Northern Michigan University is located in
Marquette,
Michigan, which is in
Marquette County, Michigan. Founded in
1899, NMU was made to increase the number of teachers in the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Today, NMU has about 8,600 students. 5 years ago, then president, Judy Bailey, introduced the
IBM ThinkPad laptop initiative where every full-time student receives an IBM ThinkPad. Every two years, the school leases out a new model to replace the two year old ones. This way, technology on campus is kept up to date. This program has been a model for other schools across the United States to follow.
Over the past 100 years, Northern has grown in every way possible. With
low tuition costs, NMU is an attractive school for out-of-state and in-state students. Numerous dorms have been constructed including:
Van Antwerp, Hunt, Halverson, Gant, Spooner (upper-classmen), and others. Class rooms have also been constructed: New Science Facility (waiting for a donor to attribute a name to),
West Science,
Olson Library, Hedgecock, Jamrich, among others.
Outside of education, NMU plays numerous sports. In the early 90's, NMU has one of the best
hockey teams in the nation. Currently, their woman's
volleyball team is ranked among the best. Besides them, there are
American Football,
Basketball,
skiing, among others. To help promote sports across the university and country, NMU is home to
USOEC(United States Olympic Education Center). Hundreds of young
Olympic hopefuls come to NMU to study and train. USOEC trains for
speed skating,
boxing,
wrestling, and
weightlifting.
NMU also hosted the 2003
World Cup speed skating championship.
Visit the NMU web site at http://www.nmu.edu/