Miami University

Miami University (also referred to as Miami U, Miami of Ohio, or simply Miami) is a coeducational public research university located in Oxford, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1809, although classes were not held until 1824, it is the 10th oldest public university in the United States and the second oldest university in Ohio, founded five years after Ohio University. In its 2015 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the university 75th among national universities, in its Top 30 public schools, and second for best undergraduate teaching at national universities, behind only Princeton University. Miami University is considered one of the original eight "Public Ivy" schools that provide a quality of education comparable to those of the Ivy League.

Miami's athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Miami RedHawks. They compete in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in all varsity sports except ice hockey, which competes in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

History

Old Miami

The foundations for Miami University were first laid by an Act of Congress signed by President George Washington, stating that an academy should be located Northwest of the Ohio River in the Miami Valley. The land was located within the Symmes Purchase; Judge John Cleves Symmes, the owner of the land, purchased the land from the government with the stipulation that he lay aside land for an academy. Congress granted one township to be located in the District of Cincinnati to the Ohio General Assembly for the purposes of building a college, two days after Ohio was granted statehood in 1803; if no suitable location could be provided in the Symmes Purchase, Congress pledged to give federal lands to the legislature after a five-year period. The Ohio Legislature appointed three surveyors in August of the same year to search for a suitable township, and they selected a township off of Four Mile Creek. The Legislature passed "An Act to Establish the Miami University" on February 2, 1809, and a board of trustees was created by the state; this is cited as the founding of Miami University. The township originally granted to the university was known as the "College Township," and was renamed Oxford, Ohio, in 1810.

The University temporarily halted construction due to the War of 1812. Cincinnati tried to move Miami to the city in 1822 and to divert its income to a Cincinnati college, but it failed. Miami created a grammar school in 1818 to teach frontier youth; but, it was disbanded after five years. Robert Hamilton Bishop, a Presbyterian minister and professor of history, was appointed to be the first President of Miami University in 1824. The first day of classes at Miami was on November 1, 1824. At its opening, there were 20 students and two faculty members in addition to Bishop. The curriculum included Greek, Latin, Algebra, Geography, and Roman history; the University offered only a Bachelor of Arts. An "English Scientific Department" was started in 1825, which studied modern languages, applied mathematics, and political economy as training for more practical professions. It offered a certificate upon completion of coursework, not a full diploma.

Miami students purchased a printing press, and in 1827 published their first periodical, The Literary Focus. It promptly failed, but it laid the foundation for the weekly Literary Register. The current Miami Student, founded in 1867, traces its foundation back to the Literary Register and claims to be the oldest college newspaper in the United States. A theological department and a farmer's college were formed in 1829; the farmer's college was not an agricultural school, but a three-year education program for farm boys. William Holmes McGuffey joined the faculty in 1826, and began his work on the McGuffey Readers while in Oxford. By 1834 the faculty had grown to seven professors and enrollment was at 234 students. Eleven students were expelled in 1835, including one for firing a pistol at another student. McGuffey resigned and became the President of the Cincinnati College, where he urged parents not to send their children to Miami.

Alpha Delta Phi opened its chapter at Miami in 1833, making it the first fraternity chapter West of the Allegheny Mountains. In 1839, Beta Theta Pi was created; it was the first fraternity formed at Miami.

In 1839 Old Miami reached its enrollment peak, with 250 students from 13 states; only Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth were larger. President Bishop resigned in 1840 due to escalating problems in the University, although he remained as a professor through 1844. He was replaced as President by George Junkin, former President of Lafayette College; Junkin resigned in 1844, having proved to be unpopular with students. By 1847, enrollment had fallen to 137 students.

Students in 1848 participated in the "Snowball Rebellion". Defying the faculty's stance against fraternities, students packed Old Main, one of Miami's main classrooms and administrative buildings, with snow and reinforced the snow with chairs, benches and desks from the classroom. Those who had participated in the rebellion were expelled from the school and Miami's student population was more than halved. By 1873, enrollment fell further to 87 students. The board of trustees closed the school in 1873, and leased the campus for a grammar school. The period prior to its closing is referred to as "Old Miami."

New Miami

The university re-opened in 1885, having paid all of its debts and repaired many of its buildings; there were 40 students in its first year. Enrollment remained under 100 students throughout the 1800s. Miami focused on aspects outside of the classics, including botany, physics, and geology departments. In 1888, Miami began inter-collegiate football play in a game against the University of Cincinnati. By the early 1900s, the state of Ohio pledged regular financial support for Miami University. Enrollment reached 207 students in 1902. The Ohio General Assembly passed the Sesse Bill in 1902, which mandated coeducation for all Ohio public schools. Miami lacked the rooms to fit all of the students expected the next year, and Miami made an arrangement with Oxford College, a women's college located in the town, to rent rooms. Miami's first African-American student, Nelly Craig, graduated in 1905. Hepburn Hall, built in 1905, was the first women's dorm at the college. By 1907, the enrollment at the University passed 700 students and women made up about a third of the student body. Andrew Carnegie pledged $40,000 to the building of a new library for the University.

