Northland College Announces Final Decision on School’s Future

Northland College has announced it will remain open after weeks of uncertainty and multiple delays on their final decision.

In March, officials from the Ashland school announced they needed to raise $12 million in about one month to remain open. They said that years of declining enrollment had forced the school to dip into its $25 million endowment to remain operation, and that fund had been essentially depleted.

By their self-imposed early April deadline, the school had raised less than $2 million. Instead of announcing closure, officials elected to declare financial exigency to allow them more time to raise additional funding and develop another plan.

By their next self-imposed deadline, fundraising had still not reached its intended goal but a new plan to restructure the school’s academic programs had been approved by the faculty council. In light of the new plan, Northland College officials again decided to postpone a final decision.

On Wednesday, officials announced that with “transformative” donations and the newly structured academic model Northland College would remain open.

The new program curriculum places a higher emphasis on eight majors; business, natural resources, education, biology, psychology and social sciences, earth studies, environmental humanities and sustainable community development. Areas of emphasis will also be offered within the focused majors as well as some minor programs like Chemistry.

As a result of the more narrowly focused offerings at the school, Northland College will also reorganize its academic staff size and operational structure.

In addition to the restructuring, college officials also plan to continue exploring new revenue streams to address their short-term budget issues and plan for long-term stability.