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As thousands of students and family members prepare to come to Oxford during the next two weeks, we are excitedly making final preparations for the beginning of the semester. We are ready to once again see campus and Oxford filled with students making new friends and reuniting with old ones!
This issue of Miami Family Focus includes information about Welcome Week, roommate relationships, privacy of student records, and supporting a student who is sick while at Miami. We hope these topics will continue to assist you and your student in the last few days before fall semester begins. You can find previous issues of Miami Family Focus on our Stay in Touch page.
Love and Honor,
Mark W. Pontious
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| Welcome Weekend and the First 50 Days As new students arrive on campus and and transition to life at Miami, we intentionally provide a variety of programs, events, and activities that encourage students to engage right from the start. Welcome Weekend 2017 begins on Thursday, August 24, as most first-year students move in to the residence halls, and continues through Sunday, August 27, followed by First 50 Days transition programming, which continues through the end of Fall Break on October 15. More than 350 events will take place during these two time periods, designed to help students meet new people, connect with academic and co-curricular communities, learn their way around, and further assist in their college transition. Watch the video below for a better idea of the variety of events during this time. Welcome Weekend includes many mandatory, large-scale events for first-year students, as well as several smaller events that are focused on specific topics. During the first week of classes, students should also plan to attend Mega Fair (Wednesday, August 30, 6-9 p.m., Central Quad), where hundreds of Miami's student organizations will be present and looking for new members; from club sports to service organizations, to sororities and fraternities - there is something for everyone. To access the Welcome Weekend and First 50 Days schedule and event details, students should download the Miami University Events app from their app store, then click Download Guides and select the "Orientation and Transition 2017" guide (which is also used for first-year student orientation during the summer). The list of programs will be updated throughout the summer and is also available on the Welcome Weekend/First 50 Days website.
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Roommate Relationships: Living with Difference Two recent issues of Miami Family Focus have included information regarding your student's rights as a roommate in Miami's residence halls, as well as the roommate agreement which each resident completes with their roommate(s). This final installment of information regarding your student's roommate relationships is focused on a third topic: living with someone different. All students and their roommates entering Miami this fall have many things in common: they are members of the Class of 2021, they want to make new friends, to be academically successful, and they want to graduate from Miami. Successful roommate relationships are more likely to occur when each roommate enters the new relationship understanding that the person(s) with whom they will live will also be different in many ways. Yes, there will be differences in hobbies, music, and sleep patterns, which are important for roommates to discuss and learn about from each other, but there will also be other differences - hometowns or home country, race & ethnicity backgrounds, first language differences, socioeconomic background, sexual orientation, disability/ability, religious differences, and more - that roommates can equally embrace as opportunities to learn more about when living with someone new to them. We hope your student is willing to do so, and you have the opportunity to set the stage for this to occur.
Each year, a small number of family members call the Office of Residence Life to ask that their student's roommate be moved because of background differences mentioned in the previous paragraph, believing their student will be more comfortable living with someone with whom they have more in common or is from the same background. Instead of viewing these differences as opportunities for their student to learn, they see these differences as impediments to their student's success at Miami. And, if parents view these differences as impediments, so will their students, and the roommate relationship will likely be troubled from the start. Instead, we ask that all family members view these differences as opportunities to reciprocally learn from one another. This learning will occur over the course of the year, not just in the first few days or weeks. When family members discuss these differences as opportunities before their students even move in, roommate relationships have a greater chance of being successful. In addition, Miami cannot legally - and will not ethically - change a roommate assignment solely based on a student's differences. Do ask us in the Office of Residence Life, though, how we can help you help your student. We are glad to offer advice and to meet with your student with or without the roommate(s) to assist in navigating a positive relationship.
