For the past month Northland College received generous donations from the community, alumni and beyond to stay open. However, the college’s Board of Trustees will decide whether or not the school closes tomorrow.

Professor Elizabeth Andre of Northland College said they’ll need an ambitious fundraising campaign to make up the difference for what they’ll need for the coming academic year.

“I think we don’t need 12 million by today, the third of April,” Professor Andre said. “What we really need is a couple million dollars to close our operating deficit for this year. Which we’ve already gotten most of the way there.”

Donations to Northland College will be accepted until midnight Wednesday April 3rd. The school did fundraise over a million of the $12-million dollar goal. Northland students and staff are grateful for those generous funds, but it’s a long road to keep the college open.

“So really, I think it’d be more like $9 million by next July, which is a much more doable amount and timeframe,” Professor Andre said. “I think everyone’s realized just how important Northland is to the region and to the community. We’ve got a lot of supporters who want to help us meet those goals. We just need more time.”

For students not yet graduating the next steps for their education are uncertain. Audrey Long is a student herself, set to graduate this year. But for others, it’s a tough decision to transfer to another school, or wait and see if Northland stays open.

“I know people who have just like one additional semester to complete.  That’s just like really brutal to have to figure out like transfers for,” Long said. “Especially because the deadline for figuring out teach-outs and transfers is like pretty much the middle of April.”

Although the fight isn’t over just yet, with other fundraising effort still on the table. Alaina Lenz is with the group Northland Forever and says there’s over $250-thousand dollars in pledges for preservation.

“if the board of trustees makes the announcement that the college will remain open, then we’re going to call on all of our pledges to say, ‘OK, can you please now make your donation directly to the college,”. But if they move forward and say, ‘No, we’re closing the college,’ then there is no obligation for those people to actually give.”

For more information about the fundraising efforts you can read another story here.