it can continue to sustain the vision and the spirit that Northland has represented for the last 132 years. I’m here today with three of the best people I could think of to talk about this. Dr. Elizabeth Andre is a professor of nature and culture at Northland College. Elizabeth lives her passion teaching and practicing outdoor recreation in all forms.

Also here today is Dr. Tom Fitz. Tom is currently an academic advisor at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Tom’s a long time geologist, well known in this region. Prior to leaving Northland in 2024, for 25 years he was a professor of geoscience at Northland College. also with us today is Dr. Emily McGillivray.

Until 2024, Dr. McGillivray was an associate professor of Native American studies at Northland College. Emily was born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and she specializes in researching the experience of Native peoples in our regions. And I’ll just say as a side note, in researching the show, I learned about a project Dr. McGillivray has been involved in called Mapping Slavery in Detroit. And as someone who grew up in the Detroit area, I was amazed.

to learn some things about the history of African American and Native American slavery in my home state of Michigan. I simply had no idea. But check out Mapping Slavery in Detroit if you want to learn more about that. And we’ll try to have a link for that in the show notes. So Emily, Elizabeth, Tom, welcome to Polk of the Bay.

we’re excited to have you all here together. Tom’s calling in today from the University of Minnesota Duluth. Emily is calling in from a local park and Elizabeth…

It’s calling in from home where she’s recovering from one of her many outdoor recreation adventures.

So most of our listeners will remember that it was almost exactly a year ago, March 11th, 2024, that the people around the region were surprised to get a message from Northland College via a short media statement that Northland was in dire fiscal circumstances and unless they could raise $12 million in less than a month, the school would be forced to close. As an outsider watching this,

Many of us were waiting for the next communication. Surely with a need that great and a request that unprecedented, there would be a campaign. There would be public forums led by university leadership. There would be all of the communication materials and outreach that would accompany any major campaign to explain why our help was needed and what our investment would support.

from the university itself for at least two weeks after that announcement that the school needed an unprecedented amount of money and an impossibly small amount of time just to stay open. That single unsigned statement was probably not more than about 200 words was the sum total of public communication about Northland’s pending closure. For many of us not directly associated with the school but who know and appreciate the role of Northland in our community

It was honestly painful to watch. But during that time, we also saw faculty, students, and alumni quickly begin working together to help generate new visions for a sustainable future, something the school was clearly badly in need of. What wasn’t clear, however, was how those ideas were being considered by the school and what plans or actions the school’s administration was actually taking to make that transformation happen.

So when the school announced in May of 2024 that they’d not met their goal, but that they’d raised some new money and would be able to remain open, subject to some difficult cuts of programs, including cuts for the programs that Tom and Emily had been involved in, there was at least some short-lived relief that Northland had avoided complete closure and would go forward into the fall with reduced programs and reduced enrollment.

After May’s announcement, once again, very little news from the school’s administration. There’s no here’s what we’ve been up to, no sharing of visions for the school’s vibrant new future, no additional requests for support, no soliciting community input, just more radio silence and apparently business as usual at Northland. So on February 19th this year when Northland announced again via a short statement that the school would in fact be closing permanently at the end of the 2025 spring semester, it was saddening, but probably most people who’ve been following this issue weren’t shocked.

So let’s just start today by taking a step back. All three of you were at Northland throughout that period, but Tom, prior to your leaving Northland last year, you’d been a professor there for 25 years. Would you like to just start by telling us a little bit about Northland, about its

Tom Fitz (06:19)

yeah, Northland College, what a special place it has been. Northland started in 1892 as an institution to help educate people in the poor North country. And right from the start, was founded on the idea that we should help people in the region. The model of Northland College is a highway shall be there. And there’s been a lot of confusion, I think, through the years about Northland College, the environmental liberal arts.

college, you know, building a highway, you know, and they’re on the logo is a professor and a student cutting trees down. And what it’s about is like we’re working together to build paths for people to live a good life. You know, a highway shall be there, which is actually a reference to the Bible, which a higher way shall be there. And that’s sort of like, you know, the founding of the college right from the start was like, we’re going to help people.

