Northland College Gives Itself Two More Weeks to Solve Financial Crisis and Avoid School Closure

A Thursday evening meeting left many in the NC community 'annoyed' with the uncertainty going forward after initial deadline is moved

ASHLAND, Wis. — Yesterday’s self-imposed deadline for the future of Northland College came and went. Today, college leaders said it will be another two weeks before they know for sure.

The news came during a meeting in the gymnasium. The bleachers were filled with students, staff, and faculty, gathered to learn something about their future. They were there to hear from the college president and the Chair of the Board of Trustees. Fox21 was not allowed to bring its news camera inside.

Afterward, the college issued a press release saying it remained in a serious financial crisis. Trustees will meet again in two weeks to make a final decision.

The school had a goal to raise $12 million by yesterday. They raised about 1.5 million dollars from 900 donors.

Following the meeting, Wyatt Kocurek, a freshman on the NC basketball team, voiced his frustration with the communication from leaders.

“It’s been pretty horrendous, to be quite fair,” Kocurek said. “I mean, they just keep giving us very vague, blanket responses. Which leaves a lot of uncertainty. The most in-depth they did was the potential future plan, but even that didn’t really elaborate too much. So it kind of leaves us in the dark on like, if we do stay and it does stay open, what is the school even going to look like. They just really gave us no idea. And then in the meeting, they didn’t give us anything else either.”

Kocurek has yet to complete a full year of college. He said his college experience really been impacted by the uncertainty on campus. His teammate, junior Jahlani Thorton, has already transferred once and says he doesn’t want to go through that again.

“This school really felt like home to me, so its like having to find another home, having to start all over again,” Thorton said. “And then having to start all over again, to my senior year. People like to have security and I don’t have that if the school closes.”

He added that the student athletes on campus are feeling the pressure to make decisions.

“Some athletes have to make decisions now on if we’re transferring,” Thorton said. “You know, a lot of college coaches are asking ‘are you coming or are you not’ and its like ‘oh wait, I’m trying to see if my school is closing or not.’ It’s an unfortunate time that to all happen. I know a lot of sports’ athletes are talking about transfer portals closing, so they have to reach out to coaches. We just feel like, we’re just stranded if the school closes.”

During the next two weeks, leadership will consider a new structure for the college, explore future budget changes, and try to get more donor funding.