Enrollment in 1923 was at 1,500 students. The Oxford College for Women merged with Miami University in 1928. By the early 1930s, enrollment had reached 2,200 students. The conservative environment found on campus called for little change during the problems of the Great Depression, and only about 10 percent of students in the 1930s were on government subsidies. During World War II, Miami changed its curriculum to include "war emergency courses" and a Navy Training School took up residence on campus. During wartime in 1943, the population of the University became majority women. Due to the G.I. Bill, tuition for veterans decreased; the enrollment at Miami jumped from 2,200 to 4,100 students. Temporary lodges were constructed in order to accommodate the number of students. By 1952, the student body had grown to 5,000.

In 1954, Miami created a common curriculum for all students to complete, in order to have a base for their other subjects. By 1964, enrollment reached nearly 15,000. To accommodate the growing number of students, Miami University started a regional branch of the University at Middletown, Ohio, in 1966 and Hamilton, Ohio, in 1968. Miami founded a Luxembourg branch, today called the Miami University Dolibois European Center, in 1968; students live with Luxembourgian families, and study under Miami professors. Miami experimented with a trimester plan in 1965, but it ultimately failed and the university reverted to a quarter system. In 1974, The Western College for Women in Oxford, was sold to Miami; and President Shriver oversaw the creation of the well-respected and innovative Interdisciplinary Studies Program known as the Western College Program. The program was merged into the College of Arts & Science in 2007. The newest regional campus, the Miami University Voice of America Learning Center opened in 2009.

Campus

Miami's Oxford campus is located in Oxford, Ohio; the city is located in the Miami Valley in Southwestern Ohio. Development of the campus began in 1818 with a multipurpose building called Franklin Hall; Elliott Hall, built in 1825, is Miami's oldest residence hall. Miami is renowned for its campus beauty, having been called "The most beautiful campus that ever there was" by then poet-in-residence Robert Frost. Miami has added campus buildings in the style characteristic of Georgian Revival architecture, with all buildings built three stories or less, or "to human scale". Today, the area of Miami's Oxford campus consists of 2,000 acres (8 km²).

Oxford, Ohio is a college town, with over 70.0% of the residents attending college or graduate school. All first- and second-year students are required to live on-campus and all dorms are three stories or less. Miami gives students the options of choosing from 35 theme-based living learning communities (LLCs); all of the halls on-campus participate in the LLC program to create bonds among students based on certain classes and majors. An LLC focuses on a certain theme, such as governmental relations, the arts, women in engineering or technology and society, which allows students to live with people who have similar interests to them. Also smaller groups of students can create their own second year LLCs in order to continue their learning together, for example the newly created Science of life LLC which focuses on matters of all sciences and how they affect modern society. Each residence hall has its own hall government, with representatives in the Residence Hall Association and the student senate.

Miami University’s wide selection of dining options includes about 30 dining destinations on campus, including the new Maple Street Station with eight themed restaurants. Miami’s dining services have won 52 awards since 2004.

Miami University also has a state-of-the-art Recreational Sports Center. The Rec contains three basketball courts and Olympic-sized pool and diving well, an outdoor pursuit center, a rock-climbing center, fitness room, large exercise classrooms and weight room.

Historic landmarks

• William Holmes McGuffey Museum, a National Historic Landmark
• Zachariah Price Dewitt Cabin, listed on the National Register of Historic Places
• Elliott and Stoddard Halls, oldest dormitories in use in Ohio
• Langstroth Cottage, a National Historic Landmark
• Old Manse (home of the University Honors Program) Presbyterian Parsonage, East High Street, listed in the Historic American Buildings Survey
• Simpson-Shade Guest House, listed in the Historic American Buildings Survey
• Lewis Place, home of Miami presidents

Students

Overview

Miami's student body consists of 15,813 undergraduates and 2,643 graduate students on the Oxford campus (as of fall 2014). Students at Miami come from 50 U.S. states and 77 countries as of Oct. 2014. Although Miami recruits diverse students domestically and internationally, and ranks number two nationally for participation in study abroad among doctoral-granting schools, it consistently works to increase its student diversity; 21% (9% international) of the student body identifies as other than white.

For first-time, degree seeking freshmen for the Fall of 2014, Miami received 25,301 applications and accepted 65% of them. Of those, 22% enrolled. Also, for first-year students in 2014, 34% of students ranked in the top 10% of their class. The middle 50% range of ACT scores for first-year students is 25-30, while the SAT scores is 1140-1310 (old scale).

