Courtesy College of St. Scholastica
Private Colleges
College of St. Scholastica lab students share notes. The college’s modest student enrollment allows more staff attention. “The cracks to fall through are really small here. You almost have to work hard to be invisible,” says Eric Berg, vice president for enrollment management.
On the campuses of private universities, students aren’t alone in finding their niches to thrive. The private colleges themselves must develop their own ways to attract students when competing against state-funded public universities.
The Big Lake region has three private four-year colleges: Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan; the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth; and Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin.
Each is distinguishing itself to students by touting the personalized offerings afforded with smaller enrollments and by developing a distinct niche.
“We all have some very, very deep roots and identities that are remarkable,” says Philip Johnson, president of Finlandia University, of his colleagues around Lake Superior.
1 of 2
Courtesy Finlandia University
Private Colleges
Robust programs in art, design, business and health sciences distinguish Finlandia’s academic offerings. The university sells its setting, too, including access to Portage Lake for leisure and artistic inspiration.
2 of 2
Courtesy Finlandia University
Private Colleges
Athletics aid Finlandia's growth; about half of its 537 students compete, from Lions football to golf.
Schooling with Sisu
If you spend much time traveling Lake Superior’s shores, you’re likely to encounter the Finnish word “sisu” on bumper stickers, apparel and even tattooed on skin. Meaning persistence in the face of adversity, sisu represents the Finnish cultural identity, in Finland itself and here in the Upper Midwest, where so many Finnish immigrants settled in the 19th century.
A large contingent of Finns made new homes in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, drawn by the many jobs in the mining and logging industries.
These immigrants hoped to provide other opportunities for their children. In 1896, they founded Suomi College in Hancock. In those early years, the school’s mission was to train Lutheran ministers, teach English and preserve local Finnish heritage. Its first graduating class had 11 students.
The college lives on today as the four-year Finlandia University, serving 537 students this current school year. It embraces its private status and unique heritage in a number of ways. One of them is sisu.
Few students today are drawn solely by the Finnish history, though the connection is maintained by the Finnish American Heritage Center, study-abroad programs and visiting lecturers. Finlandia has instead “built an ethos around a heritage,” says Philip. “We really value the opportunity to lead our students into a deeper understanding and appreciation for sisu.”
Administrators use the concept to frame the student experience – encountering and overcoming obstacles, adapting to a changing economy and job market, learning to live on your own.
Sisu has found a place on the athletic fields, too.
Coming out of high school, many students want to continue athletic careers along with their studies. Finlandia’s recent investments in its Division III athletic programs and facilities have provided that opportunity for hundreds of students. In fact, 51 percent of the university’s students this year are student-athletes. “We are very committed to providing opportunities for students to study and compete,” Philip says. “And it most certainly provides an opportunity for recruiting from across the country, an opportunity to compete and earn a degree along the way.”
Finlandia maintains an affiliation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America – something verboten at a public school. For those interested, says Philip, “we are able to engage students openly in terms of spirituality.” But, he notes, the modern Finlandia is not a parochial school. Rather, Finlandia infuses the curriculum and student life with a set of universal values, such as a strong emphasis on service. That appeals to students of any or even no faith.
Finlandia’s enrollment jumped 25 percent last year, and there’s plenty of room for more growth. The university’s capacity is 750 students, a goal Philip hopes it reaches by 2021.
Finlandia University, Hancock, 906-482-5300, www.finlandia.edu.
A Benedictine Base
Like Finlandia, Duluth’s College of St. Scholastica has religious roots that remain a part of its identity as a private school.
Before it became a four-year college in 1924, St. Scholastica was founded in 1892 as “a Benedictine mother-house and an academy,” according to a history compiled for the school’s centennial. “In response to the growing community’s needs, the school expanded its course offerings in 1912 to include a junior college.”
The college awarded its first bachelor’s degrees in 1926 and added a nursing degree in 1928 to staff Benedictine hospitals, including St. Mary’s in Duluth. Although the liberal arts college has expanded far beyond nursing and theology, the Benedictine connection has never been severed.
Case in point: The campus still hosts the nearly 100 sisters at the St. Scholastica Monastery, as well as a Benedictine Health Center. Several sisters serve on the board of trustees, and the college made national headlines last year when “CBS Evening News” featured Sister Lisa Maurer, the kicking coach for the football team.
