Yesterday, Northland College officially closed. Today we begin Northland’s next chapter. Professor Emeritus and beloved Northland Chaplain, David Saetre provides the context and the purpose:

The academy and college were named for the region, an institution to serve the people, land and waters of Lake Superior. It would provide both classical liberal arts education with practical and experiential pedagogy. The school would be open to the children of immigrants who had come to farm the stump-barren ruins and the children of the Anishinaabe, whose sacred homeland forests had just been decimated. The founding documents state that the school would be coeducational; would provide a “more thorough training of the mind and character than is usually given”; and would make education “affordable to all who want it.” The second President, M.J. Fenenga said that Northland saw itself as “inclusive as the human venture.”

Northland College was founded upon an idea and a vision: the idea that education held the promise of a better world for generations to come and a vision that the lamp of learning would light a path toward a healed land. The North Wisconsin Academy was founded in 1892, built upon the wasteland of the “Great Cutover”, nearly 4 million acres of clear-cut barrens left behind by the 19th century timber industry. At the turn of the century this vision would come to full fruition as Northland College.

On July 14, 1892, a parade of folks from Ashland and Madeline Island marched up Ellis Avenue to the site beyond Bay City Creek to lay the cornerstone of Wheeler Hall and thus found the college. Representatives from Carleton, Beloit and Ripon Colleges were on hand, with leaders from Odanah and clergy from the Congregational Church of Wisconsin also attending. Prayers and readings were offered in Ojibwe as well as English. As the cornerstone was placed, Dr. Blaisdell of Beloit College pronounced: “An academy is not built of rock, or of granite, or of sandstone, that hardens with exposure. You may launch it with fine appointments and striking architectures, but it is not an institution until you have endowed it with a deeper life.”

The idea and the vision – to endow students and the region with a deeper life. That has been Northland’s secret through all the years of struggle. Northland has never had an easy go of it. In the early years the school was beset by deep financial struggles, including national recessions and local exigencies. The first freshman class had one student, and the first commencement celebrated three graduates. Enrollment and finances would continue to challenge the school throughout its history, while national and global events would intensify those struggles. The graduating class of 1945 included only one student, Alice Chapple. Stagnant growth and leadership turnover in the 1970s would lead to a first financial exigency.

Yet the idea and vision persist. Fenenga referred to Northland as “the compelling power of a Great Ideal.” Out of the existential crises of its first decade, the Academy would emerge as Northland College. And from the threat of closure in the 1970s the phoenix of the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute and the dedicated environmental mission for the whole college would rise. In many ways Northland has always been an idea as much a place. Even its sense of place was founded upon the big lake and the forests and hills of the region as much as a campus of buildings. The college has had to reinvent itself again and again, always in service to the compelling power of a great idea and vision – an education to create a higher path and a better way to live together in harmony with the earth – to endow the citizens of the North with that deeper life.

Now, Northland faces its greatest challenge. The buildings are closed and locked, the faculty have been dismissed, a small core of staff remains to shutter the college. A pall of grief and resignation now lies over the campus. Buildings and institutions weather, change and sometimes fall. But ideas do not die. Compelling ideas do find their way, transformed and made anew. The “Northland vision” lives on in the deeper life of students, wherever life takes them. The endowment of a deeper life has also shaped the region as students and educators stayed to make this their home. The culture of the north country owes a debt to Northland College. The people and cultural legacy of the college retain the seeds of what can come next. Here in the North, we do not know how a transformed vision might take shape, but a stirring of ideas has begun. Now is a ripening time for conversations and hope-turned-to-action as those compelling visions and ideas seek new forms and expressions. And a higher way shall be there.

Inspired by the knowledge that the Northland Idea has faced existential crises before, and convinced that the world needs Northland now more than ever, the following three groups are working closely together to help the Phoenix rise once more out of the ashes: 

  • The Northland Collaborative – Faculty members of Northland College have been working to design a continuation of the educational mission. They remain committed to exploring the fundamental interconnections between nature, place, and people, and to empowering our broader community to act with integrity and courage to create a more sustainable and just future. They are exploring educational models, including micro-colleges, offering credits through other accredited schools, and multi-generational and community education.
  • The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute (SOEI) – A group of current and previous staff members, 3 previous Directors and the current Director, previous Advisory Board members and partners are working to create or find an organization to preserve the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute mission and programs, and legacy of Sigurd F. Olson. They submitted a proposal to the Northland College Board of Trustees and College Leadership Team and expect to negotiate with them now that the College has closed its doors. 
  • The Neighbors Union – A group of Chequamegon Bay grassroots organizers, who work on diverse issues of community care, safety, healthcare, housing, education, and sustainability, are forming a working group with members of the greater community to communicate with the Northland College Trustees.  This working group seeks to ensure that the campus remains an asset to the local community, serves the public good, and continues to honor the mission of Northland College.

These three groups will participate in a panel discussion during the June 21 – 22 Alumni Weekend, June 21 – 22 in Ashland. We are looking forward to sharing ideas and engaging with the broader Northland family. 

How can you help now? Please spread the word. Be ready to answer the call when needed.

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