CLICK TO HEAR CALEB GORDON’S FULL INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT OLSEN
Doctor Chris Olsen officially became Northern Michigan University’s 19th president on New Year’s Day. In an interview with RRN’s Caleb Gordon, he says Northern is here to meet all educational goals.
“Sometimes that will be graduate credentials, sometimes it’ll be finishing an undergraduate credential, a two-year certificate, a four-year,” Olsen said. “I think people can fill in the kinds of careers and jobs where that’s important.”
Olsen says that Northern ‘s economic impact is huge.
“We hope, and we believe, that we provide talent in the form of graduates,” Olsen said. “We also provide employment and economic investment, too. I think all of those things are really important parts of that community-university relationship.”
Monday, January 13th marks the start of the winter semester at Northern.
“New freshmen at the start in August is always exciting,” Olsen said. “That’s a great week. But winter term is fun because you’ve got these students really looking forward to the start of their post-collegiate lives.”
He says that Northern is an impressive place, and not just because of the huge Superior Dome. He is also impressed with the layout of the campus, which is much different from what it was only a decade ago.
“The academic facilities, too,” Olsen said. “The renovated library, the great Northern Center, that shows when you get students on campus, and you get other people on campus, they recognize that right away.”
Olsen comes to Marquette from Indiana State University, where he was the provost and vice president for Academic Affairs since 2021, and previously as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and chair of the Department of History. The NMU Board of Trustees unanimously approved his appointment back in the fall.
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