July 30, 2025
From Grand Forks Herald by Delaney Otto
EAST GRAND FORKS, MINN. — From three goals created in her temporary position, Shari Olson is now looking further ahead to what she can do as president of Northland Community and Technical College.
As staff members prepare the campuses for the fall semester, Olson has been making her own plans since she went from interim status to full president in April. To Olson, who previously worked at Northland from 1995 to 2007, it feels like she has done a 360-degree turn.
“This job is really coming full circle for me, because I came out of retirement, I moved back to Minnesota,” she said. “I still have a lot of energy left in me. … I just really love this college, so there’s no option for it to fail.”
In her time as interim president, Olson set three goals for Northland:
- Increase enrollment by 10% over three years;
- create a college-wide shared governance council model;
- and promote wellbeing opportunities for students and employees.