The Great Lakes Maritime Academy (GLMA) will soon add a new vessel to its fleet, and Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) is taking another stab at getting state funding for a long-in-the-works student services hub.

GLMA’s new tugboat
Addressing the NMC Board of Trustees at a meeting Monday, GLMA Superintendent Jerry Achenbach outlined plans to procure a new tugboat for use in academy programming. Built in 1958 and until now in service for the U.S. Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation (GLS), the Robinson Bay will allow GLMA to replace a leased tugboat that costs the college $38,000 per year.

According to Achenbach, GLMA has been “diplomatically lobbying” for GLS to donate the Robinson Bay to NMC for years. While the vessel is 66 years old, Achenbach said it is in good operational condition and is only being phased out of the GLS fleet because that organization is acquiring newer vessels.

About a month ago, the GLS finally put out a call for proposals in hopes of finding a new home for the Robinson Bay. GLMA submitted a proposal, and per Achenbach, the school heard last week it had been chosen to receive the tugboat.

Since the Robinson Bay is a donation, the boat itself won’t cost GLMA or NMC a dime. Still, Achenbach warned trustees there would costs – he estimated about $300,000 – to transport the boat from its location in Massena, New York and to “get it certified for cadet use.” He also told the board that GLMA currently has more than $700,000 in a restricted account, earmarked specifically for “facilities, fuel, simulations, and vessels.” That money comes from the National Maritime Heritage Grants Program, which takes funds from the scrapping and sale of obsolete National Defense Reserve Fleet vessels and funnels them to maritime academies across the country. According to Achenbach, that money can be legally used to get the Robinson Bay up to certification standard.

The Heritage Grant money can’t be used “for crew costs, travel, and things to that effect,” but Achenbach pointed to an unrestricted GLMA fund held by the NMC Foundation to cover those additional expenses. That fund, he said, currently has about $80,000.

In addition to eliminating the $38,000-per-year cost of leasing a tugboat, Achenbach said the Robinson Bay will enable GLMA to add more opportunities for cadets to earn certain industry certifications. He estimated GLMA could boost its revenue by $20,000 per year just by adding one additional course section aboard the tugboat.

According to NMC Communications Director Cari Noga, GLMA will take possession of the Robinson Bay at a “‘handing over’ ceremony” tentatively scheduled for November 22, but the boat “won’t be in TC until 2025 due to needed work at a shipyard.” The vessel’s local arrival, she says, could happen any time “between February and commencement in May.”

Student services hub
Also at Monday’s meeting, the NMC board voted to approve its Fiscal Year 2026 Five Year Capital Outlay Plan. That plan, which will now be submitted to the Michigan Office of the State Budget, is the college’s way of seeking state dollars for capital projects. Several years ago, NMC received $7.4 million in capital outlay dollars from the state to help pay for the $14.4 million construction of the Timothy J. Nelson Innovation Center.

Since 2017, NMC’s capital outlay asks have repeatedly prioritized renovating the college’s Osterlin Building into an “integrated student services hub.” The Ticker detailed plans for that facility in summer 2021, and those plans haven’t changed much since. The goal is to consolidate a range of student services – including admissions, financial aid, student financial services, advising, tutoring, counseling, international outreach, health, veteran services, and student life – under one roof.

Despite multiple asks, the Osterlin project has yet to receive state funding, but trustees decided to prioritize it again in the latest capital outlay plan. The reason is that the Osterlin project is a key domino that needs to fall for the college to pursue other aspects of NMC Thrive, its newly-adopted facilities master plan. Troy Kierczynski, NMC’s vice president of finance and administration, told The Ticker last year that consolidating services to Osterlin would free up space elsewhere on main campus, thereby allowing the college to take everything based at the NMC University Center campus and move in to main campus. NMC would then utilize the University Center building as a “strategic real estate asset.”

At Monday’s meeting, board secretary Chris Bott raised concerns about the mounting urgency of the Osterlin renovation, which is tabbed in the NMC Thrive plan to begin in the middle of next year and be finished by the end of 2026.

“Do we continue to advocate the Osterlin as our top capital outlay program? It’s been there for a number of years,” Bott said. “At what point will we decide that we can’t wait for state money? …At what point do we decide that we have to move forward and find an alternative way to fund this, if it’s a critical item that’s going to help with the magical migration over to our main campus? I wouldn’t want to see this thing two years from now, and not have this renovation done, not have a consolidated student center… So my question is, what’s going to be the tipping point?”

Kierczynski said that, unlike other major capital projects on NMC’s plate – the construction of a new aviation hangar, for instance – the renovation of the Osterlin Building “is not a revenue-generating project” and would therefore be harder to pay off “if we do decide to borrow for the project.” He added that NMC should consider Osterlin for future “millage opportunities,” or as part of a currently-brewing fundraising campaign.

On the fundraising front, NMC President Nick Nissley told the board that Dino Hernandez, the college’s new chief advancement officer, has “already made [the Osterlin project] part of our ask [to donors], and we do have a number of asks out regarding this.”

Nissley previously told The Ticker that planning for NMC’s next major fundraising campaign would begin “the day Dino walks in the door.”