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| Student Records and PrivacyIn elementary and secondary education, parents or guardians may act on behalf of their student without permission of the student. However, when a student enters college, regardless of age, privacy rights reside with the student. This is the result of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law passed in 1974, which limits the release of student record information without the student's written consent.*
We encourage you to have a conversation with your student about sharing information related to their time at Miami. This may involve the student printing copies of grades and bills, utilizing myMiami for Families, or a combination of the two. Miami has created myMiami for Families, which is an online portal similar to myMiami, used by students, staff, and faculty. Your student is the only person who can invite you to join this system to view their student record. Arriving at a level of access and plan for communication you mutually agree on now will go a long way toward preventing issues later. Please visit MiamiOH.edu/FERPA for details on sharing access to student records.
Through myMiami for Families, students may grant access to any or all of the following:
- Personal information - local address, local phone, and other personal information
- Course Schedules - listing of courses for each term (previous, current, future)
- Grades - grades for each course for each term
- Bill/Payment Information - detailed listing of the student's bill and online bill payment
- Financial Aid - listing of all financial aid requirements and awards for each term
- Housing/Meal Plan - information concerning student housing assingment and meal plan balances
This access will remain until your student removes permission. myMiami for Families provides links to this information, as well as to frequently used University resources and information. myMiami for Families does NOT provide access to a student's email account, the course registration system, faculty comments about your student, other information about how your student is doing (beyond final, and in some cases midterm grades), discipline records, or medical and counseling records.
Access to discipline and medical records
If a student under the age of 21 is found responsible for a violation of the Code of Student Conduct involving alcohol or drugs, the Office of Ethics and Student Conflict Resolution (OESCR) contacts parents or guardians by mail regarding the violation after adjudication of the incident has concluded. Students must sign an Authorization for Release of Information in OESCR before the office will discuss any other aspects of the student's discipline record.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) covers the privacy of medical records. Your student must sign an Involvement of Care form at the Student Health Service prior to the release of information. The student will indicate the time period for which the release is authorized (one visit, one month, all four years).
*FERPA allows for the release of information to a parent or guardian without student consent if the parent or guardian claims the student as a dependent on their most recent Federal Income Tax Return.
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Meal Plan ReminderIn early July, all students living on campus received a message to their Miami email address reminding them of the meal plan they have selected for fall semester and encouraging them to review available meal plan options to make the choice right for them. Students can change their meal plans up until the first day of fall semester. Visit the Meal Plans website for additional information.
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Supporting a Student Who is Sick
Students tend to think about their health almost exclusively when it is waning. Good health is easy to take for granted, but it is not guaranteed, and it is essential to student success. In terms of prevention, you should continue sharing the things you have imparted to your students over many years: get eight hours of sleep; eat a balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables; drink plenty of water; take time to exercise; practice good hygiene, especially washing hands thoroughly and regularly; and consider getting a flu shot later this fall. Even with these practical precautions, it is inevitable that many new students will pick up a bug or two this year. When they do, please know that help is close by.
During the week (Monday-Friday) your student can visit Student Health Services between the hours of 8am and 6pm. The first appointment must be made by phone (513-529-3000). Once the student is registered into the My Chart system, subsequent appointments can be made online. The health clinic also includes a pharmacy, so that most of your student's needs can be handled in a single stop. Student Health will bill all third party insurances for services, except pharmacy services, which must be paid, then submitted to insurance for reimbursement.
Of course bugs don't respect the academic calendar or work week, so if your student gets ill over the weekend, help is available in town. Oxford is fortunate to have McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital, which includes a fully-staffed emergency department open 24/7, and the Oxford Urgent Care Clinic, which is open 10am to 6pm, Saturday and Sunday. Student Health also offers limited Saturday hours, 10am-2pm, almost every weekend of the fall and spring semesters.
Other important aspects of supporting a student who is sick include proactive notification of all professors and making arrangements for meals. Proactive communication with teachers about missing class due to illness is always preferred, though not always possible. If your student is hospitalized for an illness, the Office of the Dean of Students can provide faculty notification, though all decisions related to attendance and make-up work rest with the individual faculty member.
We will also host a webinar on this topic on Wednesday September 20, where you can receive more information and ask questions.
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