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Thank you to Provost CallahanI wanted to once again express my appreciation to Provost Phyllis Callahan, who has announced that she will be retiring soon after 31 years of service to Miami University. Leading academic affairs at a student-centered university such as Miami, one dedicated to academic excellence through generations, is a huge responsibility. We are in a time of rapid change, and Phyllis has managed that change with discipline, integrity, and a cooperative spirit. She is a colleague, a mentor, and a friend. Not surprisingly, Phyllis has agreed to serve until a new provost is on board. Our search committee has launched a national search. Thank you again to Phyllis.
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Three things I want you to know ...Fostering a culture of sustainability at Miami: Our collective efforts have brought real results in creating a more sustainable Miami University. We have accomplished many of the goals of the 2010 Sustainability Commitments and Goals (SCAG), updated in 2016. For example, our Utility Master Plan has enabled us to reduce carbon emissions by 33% per gross square foot of building space, as of fiscal year 2018. Now, we will move forward with a new plan to promote environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and economic viability for current and future generations. I have charged our existing Sustainability Committee with creating the plan this year by defining our mission and purpose; setting new baseline standards to build on our progress; assessing our portfolio of programs, curriculum, and research related to sustainability; and identifying partnerships, both on campus and externally, that can create and maintain a culture of sustainability. The committee chairs are Suzanne Zazycki, associate director of the Institute for the Environment & Sustainability; and Helaine Alessio, chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Health. Our priority is to unify our campuses through collaboration and a vision that uplifts the entire Miami community.
Investing in Miami's future: At Faculty Assembly February 7, I updated the Miami community on the budgetary constraints and enrollment challenges facing Miami and all universities - and the investments we will make to face those challenges head-on. We will closely examine everything we do, including academic programs. We will adapt and reinvest in high-demand, high-impact academic areas that are most relevant to today's students, sustaining our excellence and advancing our future success. We will build on what makes Miami great - a core foundation in the liberal arts, a commitment to high-quality undergraduate education, and the teacher-scholar model. Miami is facing the future from a position of strength, leadership, and successful financial stewardship. Great institutions are not immune to market volatility and the disruptive changes we are seeing in higher education today, but great institutions plan and position themselves accordingly. We have created detailed budget plans to accomplish these shared goals, including the repurposing of some current funds to priority areas. Our current strategic planning process will guide and align our many efforts to advance Miami, including the comprehensive fundraising campaign with its focus on scholarships, facilities planning, and investments through the Boldly Creative fund. Deans, department chairs, and divisional leaders will update you on specific plans in your division. Thank you for your dedication to Miami as we plan for this exciting future. Planning for potential of campus development: I have often spoken of embracing creative programs, transdisciplinary efforts, and the value of new academic spaces to promote creativity and innovation. After forming a committee in December to study the feasibility of potential new buildings on the Oxford campus, we have requested qualifications for firms to help us explore the possibilities - to better define what is possible in terms of design and what costs would be involved. Associate Provost Jeff Wanko is chair of the committee. We have not made any final decisions, including potential sites or financing. Initially, we are exploring spaces for health care, data science, and innovation. If we proceed, financing for any new building likely would include state capital funds (the next capital budget takes effect in July 2020), philanthropy, and other sources. This is simply prudent planning that will inform our decisions as we develop a long-range facilities and infrastructure plan, which also will include renovations, facility improvements, and maintenance.
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Now let's meet a few members of our Miami family
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Faculty - Ayo AbatanAyo Abatan’s research is leading to safer infrastructural systems, such as buildings and bridges. Abatan, chair of engineering technology at Miami Regionals campuses in Hamilton and Middletown, has conducted research with organizations, including the U.S. Army and NASA, on “smart sensors and smart structures” that focus on infrastructure monitoring.
“We try to find a clever way to monitor structures before the actual damage is apparent on the surface,” says Abatan, a native of Nigeria who has taught at Miami for 13 years.
The next generation of smart sensors is just as ambitious: forming electrical wireless sensor networks that can monitor large groups of structures at once.
“We’re talking about an array of networks that can tag several bridges or buildings at once, collecting information on all of them simultaneously,” Abatan says.
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Staff - Carol HensleyWhen a Miami parent called her on a weekend, needing to retrieve ice skates from the mailroom for her daughter right away, Carol Hensley didn’t hesitate. She found the skates and got them to the student.
“It is these personal touches that will stay with us forever and make me highly recommend the university,” the parent wrote.
In her 11th year at Miami, Hensley enjoys providing the personal touches in her job as a customer service assistant at the mail facility inside Shriver Center.
“It’s a moving position,” she says. “We’re constantly in contact with people. I get to talk to the drivers who carry the mail and the carriers who deliver the packages. I like that.”
The move to Shriver Center brought a couple of changes, including hundreds of “smart lockers” that students can access to pick up their packages after receiving an email and an entry code.
“The only reason they should stand in line now is if the packages won’t fit into a locker,” Hensley says. “It’s a lot better system.”
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Students - National Diversity Case CompetitionRepresenting Miami University at the National Diversity Case Competition in January presented multiple opportunities for four Farmer School of Business students. The team finished sixth nationally, made professional contacts and got to know others across the country. Sophomore information systems and analytics major Quinton Ndyajunwoha, sophomore accounting major Alaina Horsford, senior marketing major Jasmine Spencer, and junior marketing major Rasheed Owens developed a case for Target, the national sponsor of the competition and subject of the case, focusing on a new urban store in Nashville, Tenn. “It allowed us to meet minority students from other universities who are high achievers and share similar goals,” says team captain Ndyajunwoha, whose grandfather was born in Uganda. “On top of it being beneficial professionally, it felt like a community.”
All of the teammates share strong aspirations. Ndyajunwoha says that for him, "the dream is to use analytics and move into some sort of sports organization or national retailer, coming up with creative solutions to difficult problems.”
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