address the challenges of the future. And then in 1972, there was an important recognition that the environment has to be included in all of the things that we do as a society because so many environmental issues are affecting so many people. So in 1972, the college made a commitment to be the nation’s liberal arts, environmental liberal arts college, which is about the environment, but it’s also

commitment to the liberal arts. And the liberal arts is like there’s there’s a lot of confusion about the phrase liberal arts and what that means. You know some people think that it is like propaganda that it’s you know indoctrination into a liberal way of thinking but it’s not at all that. It’s kind of the opposite of indoctrination. It’s like the idea that your mind is liberated to be open to new thoughts, right? And so that that liberal arts environment

mental liberal arts has been an important mission since 1972 and hopefully we’re going to continue with that.

I think one of really special things that has been special about Northland for so long is the community. The community of people there, you know, committed to helping each other, to helping the region. You know, it’s just been such a friendly atmosphere on campus. it’s partly because of, you know, we’re working together. It’s also because it’s a small community in the Northwoods. And for example, I think some of my favorite times

as a professor have been with the students and the connections I’ve made with the students, especially around field trips, right? I mean, I’m a geology professor and so we have a May term and I would lead geology field trips in the Lake Superior region and then out to Wyoming with my geology students. And by the time I’d been doing that kind of stuff with them for their four years at Northland, it’s like we were friends. It’s like the students are really my friends and I help them. So I think the community has

has been such an important part of the history of Northland. And it just means a whole lot to the region,

Fred Clark (09:37)

Thanks, Tom. And certainly for someone who’s only lived in the region for a few years now, the number of people who are Northland graduates, who started businesses or creative enterprises or in leadership roles in the communities around the Bay, it’s really just impressive to see. Emily, Elizabeth, any thoughts you want to share about just what made Northland special?

Emily (10:05)

So I’d like to echo a lot of what Tom said and even as Tom was talking, some of what I had thought about this, was like, oh, he’s already sort of bringing up phrases that I was thinking of, including the importance of the environmental liberal arts. And Northland is the first small college that I’ve spent time at. I’ve been in, you know, up until last May, I worked in higher ed for over about 15 years.

But Northland was the first institution of less than a thousand people that I had ever spent time at. And for me, it was special in a lot of ways. I think the way it enacted the environmental liberal arts, some of which Tom has already talked about, in that it was experiential and place-based. We were getting out in the field with students. You know, I was in Native American studies when some people may not.

think as much with history and the humanities as many field trips. But Northland actually had a lot of opportunities for us to get students in all departments out in the field. And also, you know, I co-taught with Tom and some other faculty members during my time here and being able to get out in the field with other faculty as well. And the sort of spontaneous conversations that would arise when you’re in a place with other people who are deeply passionate about that place, who care about that place.

who have different knowledge than you about that place and who want to just like think about why it matters in the past and how we got here in the present. Those are some of my favorite memories and for me that was where like a lot of the magic of Northland happened. And I also think that too, know, expanding from that, for me it’s also a place that was really about relationships and Tom talked about that. I think you could tell when he talked about students. And I think

The relationships not only among students and faculty and staff on campus, but among this community here in Northwestern Wisconsin and then even building out, know, like Tom went west for multiple years with students and built relationships with people in communities out there. I was part of a program that every May students would travel around all of Lake Superior and there were certain spots where the students, you know, would stop every year. So there were certain

you know, community members we had relationships with on the North Shore of Ontario of Lake Superior that developed over a decade. And so I think those relationships for me always made Northland feel more expansive than it was, but in a way that really felt like supportive. So it was this really cool feeling of like it’s a small campus, but it also expands out beyond the campus was our classroom. And it was the same with relationships. It was this tight-knit community.

but then it also that tight knit community expanded out really

Fred Clark (12:51)

Well, what an incredible location to have a multi-million acre outdoor classroom.

