Northland College’s new and returning students are eager to start their fall classes. Although there was some uncertainty whether or not the college would close due to budget concerns.

Many students were already planning to transfer to other schools, if Northland College closed its doors. Faculty members thought the school would close after the 2024 spring semester. Although, Northland College’s president president Chad Dayton said on May 1st, the Board of Trustees would have the private college remain open.

After months of students deciding if they would need to finish their education elsewhere, there’s plenty of new freshmen at Northland College. Mychal Castill and Grant Vessey are new students this year.

Castill traveled up to Northland from Arizona, and Vessey came out west from Washington to get their college education here in Wisconsin. They say if Northland College would have closed, it would have crushed their dreams playing on the college’s baseball team.

“If I didn’t find another school, I’d probably just go to the U of A. It’s a school in town and it’s like 7,000 or 8,000 students,” Castill said. “Which is fine, but I wasn’t trying to be like lost in a number and not being able to talk to my professors, see what’s going on. So it would have just been like that.”

“Yeah, I’m really glad it stayed open. It’s kind of nice because everyone you walk by, you can just say ‘Hi!’ to. I definitely didn’t want to go to a huge school,” Vessey said. “I’m super excited. I mean, I’m only one class in, but I’m already having a great time. I’ve made better friends probably already than I had in high school, so I love it here.”

Both Castill and Vessey shared their thoughts on what first went through their minds when they heard the school wouldn’t be closed.

“I was like immediately like, ‘Oh my God, I got to figure out if I’m even going to school this year.’ So I was really keeping in touch with the academic advisors and the coach trying to figure out what the plan is,” Castill said. “So when they did tell me that they’re not closing, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is awesome.’

“I kind of the same. I started talking to the baseball coach like right after they confirmed that they were staying open,” Vessey said. “His confidence about like the next five years kind of like reassured me that it was gonna be open.”

But what about the returning college students? They were on the edge of their seats to see if the private institution would remain open or closed this fall semester. Donna Jackson is a senior student this year who’s on track to graduating in the spring. She says her family lives in Florida and can’t wait to finish her education and graduate next year.

“I’m a thousand miles away from home. So you really gotta love it to travel a thousand miles away from home. I have so many jobs on campus and I’m an athlete and I love the professors,” Jackson said. “I was like, ‘Moving to a new school for last year, it’s kind of hard to network and make those connections that you need for your further career,’. So it was very uncertain, but you just kind of have to hold out on like hope, you know? Northland’s kind of magical like that.”

Alexander Patterson, the vice president for enrollment at northland college, says there’s reason to be hopeful. He says the administration is on track to retain more students and searching for newer applicants.

“I think I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t nervous. There was a lot of moving pieces in a small period of time that we were all working on. But I’m thankful for everyone that came together and really rallied around Northland. I am just super excited to be here and to continue the legacy of Northland College for another hundred years to come.”

Northland College’s new refocused model would allow the institution to continue educating for the foreseeable future. As it may be expected, there’s been fewer students enrolled this fall semester. Earlier this year there were 400 students enrolled at Northland College, and now there’s around 300 students for the fall semester.

“Obviously there was a lot that happened here over the spring, but I have seen a lot of just resilience and excitement from our students, staff, faculty, and really just a lot of positivity about the start of classes, the return this fall. I think we’re all just really excited to be here and continue to support students and just the activities that go on here at Northland.”

While classes are going on this fall, there are still fundraising efforts to support Northland College. A group of Alumni known as Northland Forever, are dedicated to spreading awareness and preserving the college’s legacy. There’s already over $280-thousand dollars in pledges for preservation.