On Wednesday, a meeting was held between Northern Michigan University administrators and student organizations on how NMU will have to stop funding the majority of DEI/multicultural events and organizations across departments and campus, due to federal mandates and the threat of losing federal funding.
This meeting comes after Queers and Allies was denied nearly $5,000 in funding from multiple departments and organizations across campus.
“To put it plainly,” said Jeff Korpi, associate vice president of Northern Student Experience, “we are here to talk about what we are trying to understand from federal guidelines that are coming from Executive Orders, that are coming from the DOJ, the Department of Justice kind of leaning in on things like the Department of Education.”
“The reason this is important is because if we fall out of compliance with the Feds, they have the ability to sue us but ultimately we are stripped of federal funding,” Korpi added.
As of last April, NMU President Brock Tessman reported that federal funding was more than a quarter of NMU’s total budget. Much of the federal funding comes in the form of Pell Grants or federal student aid, Korpi said. One of his main concerns is that if NMU is noncompliant, students who rely on the Pell Grant or federal student aid may lose their opportunity to pursue higher education.
“Right now our biggest grants, or what have been our biggest grants, some of these have been lost,” Korpi said. “Our Trio Grants, Perkins Grants and then … Research Grants; these are the types of monies that [will be] gone after if the Feds determine the institution is noncompliant.”
In the past, the Student Finance Committee (SFC) has not funded Lavender Graduation or any other affinity-based/multicultural graduation. Instead, NMU used general funds for those events through departments, which can no longer be the case as it potentially makes NMU noncompliant with federal DEI rules.
“We are really trying to keep up on the guidance coming out and as we talk to our attorney. We are trying to pin it on the things specifically mentioned in some of that guidance,” Korpi said. “One we know came out last year … that was brought up again is this idea of affinity graduations. Affinity graduations are the multicultural graduations like Lavender Graduation. That is one the Feds seem to be leaning on.”
“We know on those items we cannot use general fund money,” Korpi said. “We also cannot use Student Finance Committee dollars to fund that because it has been specifically stated right in the guidance. Our attorneys believe that is a risk going too far. That doesn’t mean we can’t use externally funded money, like external foundations and private donor money, and we know we have a big alumni base in town, as well as external grants.”
Though it is voted on by students, the SFC money allocated to a project is still university money.
“Though it [the SFC] may feel independent, it’s got some NMU and state government around that and we have to be careful with that fund as well,” Korpi said. “We are working on a set of guidelines for the SFC so they don’t approve something that puts us out of compliance.”
Some of the students in attendance asked for a list of language to use with the SFC, and the NMU administrators said they are working with their legal team to create it.
“We want to explain what can and cannot be funded through the SFC,” said Cindy Paavola, assistant to the president, “to keep us in compliance and to keep you moving forward in your projects. To be as clear as we can be, but with the understanding that things are changing. Like at the end of last semester, everything we said was 100% correct until this summer.”
More meetings are to follow with the SFC and other campus groups, but NMU administrators wanted to sit down with the student organizations who use the most money in the fall first. They hope to start planning on how to fund their own events this semester.
“There are now certain types of events that would make Northern out of compliance only if we were to give money to those events,” Paavola said.
The type of events at risk was not specified, but broad advice was given.
“It is confusing to us, and I know it has to be confusing to you,” Paavola said. “There are going to be a lot of events and our advice to you is to be able to say that ‘this event is open to everybody’; it is still risky, but it lowers the risk.”
The administrators at the meeting also explained that they are hesitant to change any policy the university may have to get around this, due to possible federal retaliation or scrutiny. The wider advice given was for students to seek external funding, but there was a caveat.
“The university cannot collect these external dollars for you,” said Shawnrece Butler, assistant vice president of Opportunity, Empowerment and People. “You have to work with an alumni group or external entity. If they come through the university system then they are considered university dollars.”
The NMU Foundation does have a policy when asking for donations: “The Foundation must be contacted prior to a fundraising mailing, solicitation or event being planned that uses university name or marks, resources, employees or facilities …. Student organizations conducting fundraising must receive prior approval from the Dean of Students, but are exempt from also receiving prior approval by the Foundation if the project goal is under $1,000. Student fundraising projects conducted as a part of academic programming, curriculum or service learning are exempt.”
One student shared their experience with this process, which started on Sept. 5 and had yet to reach approval from the Dean of Students as of the meeting. The administrators said they would speak with members of those offices. Mary Brundage, Dean of Students, at a later time said she had a meeting and the policy would be changed from approval from the Dean to approval from the Center for Student Enrichment. Students also asked if NMU could give resources for student organizations to reach out to donors, and the administrators said they will work on it.
The denial of funding certain events raised questions on how it would indirectly be funding more events for groups that are not under scrutiny, as celebratory months and holidays have come under new procedure. One of these procedures is the containment of cultural holidays/months only to be celebrated in those specific months or days.
“This past year we had a week of MLK service, for 2026 it will be back to a day …. So that we don’t get any arguments of excessive waste of government money because we are holding a weeklong celebration of a holiday,” Butler said.
Lauren Melendez-Rivero, president of the Latinx Student Union, brought up how some cultural months fall outside of the school year like Pride Month and asked how that can still be celebrated. The administrators responded with going back to the idea of external funding.
Melendez-Rivero and Grace Wisniewski, Spanish Club Social Media Chair, brought up questions regarding provocative statements, and how it feels like an encroachment on being able to freely assemble, speak and express oneself.
“Things are really sensitive out there, this is not a newsflash to you or anybody here,” Paavola said. “You can say what you think is the most innocent thing and really set off some people, and your events can do the same thing.”
The federal attacks on DEI not only threaten student organizations and celebrations at NMU, but also whole offices through grants in regards to the state-funded King-Chávez-Parks Initiative.
“We are still waiting to hear on that,” Butler said. “They are hopeful, but for my office [OEP], if that grant goes away, it will be bad for the office. Because that grant supports 90% of what is done in my office … until we have that [state] budget passed, we just don’t know.”
This topic will be discussed further at an upcoming Student Leader Summit, which will expand the meeting to include a wider group of student organizations, the date of which will be announced later.
“Don’t think all is woe,” Paavola said. “You can have events and you should have events, and we want you to go forward. A few organizations with specific events have some challenges for sure. We are working on trying to help you with those. If we can’t fund it on campus we can find you or help you with external funding. It is not a promise, but that is what our goal is.”