Elizabeth, I think in your work, you really lived that mission with your own teaching in

Elizabeth Andre (13:05)

you? I did, yeah. And I think for all of the faculty who taught at Northland, it was the mission that kept us here. I mean, I always say to people, the caliber of our faculty,

was well beyond what a school of our selectivity and size and location should have. And we had faculty who could literally work anywhere in the country and who are nationally recognized experts in their fields who are doing like incredibly interesting scholarship and teaching. And that was because of the mission that we all wanted to be here.

We were making significantly less money than we would be making almost anywhere else. But it was a choice that we were making because we believe so much in the mission and it was feeding us emotionally and spiritually as well, being part of that community and working with the students and tackling these questions that are the most important questions that we can be asking now as educators and as citizens of the world.

Fred Clark (14:07)

Wonderful. Yeah, it’s an inspiration for those of us who follow the college just to hear that vision expressed from so many people. So probably anyone who follows higher education also knows that many colleges have had challenges with declining enrollment in the last decade. So we know that Northland is not alone in facing those headwinds. But are there other factors at Northland that were unique challenges that were also contributing to the

Elizabeth Andre (14:37)

Yeah. Thanks Fred Yeah, this is Elizabeth again I’d love to take a stab at that and then my colleagues if you could jump in that would that would be great But I think there are many colleges going out of business. It is a very difficult time for higher education You know at the beginning of this year the rate was one a week was closing for the first few months of the year So it is definitely a difficult time in higher ed and there’s demographic changes as you mentioned There’s just fewer students graduating from high school, especially in the Midwest

But I think that Northland with its unique mission, with its incredible location, with its regional partners, with all the things it had going for it, and also the fact that it doesn’t have any long-term debt, it wasn’t really in the same boat. It didn’t have to be in the same boat as some of those other schools that are just kind of nondescript, liberal arts college in a little rural town with a cute campus. Like we really had a lot going for us. And I think that if we had

work together as a team, faculty, community, trustees starting eight, 10 years before the announcement last year, I think that we could have implemented a lot of changes that would have done the types of things that came out of those community conversations that happened last spring that opens up the campus to the community and makes it kind of an ecosystem of different groups that are synergistic, that are all mission aligned, and that helps fill the campus. And our campus is.

I mean, we’re a small school, but it’s big for the number of students that we’ve had ever since I’ve been there. The campus can…

accommodate probably 800 students and last spring we had about 500 and right now we have about I don’t even know 220 and so there’s a lot of open space on that campus that could have been filled in a way that would have brought in money but also created this you know sum is greater like the total is greater than the sum of the parts where we could have made the financial situation a little bit better but also made the educational experience even better as there are you know not-for-profits that are mission aligned that have campus or have offices

of space on campus and there people who work there are eating in our cafeteria with the students, with the faculty members, having these amazing conversations that lead to all this kind of unplanned educational opportunities. So I think that it didn’t have to end up the way that it is, but I don’t wanna focus too much on the mistakes of the past, because here we are. But I do think that those same things that made us well positioned a year ago, potentially well positioned a year ago are still there. Like we still have this

amazing natural location with incredible regional partners and we have a mission that is still incredibly relevant and you’re more relevant than ever to focus on environment and community and justice. And I think if you look at the Northland College mission, if you just take out all the parts that talk about being a four-year liberal arts school, what’s left there is still very relevant and very doable.

in our region. So I think I may have gotten off on a tangent from your original question, but thanks.

Fred Clark (17:34)

No, not a bit. That was a straight line through that question. Thank you, Elizabeth. Yeah, Emily or Tom, any other thoughts on unique challenges for Northland?

Tom Fitz (17:46)

It’s just, you know, one of the things is that it’s just expensive to run a college. mean, you know, big buildings, you know, with large spaces and fume hoods and, you know, it’s just an expensive endeavor and that’s what the small colleges are facing.

know, Northland has never been a wealthy place, you know, but we have come through a lot of hard times. You know, I understand that, you know, the graduating class sometime in the 1940s was like a one student or something, you know. So it’s, you know, we have forged ahead and, you know, this is another turning point. It’s the end of the college as we have known it, but it is not the end of the mission.

