News

Portrait of April Stone, a Northland College alum

A Deeper Weave

April Stone '95

“I knocked forty-six years off that tree,” April Stone ’95 says, pointing back to her house. She’s referring to the pale, bark-less core of a black ash log atop a sawhorse. April lives at the southeastern corner of the Bad River Reservation, her house tucked in beneath an umbrella of healthy hardwoods. April separates black…

Portrait of Roger Dreher with canoe paddle.

When Missions Align

Roger Dreher contributes annually to a scholarship to assist students.

First, the loon report. Sitting on his back deck looking out at Lake Wilipyro near Drummond, Roger Dreher tells his guests about a pair of nesting loons, how they first tried to hatch loon babies in early May, made a second attempt in late May, and made one last unsuccessful try with two eggs on…

Northland College professors and student working on trails.

Tyler Forks Community Forest

Northland Partners with Landmark Conservancy

In October, red leaves floating to the ground are about the only sound at Tyler Forks Community Forest, located thirty minutes south of campus. The 590-acre forest was purchased by Landmark Conservancy in 2019 and has become an additional outdoor classroom and recreational area for students and the general public. In the last two years,…

Northland College Professor Alissa Hulstrand conducts genetic testing.

Hulstrand Collects Clues Through DNA Testing

Burke Center Research

On a sunny, summer Monday afternoon, Dr. Alissa Hulstrand, assistant professor of biology and affiliated faculty of the Burke Center, ate lunch at Maslowski Beach while keeping her eyes on the seagulls nearby. She was waiting for one of them to defecate so she could swoop in for the poop. One did but she realized…

Northland College commencement speaker Ella Shively.

Examining One’s Precious Life

2021 Commencement Address

On our day off between class sessions this March, I took myself on a bookstore tour of Bayfield County. I promised myself I wasn’t going to spend any more money on books; I was only going to look. So, as I walked out of Honest Dog Books with a thick compilation of Mary Oliver poetry,…

Northland College alum Halee Kirkwood holds books inside bookstore.

Where the Love Is

Halee Kirkwood '15 connects community through literature.

If Halee’s life were a book, it would be magical realism—one filled with dragons to slay, charming characters, and chance encounters gripped with meaning. Halee Kirkwood ’15, who uses the pronouns they/them/theirs, is an adjunct professor at Hamline University, editor of the literary journal Runestone, teacher at the Loft Literary Center, a poet and writer,…

Big Lake Organics owners Jamie Tucker and Todd Rothe stand near compost pile.

Rebuilding the Health of Our Planet

Todd Rothe ’10 and Jamie Tucker ’16 launch a Big Lake Organics.

On September 1, 2021, Todd Rothe ’10 and Jamie Tucker ’16 pulled on leather gloves, hooked up a trailer to a truck, and began collecting garbage bins of food scraps, coffee grounds, and paper products to haul to a farm field to begin the composting process. “We’re turning organic waste into soil, and we can…

Aerial photo of North Fish Creek in northern Wisconsin.

Burke Center Slows the Flow of Runoff

Fish Creek Project Aims To Keep Thousands Of Tons Of Sediment From Entering Chequamegon Bay

In 2018, flooding over Father’s Day weekend carved a hole through a major highway in far northwestern Wisconsin, disrupting travel for months and sending three times the amount of sediment that flows each year into one Lake Superior bay. Now, a project aims to slow the flow of runoff as the region faces more frequent, intense storms…

graphic of founding fathers

What the Founders Got Wrong

A Constitution Day Conversation

The College invited Russ Feingold, Wisconsin’s former US Senator and current president of the American Constitution Society as its speaker for Constitution Day, a September 17 federal observance recognizing the adoption of the US Constitution and those who have become US citizens by birth or naturalization. “Anyone who knows me knows your part of the…

Professor Joel Glickman

Musician, Poet Joel Glickman Pens First Children’s Book

Joel Glickman, emeritus professor of music at Northland College, has written his first children’s book, the delightfully playful Marisol the Parasol: A Bumbershoot Romance. Joel lives on Ellis Avenue—a few blocks from the College—with his wife, Susan, where he can often be found playing banjo on his front stoop. He is a musician, prolific poet,…