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Recent grad runs for NMC board [The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich.]
[October 20, 2014]

Recent grad runs for NMC board [The Record-Eagle, Traverse City, Mich.]


(Record-Eagle, The (Traverse City, MI) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 20--TRAVERSE CITY -- A Kingsley man believes his military service and recent graduation from Northwestern Michigan College make him a unique and viable candidate for one of three NMC board seats up for election.



Christopher Dailey, 32, said he spent six years in the U.S. Army before moving to the Traverse City area and enrolling in NMC, where last spring, he earned an associate degree in business administration.

"I felt my experience as a student there would be a valuable resource," Dailey said of his decision to run for the board seat.


Dailey is a guard with Grand Rapids-based DK Security who often works at Grand Traverse County court houses. He's competing against longtime NMC Trustee Ross Childs, Marilyn Gordon Dresser, Steven Rawlings and Jeremy Hawke for spots on the college board.

Dailey said, if elected, he wants to bring more internships and "service-based learning opportunities" to NMC students. He also wants to lower tuition rates for veterans.

Internships help students "get a foot in the door" of the field or industry they're studying, Dailey said. The same goes for service-based learning opportunities -- service projects created by NMC classes that put students' academic progress to the test in real-word settings.

Dailey served as treasurer of one such project while he was a student.

"Everything I learned in my accounting classes, everything I learned in my business classes, I could actually utilize in that process," he said.

Dailey said he's also pushing for NMC to offer in-district tuition rates to veterans.

"And I've gotten a lot of resistance on that already," he said.

NMC charges students who live in Grand Traverse County about $91 per contact hour; students who live in-state $180 per contact hour; and non-Michigan students about $235 per contact hour.

A bill currently in the Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee would allow voters through a ballot measure to change the state constitution to mandate community colleges offer in-district rates to veterans.

The Michigan Community College Association and NMC President Tim Nelson, a member of the association's board of directors, oppose the legislation.

Dailey supported NMC officials' decision in June to raise tuition rates.

"It's either that or a millage, and I think a millage would be a lot less popular," he said.

Dailey said he has ideas about ways NMC can cut expenses, but he declined to elaborate.

Dailey has never held elected or appointed public office before, but he said the lack of experience won't hurt him.

"I believe I'll be able to pick up a lot of it pretty quick," he said.

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