Fred Clark (18:29)

So something that was really inspiring last year was just to see so many conversations that went on in March and April about the future, not led by the administration, but led by faculty, students, and alumni. And all of you were part of leading those discussions. Would one of you like to share just a bit about what were the ideas and the visions that came out of those discussions? Because clearly there was a passion and a deep commitment for finding a way to make Northland succeed in a more uncertain future.

Tom Fitz (19:00)

I want to say before we get into the details of what we were doing then, I just want to say how uplifting that was, how strongly the community came together. mean, was, we worked hard and it was just so refreshing to have, you know, the Northern College, you know, the faculty and staff come together, but then also the community was just really heartwarming, you know, during a very difficult time.

Elizabeth Andre (19:26)

Yeah, I would second that as well. was…

And we were working, the faculty was working, you know, 20 hour days because we’re still teaching our classes. We’re still caring for students and we’re trying to, and this, as you said, Fred, like impossibly short deadline, we’re trying to come up with some sort of plan that could have a chance at saving the college. And so we were all working so hard and, and, the community just like people were bringing us food. We had the faculty completely redesigned our curriculum over the course of less than two weeks. And we started that on a Saturday.

And we spent all day in the campus center kind of thinking about, what are our shared values? What would a curriculum look like that builds on those values but is half the size of what we have been delivering? And while we were having those meetings, the students in the food center on campus made the most delicious lunch and brought it over for us. And it was just so…

Elizabeth Andre (20:22)

just affirming that everyone wants us to go. And like Tom says, we’ve always been small and scrappy. I’ve often said that Northland’s been on the verge of going out of business for 133 years. Like we have always been scrappy. And I think seeing how local businesses, like the Black Cat was sending food to us and like just were really supporting us. And I think that was like really boing to us to realize that

Elizabeth Andre (20:48)

Yeah, higher ed has some headwinds and yes, like Tom said, it is very expensive to keep a campus going, but the entire region, the entire community wants to support each other in making some sort of version of the Northland spirit, the Northland mission, the Northland vision continue and that we have a lot of strength. It’s not really a scarcity narrative. We have abundance here in our community and that was really buoying and inspiring to me.

Fred Clark (21:22)

after learning all of this, it became clear to me the next time I’m in a crisis, I want the Northland crew around because the way you all work together was really inspiring and such a rapid response in a short amount of time. Emily, you were part of those discussions too at that time, weren’t you?

Emily (21:42)

and I would just say I think really it was the way the faculty and the students pulled together and know staff and other the parts of the larger community that really was like energizing and motivating at that time. So it was a kind of a strange I feel like for me it was almost some cognitive dissonance because you know Elizabeth was talking about all the abundance we felt within our community and I felt that a lot and it felt like we were really energized and doing like a lot of collaborative important work.

But that was like driven by this larger narrative of scarcity from up top, right? So it was sort of this really strange moment where we knew, you know, how precarious everything was, but the way we were organizing around that felt really positive. So that was, I think that that’s sort of what I really remember. And I think what Elizabeth shared about like the students rallying together to bring us food and local businesses coming together to bring faculty food.

after some of our like marathon organizing sessions really sort of embodies like the support and the care that was being shown for each other like in the community and using that term broadly you know to extend beyond the campus very much so.

Fred Clark (22:53)

Yeah. Well, and in just a minute, you all are going to talk about, I think, all the energy and the learning and the ideas that came out of those discussions and how those can be carried forward. And in the meantime, though, there’s a practical question. And Northland, unfortunately, as an institution, as it exists today, will be closing at the end of this semester.

Emily and Tom, you’re no longer at Northland, unfortunately, but your heart is still there. But Elizabeth, you’re on campus every day. What’s it like today on campus now and what are students and faculty preparing for at this time?

