Greetings to all of you from Harrison Hall. I hope all of you are well and getting back to a little semblance of normalcy from COVID-19. I’m delighted to report that we’ve been back in the classroom in-person with our students again, and Harrison Hall has been bustling with spring activity.

We just finished up exam week, and it was both humbling and heartwarming to have so many seniors with family/friends in tow to say goodbye to faculty and staff one last time in Harrison Hall. It is always difficult to see them go, but it's the journey we have with them while they’re here and the great accomplishments they will achieve as alumni that makes this (in my opinion) the best job in the world. We continued our celebration with the Class of 2022 at commencement, graduating nearly 1500 undergraduates from the College of Arts and Science — a significant number of them from Political Science. See and read more on this spring’s Miami University commencement.

I wanted to announce that Dr. Mark Morris is retiring after 23 years at Miami. Mark started at Miami working at the Center for Public Management and Regional Affairs (CPMRA). and then later was appointed as a clinical faculty member in the Department. Most recently, Mark served as my Assistant Chair and the Director of CPMRA.

We had a wonderful sendoff for him, and you can see more from his party — he had a great afternoon with many students coming to see him in Harrison Hall and to eat cake! We’ll miss Dr. Morris as will all our students, and we wish him all the happiness retirement can bring.

The incoming class, the Class of 2026 is also shaping up. As of early May, the incoming class was nearly 4200 committed students — so we’ll have another big and talented class to start next year (I’ll report more on this in the fall newsletter).

The road ahead here at Miami looks bright and we always have a lot to be thankful for when it comes to our students and alumni. So much of what we do would not be possible without your willingness to “pay-it-forward." I know I’ve said this before, but it remains true — no matter the challenges we’ve faced, Miami alumni have been willing to do everything in their power to help our students. Your impact on our students has been extraordinary, and I see it first-hand all the time — whether it is from returning to campus, mentoring, helping with internships and careers, or the countless other ways you inspire and open doors of opportunity for our students.

Thank you for all you do.

Bryan Marshall
Professor and Chair
marshabw@MiamiOH.edu

We were able to once again host our annual Political Science Awards Banquet to celebrate the many achievements of our students. This is always such a fun event, and we had great turnout with over 80 students and family members.

You can see Dr. Morris to the right tasked as the banquet’s “distinguished speaker”—who says retirement is less work?

Read more about the student awards honored at the Department of Political Science Awards Banquet.