Rankings

U.S. News & World Report in its 2015 rankings ranked the university's undergraduate program 75th among national universities, and in its Top 30 among public universities. U.S. News also ranked the university second for best undergraduate teaching at national universities. Forbes ranked Miami 155th in the United States among all colleges and universities and listed it as one of "America's Best College Buys". In March 2010, BusinessWeek ranked the undergraduate business program for the Farmer School of Business at 16th among all U.S. undergraduate business schools and was ranked sixth among public schools. Entrepreneur ranked Miami's Institute for Entrepreneurship in its top ten undergraduate programs in the nation. The Wall Street Journal ranked Miami 22nd among state schools for bringing students directly from undergraduate studies into top graduate programs. The Journal also ranked Miami's accelerated MBA program ninth globally. Miami's accountancy program received high marks from the Public Accounting Report's rankings of accountancy programs; its undergraduate and graduate programs ranked 12th and 15th respectively. In 1985, Richard Moll wrote a book about America's premier public universities where he describes Miami as one of America's original eight "Public Ivies", along with the University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, University of Virginia, College of William and Mary, University of Texas, University of Vermont, and the University of North Carolina.

Miami also receives high marks for its beautiful campus. Newsweek rated Miami No. 19, in its 2012 list of Most Beautiful Schools and poet Robert Frost described it as "The most beautiful campus that ever there was."

Undergraduates

Miami is a large, primarily residential teaching university with a focus on undergraduate studies.

Miami University has seven academic divisions:

1. College of Arts and Science
2. Farmer School of Business
3. College of Creative Arts
4. College of Education, Health, and Society
5. College of Engineering and Computing
6. Graduate School
7. College of Professional Studies and Applied Sciences (regional campuses)

The College of Arts and Science is the oldest and largest college at Miami, with nearly half of the undergraduate student body enrollment. The college offers more than 100 majors, 48 minors, and two co-majors (Environmental Science and Environmental Principles & Practice). Ten of the 11 doctoral degrees offered by Miami are provided through the College of Arts & Science.

Miami's Farmer School of Business is a nationally recognized school of business that offers eight majors. The school also offers graduate MBA, accountancy, and economics degrees. The Farmer School of Business (or FSB) is housed in a 210,000-square-foot (20,000 m²) state-of-the-art, LEED-certified building. The FSB building, opened for classes in 2009, was designed by leading revivalist architect Robert A.M. Stern.

The College of Engineering and Computing (formerly School of Engineering & Computing (formerly Applied Science)) offers 12 accredited majors at the Oxford campus, and moved into a new $22 million engineering building in 2007. The school also offers master’s degrees in Computer Science and Paper & Chemical Engineering

The School of Education, Health & Society (formerly Education and Allied Professions) offers 26 undergraduate degrees spanning from areas of teacher education, kinesiology, and health to educational psychology, family studies, and social work. As of fall 2009, nearly 3,500 full-time and part-time undergraduates were enrolled in the school.

Miami's School of Creative Arts (formerly Fine Arts) has four departments: architecture and interior design, music, theatre, and art. Each department has its own admission requirements separate from the standard admissions requirements for the University. Art majors choose a concentration in areas such as ceramics, metals, photography, printmaking, sculpture, graphic design, and interior design. Music majors specify either music performance or music education.

Graduate students

Miami offers master's degrees in more than 50 areas of study and doctoral degrees in 12, the largest of which are doctoral degrees in psychology. In order to enroll in graduate courses, students must first be accepted into the Graduate School, and then into the department through which the degree is offered. Although tuition for the Graduate School is roughly the same as for an undergraduate degree, most of the graduate programs offer graduate assistantships as well as tuition waiver.

Athletics

Miami's NCAA Division I sports teams are called the RedHawks; the program offers 18 varsity sports for men and women. They compete in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in all varsity sports except ice hockey, which competes in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

Miami's athletic teams were called The Miami Boys, The Big Reds, The Reds, or The Red and Whites until 1928 when Miami Publicity Director R.J. McGinnis is credited with coining the term Redskins. The athletic teams were known as the Redskins up through 1997 when the Oklahoma-based Miami tribe withdrew its support for the nickname; the board of trustees voted to change the nickname to the RedHawks. Miami is nicknamed the "Cradle of Coaches" for the star-quality coaches that have trained through its football program and in early 2012 Miami trademarked the phrase. The current athletic director is David Sayler, who was hired to the position in December 2012.

Miami University won its first national championship when the women's hockey team defeated UMass on March 17, 2014 to win the ACHA Women's Division 1 national championship. Miami has never won a national title in any other team sport, except in synchronized skating, which is not an NCAA-recognized sport.