Elizabeth Andre (23:33)

Yeah, well, as you can imagine, Fred, it is a really sad time. So as you mentioned earlier, no one who’s been following this could be shocked. But also, it was unexpected, the timing of it. And it just hits hard, even for people who might have thought that it would be coming at some point. especially our students who are graduating who will now their alma mater will no longer be there. That’s a difficult thing for them to process. But then also the students who are not yet ready to graduate. This is a really difficult time for them. And so the campus, the staff, the faculty, all of the support is focused on helping the students.

Navigate into whatever is going to be the next chapter for them. So we had a big transfer fair on campus yesterday There were a bunch of different schools there to meet the students in person and to suggest ways that they could transfer To their schools and advisors are working individually with students to make sure that they can transfer to someplace It’ll be good for them. We really want to support our students and at the same time

Faculty and staff also need support. And so we’re working on ways to support each other and to think about what resources do we need in order to navigate even things like how do you continue having health insurance and how do you get your resume ready for a job that might not be in academia? And so all those sorts of questions. And so we’re really trying to care for the community, but at the same time, we’re trying to look at what is coming next. so it’s maybe not those 20 hour marathon days like we had last spring with that three week deadline,

still an intense time to try and focus on completing a school year well, which even in the best of times takes a lot of energy. And to do that at the same time is trying to support students and think about the future.

Fred Clark (25:21)

Yeah, so challenging.

So 220 students will be finished learning there as of the end of the semester. How many faculty and staff are being affected?

Elizabeth Andre (25:39)

That is a great question. I don’t know that I would have the exact numbers for you. think we have new last year. We had probably 42 Faculty and I think this year we have maybe 21 and Staff numbers. I couldn’t tell you for sure. I don’t know what Tom or Emily. Do you have a idea of that? I’m not sure I apologize

Tom Fitz (25:58)

think it was about 100 employees a year ago.

Fred Clark (26:03)

Okay, yeah, so big impact in the community. A lot of people own homes, they’re raising families, with Northland as a source of support. And of course, the people are the most important part of the equation. The school also has a 70-acre campus and 19 buildings and several institutions and prroperty of all sorts. Do you have any sense right now of how the school will decide what to do with those assets? Or is that a completely open discussion right now?

Elizabeth Andre (26:40)

Well, I’m happy for someone else to jump in if you want, but since I’m the one who’s still employed there, maybe I’ll take this one. Yeah, so the trustees have not really communicated anything to us. It’s kind of a deja vu to last year. There’s been that very short communication that I think everyone already saw, and that’s been it. So we don’t know what their plans are, if they are going to…

Elizabeth Andre (27:05)

get rid of some of those assets or if they’re gonna, we have no idea. And so part of the reason that we are trying to organize a group is to make sure that we can be involved in those conversations and make sure that there is at least a discussion that explores how the campus assets can support the ongoing mission of environment, community and justice in a way that will be an asset for our region. It’s very difficult to sell

College campus in a rural area to someone who can use it. It’s very purpose-built There’s a lot of colleges that have closed in rural areas that the the campus hasn’t been able to find a buyer it sat empty for years and become a source of Vandalism and it’s just kind of rotted there and we don’t want to see something like that happen We want to see the campus maintain kind of the vision that we were working together as a community last year to to design that sure higher education, formal education could be a part of it, but that it’s more of an ecosystem of a variety of groups that are really synergistic with each other.

tribal entities, there’s food professionals, there’s educators, there’s artists, there’s scientists. There’s a variety of people who would love to be able to use part of that campus, but nobody can afford to do it on their own. It is such an expensive campus. Even one of the larger buildings, there’s not a group probably that wants to take that on because it’s not so much an asset as it is a liability. so the conversations that we wanna have is how can we come together as a community similar to what we did last spring, but maybe just

a little bit more focused so we can move a little bit more quickly, bringing strategic experts and leaders from different groups together to think, what would you like to have happen in a little part of the campus? And can we get together enough small groups that make sense working together so that it’s not just this hodgepodge kind of strip mall of a business park, but an ecosystem of groups that really make sense to be working together and that are synergistic and that can together use

parts of the campus. I don’t know if we’d be able to put enough groups together to use the entire campus, but at least parts of it so that we can keep that vision and mission going in that location and keep those physical assets as a driver for economic and cultural and social activity in our regions. thanks for that.

