NMU campus going tobacco-free

The Northern Michigan University campus will go tobacco-free next summer. NMU’s Board of Trustees banned cigarettes, chewing tobacco and e-cigarettes from all campus areas at its meeting on Friday.

The ban will take effect on August 1st, 2014. The only exceptions to the ban would be public sidewalks and roadways that border the campus, the NMU Golf Course and personal vehicles that do not have any minors inside and that have their windows closed. Native American and religious ceremonies are addressed in university policies.

The board members approved charters and start-up boards for three schools in the Lower Peninsula, effective July 1st. The move now gives NMU 10 charter schools. Three of them are in the U.P., and those are Bahweting Anishnabe in Sault Ste. Marie, Nah Tah Wahsh in Hannahville and North Star Academy in Marquette.

The NMU board also bought the mBank building and property on Presque Isle Avenue in Marquette for $425,000. mBank is in the process of combining its two Marquette branch locations into a single branch that will open later this month.