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A vision for Miami's futureLast week in my annual address, I celebrated the successes of 2017-18 with the Miami community and addressed our planning for Miami’s future.
We stand in a position of strength. I called on all of us to honor our mission and purpose, while reaching forward to a future of innovation and change. We must continue to invest in Miami’s core strengths of academic excellence and student experience, while embracing a spirit of collaboration to sustain that excellence in today’s rapidly evolving higher education landscape.
If you weren't able to make it last week, read the speech and let me know what you think.
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Three things I want you to know ...Planning for our future – starting now: We have launched a new strategic planning effort for Miami, building on the remarkable success of the Miami 2020 Plan and envisioning a future of innovation, growth and accelerated investments in our core strengths. Julia Guichard, professor and chair of the Department of Theatre, and Bob Applebaum, professor of sociology and gerontology and director of the Ohio Long-Term Care Research Project, have agreed to chair the Strategic Planning Committee. We are currently identifying other members of the committee, as well as sub-committees. We have charged the committee with developing a five-year strategic plan that builds on our many strengths, but recognizes the need for change and innovation. The committee will outline priorities in six key focus areas by June 2019 – Academic Excellence; Excellence in Research & Scholarship; Transformational Student Experience; Diversity, Inclusion & Community; Financial & Resource Sustainability; and Miami as a National University. Following approval of the Board of Trustees next summer, we will launch the plan in fall 2019. The Strategic Planning Committee will create avenues for input, both in-person and online. Thank you to Julia and Bob for taking on this important service to Miami, and thank you to all of you for your support as we advance Miami well into the future.
Climate Survey Task Force will create action steps for One Miami community: I have selected and charged the new Campus Climate Survey Task Force with identifying and recommending actionable ways in which Miami can improve our campus community for everybody – students, faculty and staff. The task force will curate these steps from the data emerging from last year’s climate survey. We also have taken two action steps arising from last year's Diversity & Inclusion Working Group: an online training module for new students, faculty and staff; and expectations of all university leaders in their job descriptions to advance diversity. It is so important to me and all Miami leaders that we create a welcoming and inclusive community so that all Miamians can reach their full potential.
New Presidential Fellows scholarships will launch in fall 2019: I’ve been on the road in September, engaging with alumni groups in Columbus and Toledo. Along with the division of Enrollment Management & Student Success, we’ve also unveiled to students in those areas our Presidential Fellows program, a four-year full scholarship for high-ability students. These scholarships are an important tool in attracting the best and the brightest to Miami. The reaction has been outstanding, and we fully expect a terrific cohort of these students in Oxford in August 2019.
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Now let's meet a few members of our Miami family
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Staff - Tact TakagiTact Takagi remembers when he was a student at Miami, ready to graduate in 2005 with a degree in middle childhood education, and working in the technology office.
“By the time I graduated, I really liked doing the technology stuff,” says Takagi, now an educational technology and systems analyst with the College of Education, Health & Society. From his office in McGuffey Hall, he helps students, faculty and staff with issues ranging from simple software installations to his favorite, when someone comes in and says, “I want to do this. How can I do it?”
“I really enjoy those a lot,” says Takagi, who is from Japan. “I enjoy it when something new comes up.”
Takagi also serves as an informal resource for international students at Miami, trying to help with everyday tasks that language and cultural barriers can make more difficult. Outside the office, he competes in precision driving events known as “autocross," and is the adviser for the Miami Motorsports Club.
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Student - Ellen StenstromNow a senior at Miami majoring in literature and creative writing, Ellen Stenstrom remembers a book she read in third grade - about a girl who wrote a book and got it published.
“I really wanted to be an author,” says Stenstrom, who is a consultant and writing associate at the Howe Writing Center. “My original goal was to get a book published by the time I graduated from middle school. Obviously, that didn’t end up happening.”
As a consultant at Miami’s Howe Writing Center located in King Library, Stenstrom works with students who sign up for help with papers and other writing assignments, and she has linked with students in a Linguistics class on their particular writing. The Howe Writing Center provides help for students, and the Howe Writing Across the Curriculum program works with faculty members to codify writing skills in courses across the curriculum.
“In different disciplines, everybody has some experience in their past with writing – some good, some bad,” Stenstrom says. “As consultant, we try to meet students where they are. Not to make it perfect, but trying to work with their existing knowledge and mediate whatever their experience is.”
In the digital age of today’s students, writing has changed too.
“I haven’t done any consultations on social media posts yet,” Stenstrom says. “But that is writing too.”
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Faculty - Megan GerhardtWhat is “Gentelligence”? Ask Megan Gerhardt; she’ll tell you.
A professor of management and leadership at Miami and co-director of the Center for Business Leadership, Gerhardt specializes in multiple generations in the workplace, particularly those born between 1981 and 1996 classified as millennials – now the largest generation in American workplaces.
“I’ve found millennials largely to be incredibly motivated and engaged if you understand what’s important to them,” she says. “Some don’t view millennials as a potential source of talent or motivation. They’re largely viewing millennials as a problem. I try not to think about it that way.”
Gerhardt, parent to a 13-year-old, says she practices what she preaches by asking students about their perspective on the learning environment and respecting those viewpoints. One of her public talks is titled "Why I love millennials (and you should too)."
“Gentelligence is a two-way street,” she says. “They certainly have been socialized to ask for things and have high expectations. We basically raised this generation to be a voting member of the family from a very young age. I think the most important element is to recognize that valuable learning can occur in both directions.Just as we expect those in younger generations to be open to feedback from us, we can learn a great deal by being open to their ideas as well."
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