ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – On Monday, the president of Bay College virtually addressed the public to outline her goals for both the Escanaba and Iron Mountain campuses over the next five years.
Since taking on the title in the summer of 2023, President Dr. Nerita Hughes and a “strategic planning team” have been developing five strategic pillars for Bay College. The first pillar is to “amplify institutional value and brand identity.”
“The first thing that I kept hearing was, ‘Oh, Bay College! Oh my god, you all are the best-kept secret,'” said Dr. Hughes. “I don’t want to be the best-kept secret. I don’t want it to be, ‘I stumbled across you.’ I want to be the place that people call.”
Secondly, Dr. Hughes wants to create a “holistic experience” for students by streamlining each step they are expected to take.
“We had a fragmented system,” she said. “This is going to help us make it more cohesive to the time that they register to the time that they show up into one of the faculty member’s classes. That process should be very smooth.”
Dr. Hughes also wants to make things smoother for faculty and staff by focusing on “care and well-being” through efficiency, flexibility, and opportunity.
“What I always heard when I first got here is, ‘We’ve always done it this way,'” she said. “You almost have to unlearn, change, and then re-learn… How do we shift that institutional culture?”
Dr. Hughes also highlighted ways Bay can continue to grow the local workforce by building “industry-responsive partnerships.”
“Business and industry, you all have demand,” said Dr. Hughes. “We’re the supply, right? How do we re-look at some of our curriculum that could be changed to align with industry so we have a more cohesive way of working back and forth with our key constituents?”
Finally, she addressed the need to adopt technology that will keep Bay College moving forward. Dr. Hughes believes these strategic plans are the keys to maintaining Bay’s role as “the community’s college.”
“We’re going to continue to listen and lead,” she said. “We’re going to set specific, measurable, attainable, timely, inclusive, and equitable goals… Changing a campus culture is a marathon, not a sprint.”
For the full description of each of Bay College’s strategic pillars, click here.