Where Finlandia has sisu, St. Scholastica has dignitas. Latin for dignity, it’s a required first-year seminar introducing students to Benedictine values like social justice, lifelong learning, hospitality and service.
“It’s not about creating new Catholics,” says Beth Domholdt, vice president for academic affairs. “It’s about taking a set of values. We want that values base and value stamp on those graduates. It’s strongly infused across the curriculum.”
On Community Days twice a year, the college cancels classes so students can volunteer in the community, helping with everything from tutoring high schoolers to preparing meals for those in need.
That St. Scholastica can mandate such a day is a perk of being a private institution.
“We’re not beholden to the state government when it comes to how we do things here,” says Eric Berg, vice president for enrollment management. “The money that we bring in from student tuition and fees and fundraising is really up to us as to how we choose to invest that. We have freedoms here that I suppose state colleges don’t have.”
The private status also means more flexibility when adding programs. St. Scholastica’s longstanding relationships with regional healthcare employers, for example, keep the school attuned to their needs. “We can recognize a good idea and make it happen relatively quickly,” says Beth. They’ve been doing so since 1935, when administrators developed the first medical records program (now known as health information management) in the United States.
A new Health Sciences Pavilion, slated to open in fall 2016, will allow the college to add a much-needed physician assistant program, along with expanded offerings in physical and occupational therapy.
Adds Beth, “You can’t go to a health or social services agency in this part of the country and not see a fingerprint of Scholastica on it.”
To further differentiate itself, Scholastica in recent years has added dozens of online programs, from a bachelor’s degree in accounting to a master’s in education. Many can be completed entirely online, a flexible option for students completing a degree, picking up a certificate later in life or living far out in a rural area.
College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, (218) 723-6000, www.css.edu.
Courtesy Northland College
Private Colleges
Northland College Professor Randy Lehr (right) is co-director of the school’s new freshwater innovation center. Students like Joe Fitzgerald (left) choose the college for its hands-on environmental focus.
E2: Environment Meets Education
The 1890s were fruitful years for education on our shores. In 1892 – the same year Scholastica’s predecessor opened and four years before Finlandia’s – the North Wisconsin Academy was founded just one block from Lake Superior in Ashland. The academy was reborn in 1906 as Northland College.
For 65 years, Northland served students in the region as a traditional, four-year liberal arts college. In 1971, a year after the first annual Earth Day was celebrated, Northland pivoted. An environmental conference featuring conservationist Sigurd Olson (a former Northland student) and Sen. Gaylord Nelson (the founder of Earth Day who helped establish Apostle Islands National Lakeshore) marked the start of a new era, one with an environmental focus that’s imbued in every department today.
Northland had found its niche.
A vision statement lays out the college’s goals: “Northland College will be the nation’s pre-eminent liberal arts college focused on the environment, preparing students and other stakeholders to lead us toward a more sustainable, just and prosperous future.”
The college’s Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute opened in 1972. “Malcolm McLean (Northland’s president in the 1970s) recognized we needed to be training the next generation in environmental stewardship,” says Michael Miller, Northland’s current president.
Programs and initiatives focus on water, climate change, sustainable living, environmental restoration, food and rural community development. In a small city on the shore of the world’s largest freshwater Lake, Northland is well positioned to offer hands-on learning about all of those issues.
To aid its work with water, the college opened a freshwater innovation center in 2015. Its directors believe water will soon replace oil as the world’s most important natural resource – with the Great Lakes as a new Saudi Arabia. What better place to study the trend than water-rich northern Wisconsin?
“In the last five years, we’ve worked to evolve our curriculum, take inventory of our natural assets, build our pillars of strength and stay relevant,” says Michael. To survive as a small private college, “we need to be nimble on our feet, create partnerships, diversify revenue and embrace and build on our assets.”
Northland walks all of its talk, too, an important selling point to prospective students and a commitment current students uphold.
Northland boasts that 38 percent of its cafeteria food is grown locally, and in the fall of 2014 the college announced a goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. That means the school would offset its carbon emissions by producing or buying renewable energy. Those emissions can also be offset by planting trees. Northland would like to eventually eliminate its use of fossil fuels altogether.
Battling climate change is a rather unenviable task for the next generation of environmentally focused leaders, but, says Michael, “we’re counting on their passion, instincts and ingenuity to lead us into the future.”
Northland College, Ashland, 715-682-1699, www.northland.edu.