Fred Clark (29:32)

thanks for that. it just occurs to me and to many people that on the one hand, this is a decision that the board of trustees are charged to make. But on the other hand, community, entire surrounding community has a strong interest in what happens here. And there needs to be a conversation and a set of decisions anchored in the needs of the community. And hopefully you all will be helping drive that.

We’ve already launched the exciting part of the discussion and you all have taken an important first step in beginning to form a new organization that is called the Northland Collaborative for the Environmental Liberal Arts. Did I get it right?

Tom Fitz (30:16)

Yes.

Elizabeth Andre (30:17)

Yeah, pretty close!  We incorporated, we filed articles of incorporation within just a few hours of the trustees announcing closure on the 19th of February. And we incorporated as the Northland Corporation for Environmental Liberal Arts, as you said. But we’ve decided on a doing business as name that is the Northland Collaborative for Environment, Community and Justice. And there’s a variety of reasons for that. We don’t have to get into all of them. going back to what Tom was saying earlier, people get a little bit confused about what liberal arts means.

So we thought the Northern Collaborative for Environment, Community, and Justice would be a little bit more understandable without explanation and a back history on liberal arts and what it is. Okay, got it. Thank you for the clarification. So I’ll open the floor.

Fred Clark (30:59)

Okay, got it. Thank you for the clarification. So I’ll open the floor.

Fred Clark (31:05)

Talk about the vision and obviously it’s all very preliminary. You all are in the early stages of imagining what this group could do. What do you hope will happen here in the next few weeks and months?

Emily (31:17)

I think on a broad level, like one of the things that I’m most excited about is figuring out a way for the spirit of Northland that really I think is tied around those parts that Elizabeth named at the, listed at the end of our name, like the environment, community and justice. So figuring out like, what can be done to sort of keep those alive and sort of be having those parts of the mission

still in the community in a way that’s serving the community. And I think not just serving the community, but we’ve talked about like strengthening or sort of regenerating different aspects of our community. And thinking about that again, from like the physical space, waterways, the environment, to economic aspects of struggles rural communities face, to social justice issues and ensuring, you know, that this is a fair and just place for people from sort of all backgrounds to sort of live and that we really have an opportunity I think here to have a small community that’s deeply engaged in those issues and I think maybe also like troubles or problematizes in a good way some of the assumptions people make about rural America today or what their priorities are what’s important to them I think what we’re sort of doing here is really trying to put forward a vision of sort of serving our communities strengthening our communities and regenerating them in a way that is beneficial to the communities and sort of shows the real potential that education can have today. And thinking about education broadly, know, not just education as an accredited four-year schools, but what does it mean when we come together, learn from each other and work together? And obviously formal education is one part of that, but I think there’s so many more ways that that can take place and that that’s what’s needed to sort of deal with.

as Elizabeth said early on, like the really complex pressing issues of our time, whether it’s climate change or wealth inequality, or these other sort of big pressing issues that the coming generations are going to have to grapple with.

Fred Clark (33:22)

So well said, thank you.  One of the plans that you identified in what you’ve shared with me is you’ve called it convening conversations. part of me just imagines that where’s the space where the mayor of Ashland and the tribal chairman of the Bad River Tribe and folks involved with Ashland and Bayfield counties and civic and community leaders can come together to think about how a future of Northland would contribute to a vibrant thriving communities. Is there a space for those conversations to happen? Will you all be part of helping convene those?

