College of Menominee Nation expands campus cultural and wellness programs

The College of Menominee Nation this week posted a series of cultural and wellness events and published its Fall 2025 Dean's List, signaling institutional emphasis on cultural practice, student wellness, and Menominee-language recognition. The site lists multiple structured opportunities for students and community members to participate and provides contact information for program sign-up and questions.

Events listed around Jan. 14 include recurring cultural sessions and hands-on workshops. Breathe and Bead and Weaving Wednesdays were posted for Jan. 14 as campus offerings blending wellness with traditional craft. Moccasin Making was listed Jan. 15 as a hands-on cultural workshop and appears again on the calendar for Jan. 19. Ribbon Shirt or Skirt Wednesdays was listed both Jan. 14 and Jan. 21 as a campus cultural recognition initiative encouraging students and staff to wear ribbon regalia on Wednesdays. Upcoming student-focused events include Beading for Bliss and a Talking Circle in the Wellness Resource Room SD118, both scheduled for Jan. 20. The campus calendar also notes that the campus will be closed Jan. 19 in observance of Martin Luther King Day.

Alongside the events calendar, the college posted its Dean's List for Fall 2025, recognizing students who earned term GPAs of 3.5 or higher. The honors page includes distinctions presented with Menominee-language elements, reflecting an institutional choice to incorporate the county's indigenous language into academic recognition.

For Menominee County residents, the programming carries immediate cultural and civic value. Regular cultural practice sessions and language-visible honors advance local goals of language preservation and intergenerational transmission, while wellness-linked activities such as talking circles and beadwork gatherings address student mental health and community cohesion. The college's open invitation to community participation may also strengthen town-gown ties and create volunteer and partnership pathways for local organizations.

From an institutional and policy perspective, the slate of events highlights priorities college leadership is choosing to foreground: cultural programming, student-centered wellness, and language recognition. Those choices have budgetary and staffing implications that county officials and higher education overseers may monitor as they make funding and partnership decisions. The visible integration of Menominee-language distinctions into academic honors also raises questions about how the college will measure progress on language revitalization and whether program outcomes will be tracked and reported to stakeholders.

Practical next steps for residents include checking the college website for contact details and event registration, and considering collaboration opportunities for local schools, health providers, and cultural organizations. As the college continues its winter calendar, county leaders and voters will see tangible examples of how institutional priorities translate into community programming and may weigh those developments in future discussions about education and cultural support.