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Home stretch of a terrific yearIt's a sprint to the finish of the academic year at Miami, and one word keeps popping up in my mind: accomplishment. We celebrate all of the accomplishments of our students, faculty and staff through annual awards. The accomplishments of the Miami community are on full display: our beautiful and well-maintained campuses, our consistent preparation and support for our students, and the devotion and success of our alumni. And this weekend, we will celebrate the accomplishments of our 2019 graduates at Commencement. I cannot wait to see it all happen.
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Three things I want you to know ...Miami's Class of 2023 is taking shape: National Decision Day for high school seniors was May 1, and confirmations for our incoming class are signaling significant increases. At this point, we have the largest number of total confirmations, out-of-state students and domestic students of color in Miami history. We are up more than 400 confirmations overall (a 10% increase), while increasing academic quality with an average ACT and high-school GPA higher than last year's outstanding class. Out-of-state confirmations have increased by more than 300. While international confirmations have decreased, an expected trend across the country, our overall results are positive. Finally, we have confirmations from 12 of our new Presidential Fellows - with an average ACT score of 34.8! The Strategic Planning Steering Committee reports to Miami community: Last week, the Strategic Planning Steering Committee presented a broad overview of its initial recommendations to the Faculty Assembly. Chairs Julia Guichard and Bob Applebaum led this session. The committee was charged with creating bold strokes that will identify and clear a path to advancing Miami while solidifying our core strengths. Their initial findings make clear the value of the teacher-scholar model and our historic excellence in undergraduate education and the liberal arts, while opening pathways to organizational innovations that will prepare our students to create solutions in our state, nation and world. The priorities identified in the strategic plan will be presented to the Board of Trustees in late June.
Boldly Creative starts now!: We have launched the first round of investments in Boldly Creative, our $50 million academic development fund to advance the next generation of academic excellence at Miami. These resources will propel Miami into the future, enhancing our academic excellence and accelerating new program development. We have chosen seven projects this year, and funding will accelerate rapidly in future years as these initiatives develop. Visit our Boldly Creative website for a full list of selected projects.
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Now let's meet a few members of our Miami family
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Faculty - Frank HuangFrank Huang is on a mission: To help others love classical music as much as he does.
The Juilliard-educated associate professor of piano has been at Miami for six years. The Seattle native says, “I truly believe that classical music is – and should be – for everyone.”
Huang earned tenure at Miami in February. He maintains a virtual online recital series on his blog and a robust social media presence at @frankhuangpiano.
He has made a name studying lesser-known composers, particularly those from under-represented groups. He has played in China, Korea and London, and will be performing in Paris this fall.
“I want people to be able to relate to the music,” Huang says. “I get to perform and travel the world, and I get to call that research. How lucky is that?”
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Staff - Doug SlingerlandDoug Slingerland has worked for years making sure the same building is clean and secure. Warfield Hall on the Oxford campus is his turf, and he takes it seriously.
What Slingerland really likes about Miami is the people – especially the ones who keep their workspace clean.
“I like the people in the building a lot,” said Slingerland, who just passed 30 years employment at Miami. “They show me respect, and they care about the building. They make the work a lot easier for me. They don’t like big messes either.”
Slingerland spent four years in the U.S. Navy before coming to work at Miami in 1988. He’s seen many changes over those years. These days, he cleans Warfield Hall and the Sesquicentennial Chapel, working from 3-11 a.m. each day.
“I like working on my own,” Slingerland says. “I like the freedom of it. This building is not too big, so I can really work at keeping it in good shape.”
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Student - Hannah ClarkeOne of my favorite things about Miami students is that they don't wait until graduation to write their first book or start their first company. They do that at Miami, while they are undergraduates. So it is with Hannah Clarke, who has written that first book while still at Miami. Called “The Scapegracers” and to be published by Erewhon Books sometime in 2020, the young adult novel traces a teenage gang of witches.
“I did it in a very traditional way,” says Clarke, who went to high school in Oxford, will graduate next month and is headed to graduate school at the University of Chicago. “My advance is going to get me through grad school, that’s for sure.”
Clarke may just be helping redefine "the traditional way" at Miami. With three majors (Classical Humanities; Creative Writing; and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies) and as president of the Spectrum group for LGBTQ students, they are immersed in the activist culture at Miami. Clarke is not afraid to advocate for other students or for themselves, including through dedication to research and scholarship on queer theory. "Having a close-knit activist community of people I know will nurture me emotionally is something that's been very helpful," Clarke says. "I've made such a family here. So leaving that is going to be interesting."
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