Tom Fitz (34:05)

I think that’s our goal really, is to bring people together for education for the community. You think about what the role Northland has played in a lot of environmental issues around here. the wolf hunt and the…

issues around wolves in northern Wisconsin and water resources and the mining issue in the Pinocchio Range. mean, you know, we’ve played an important role in terms of like just educating people and, you know, bringing people together to understand these things. So that’s one of the really big things we want to do. And the collaborative, hopefully, you know, we are using part of Northland College and the campus and that we are working together with other people with the same vision. But what we’re doing is also

independent of the college, I mean of the campus itself. you know there are two really different but closely related issues here. One of which is the mission and the other of which is the campus.

Elizabeth Andre (35:09)

Yeah, I’m so glad that you made that clarification, Tom. I think one of the things that is difficult is people getting confused about what exactly is the Northland Collaborative trying to do. Like, are we trying to save Northland College? No, we’re not. As you mentioned, we recognize that the colleges we know it is closing at the end of the school year. And are we trying to save the campus? You know, I mean, it would be great if we could make the campus be something that would serve the community. But as Tom said, we’ve got these two kind of closely aligned goals, like keep the spirit of Northland.

going and if that can be on part of the campus that’s great but the spirit of Northland doesn’t need a physical space and so if conversations don’t move forward with the board of trustees or whatever the board of trustees decides to do with the campus doesn’t involve the visions that have come from the community I mean think that would be sad I think that the Northland spirit would work perfectly well on the Northland campus since the Northland campus was designed and built

to achieve the Northland spirit. So I think it makes a ton of sense to have those two things work together, but they are separate. And so the Northland spirit can continue without a physical location. And so I think these conversations that we’re gonna facilitate and that we’re gonna convene, they will not be wasted time if the Northland trustees decide to not engage with us. Those collaborations that we’re gonna build can’t continue without the physical space. So they’re two different yet potentially aligned goals, at least, aligned in the short term.

Fred Clark (36:36)

thank you.

You know, when you describe the Northland spirit, it reminds me of maybe a regional version of the Wisconsin idea, right? Where for the University of Wisconsin, the boundaries of the university are the boundaries of the state.

Tom Fitz (36:50)

Yes, very much so.

Elizabeth Andre (36:51)

Yes, that’s a perfect analogy.

Tom Fitz (36:51)

The Wisconsin idea, the Northland idea.

Fred Clark (36:54)

Yeah, exciting. So a lot of people are following closely and with great interest the work that you all are doing. And obviously it’s much more than just the three of you, but what can people do right now to help? What can people do right now to just stay in stay informed and learn more?

Tom Fitz (37:16)

We need ideas. We’re just coming together. We’re just brainstorming at this point. So we want the more people involved, the more ideas, the better.

Elizabeth Andre (37:17)

We’re just brainstorming at this point. So we want the more people involved, the more ideas, the better.

Elizabeth Andre (37:27)

Okay. Yeah, and we do have a volunteer sign up sheet and we also have a mailing list sign up sheet. But there’s a little caveat on the volunteer one, especially this is be patient with us because we want to make sure that we’re laying the groundwork to do things in a good way. Last year, there was that time crunch and we just needed to just plow ahead. And so there was these, hey, send us money, we need help, appeals, and things like that. now there’s still definitely a time sensitive nature to this, but there’s not that same kind of time crunch that there was before, that artificially imposed time crunch. And so we wanna do things right. And so part of what we’ve been doing with these conversations is talking to people who can help us understand the larger…

Elizabeth Andre (38:12)

situation and things that, you know, as I think Dick Cheney said, the unknown unknowns, like trying to make sure that we understand what’s going on and then making plans to move forward really strategically. you know, I’ve had conversations with people who have a lot of experience with creating not-for-profit organizations and then scaling them up to large scale, you know, multi-million dollar organizations and thinking about fundraising campaigns and how do do that right? And so think, you know, we want to make sure that we’re doing things right. And so on that volunteer signup sheet, there’s a bunch of

Places where you can enter in skills that you have and and so you know when it comes time to do a particular thing We’ll reach out to someone with a particular skill for example one of the things on our to-do list right now is to get a website I know a lot of people are not wanting to get their information exclusively from Facebook and and so wanting to have a website and so there’s a lot of people who signed up on that volunteer list who say I have website creating design experience and I have graphic design experience and I have videography experience is I think you know as we start to

Elizabeth Andre (39:11)

move forward with a strategic plan of how to make these conversations happen and to engage with the Board of Trustees and to continue to build these regional collaborations. The people who’ve signed up, especially with specific skills, will be really helpful to us. But then as Tom said, we just really need everybody to support us. And so, you know, just sign up and even if you’re the only skill that you can put down is that you just are excited and you care and you want to help. Like we’re gonna need that too.

Fred Clark (39:14)

That’s a skill. And so to sign up, is it the Facebook page? Where can people come find you?

Elizabeth Andre (39:47)

Yeah  right now it’s on our Facebook page and we will be getting a website soon which it’ll be up on there and the URL which we have for that already is Northlandcollaborative.org and we also have .com but it’s not up yet so if you go there right now you’re just gonna get an error sign but that’s where it’ll be eventually but for now Facebook.

Fred Clark (39:50)

Okay, we’ll find you on Facebook and we’ll put that in the show notes too. wonderful. Anything else you want to share before we wrap up today?

Tom Fitz (40:16)

so many thoughts.

Fred Clark (40:16)

All right.

Emily (40:16)

just wanted to thank you for giving us this opportunity to share more about what we’re doing because I think, know, communicate, while there’s still lot of unknowns, as Elizabeth said, you know, communication is really important to us and sort of sharing what we’re doing is really important to us. So I think this is a great opportunity for us to be able to have, to share that message out with a larger group at this really early stage because, you know, as you mentioned, Fred, like there,

hasn’t always been consistent updates from Northland, the college, the formal college as a whole. And as we sort of go forward with the Northland Collaborative, a lot of our values are centered around the importance of community, the importance of relationships, and I think good communication and transparency is a really

Elizabeth Andre (41:06)

Yeah, I think that is very true, Emily. And I want to thank you, Fred, as well for the opportunity to talk about this. I think the one thing that I would really like to end with on this is that now that the Northland College is closing, the Northland spirit really belongs to everyone. Like it already did before, but especially now that the college is closing, it really does belong to everyone. And so we want to make sure that this isn’t something that’s seen as just like, faculty members and former faculty members are the ones driving this.

Elizabeth Andre (41:36)

belong to the faculty anymore. The curriculum in the college, it did belong to the faculty before, but it doesn’t now. the vision and the spirit of Northland is now truly everyone’s. And we do want everyone to feel welcome to come in and explore how we can meet those needs of our community moving forward together in a truly collaborative way. Thank you. Well

Fred Clark (42:03)

I’m just going to propose for any of you that want to take a poll, you can make your own. Go to a restaurant or a gas station in any town within 25 miles of Ashland and ask 10 people if they were associated with Northland College and find out how many will say yes. I think you’d find a significant number. So Elizabeth, Tom and Emily, thank you so much for being here with us today and thanks for all your efforts.

Very encouraging and I hope that we’ll hear you back here again in the near.future.

Elizabeth Andre (42:34)

 Thanks so much, Fred. You bet. Thank you.

Emily (42:38)

Thank you.

Tom Fitz (42:39)

Thanks,

Fred Clark (42:41)

It’s exciting. We all want to wish you well in the days ahead and throughout the difficult time for the closure of the formal Northland College and the transformation of how to make that Northland spirit live on. We want to support you and hope very much that you’ll be coming back regularly to give us updates about what you’re doing and how that Northland spirit is carrying forward.

Thanks for being with us on Pulse of the Bay. We’ll be back again next week with a new show. Until then, let’s all remember to help our communities thrive, to take care of our lands and waters, and be kind and caring to the people around us. Thanks you all, and until next time.