Football

Miami University has a rich history of football. Miami is known as the Cradle of Coaches for its quality football coaches that leave its program; Ben Roethlisberger, a quarterback from Miami, has gone on to be a two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. John Harbaugh, a defensive back from Miami, coached the Baltimore Ravens to a victory in Super Bowl XLVII.

Miami's football team plays in Yager Stadium, a 24,286-seat football stadium on campus; they formerly played in the now demolished Miami Field. The current coach is Chuck Martin, who was named head coach December 3, 2013. Previously, Martin was the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame University. The RedHawks compete each year against the Cincinnati Bearcats for the Victory Bell, a tradition that dates back to 1888.

Basketball

The Miami men's basketball team has appeared in 16 NCAA basketball championship tournaments, reaching the Sweet Sixteen four times, most recently in 1999. Miami's ice hockey team finished runner-up in the 2009 national championship game.

The team competes in Millett Hall and was coached by Charlie Coles, a 1965 graduate of Miami, for 16 seasons until he retired on March 5, 2012. His replacement is John Cooper.

Men's ice hockey

Miami's men's varsity ice hockey team started in 1978 coached by Steve Cady. The RedHawks made the NCAA national title game in 2009, but lost in overtime to Boston University after leading much of the game. The current head coach is Enrico Blasi, who has a total record of 262-169-46 after 12 seasons. Since the Mid-American Conference does not include Division I men's ice hockey, Miami competed in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) through the 2012-2013 season. It was one of three schools from the MAC in the CCHA along with Bowling Green State University and Western Michigan University. However, starting with the 2013-2014 season, Miami will begin competing in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, which will also include Colorado College, University of Denver, University of North Dakota, University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Western Michigan University, and St. Cloud State University.

The men's ice hockey team plays at the Goggin Ice Center. The center contains two rinks: a practice rink and Steve Cady Arena, which is used by the hockey team. The arena has a seating capacity of 3,200, and it replaced the Goggin Ice Arena in 2006.

Synchronized skating

Miami's synchronized skating team began in August 1977 as a "Precision Skating Club" at Goggin Ice Center. The program achieved varsity status by 1996. The Miami University senior synchronized skating team are the 1999, 2006, and 2009 U.S. national champions. Miami won a silver medal at the 2007 World Championships, the first medal ever won by Team USA for synchronized skating. The collegiate-level team has won 14 national titles; Miami created a junior-varsity level team beneath the senior level. Vicki Korn, after serving as the coach of Miami's program for 25 years, announced her retirement in May 2009. The current head coach is Carla DeGirolamo. A 2003 graduate of Miami, Carla skated with the program all four of her undergraduate years and then spent seven seasons as an assistant coach.

Greek life

Miami has a large and active Greek life, with 21 active sorority and 30 active fraternity chapters. Miami is nicknamed the Mother of Fraternities for the number of fraternities that started on its campus: Beta Theta Pi (1839), Phi Delta Theta (1848), Sigma Chi (1855), and Phi Kappa Tau (1906). However, Alpha Delta Phi (1832) was the first fraternity on campus. Delta Zeta, founded in 1902, is the only sorority alpha chapter on campus. The Miami Triad refers to the first three fraternities founded at Miami: Beta Theta Pi, Phi Delta Theta, and Sigma Chi. The Triad is sometimes celebrated with parties at other universities such as the University of Kansas. As of Fall 2009, there are 2,036 sorority members and 1,492 fraternity members. Miami University's office of Greek affairs was endowed with a $1 million gift from Cliff Alexander, a Miami University alumnus and a member of Sigma Nu; Miami believes this gift will support the Greek program well into the next century. Miami currently hosts about 50 different fraternities and sororities governed by three different student governing councils. Miami's fraternities and sororities hold many philanthropy events and community fundraisers.

A spate of sorority sanctions on three different occasions in the 2009â€"10 school year reached national news for the actions that were involved. Sorority members of Miami's Alpha Xi Delta chapter and their dates at a formal held at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center urinated throughout the venue, swore at staff, and attempted to steal drinks from the bar; one other incident involving the Pi Beta Phi chapter at Miami involved similar behavior. University President David Hodge called the behavior "deeply troubling" and "embarrassing", and vowed that "we are determined to live up to our values" in response to the incidents.

Organizations and clubs

Miami University has over 400 student-run organizations. Aside, from the university's student newspaper (see below), the university's oldest and longest-running student organization is the Miami University Men's Glee Club, founded in 1907. It is estimated to be the 16th oldest Glee Club in the nation and is one of the largest of its kind. Associated Student Government (ASG) is the student government of Miami University. It has an executive branch run by a student president and a unicameral legislature in the student senate. In campus-wide elections, students have a spending cap; in a recent change, the president and vice president run on a ticket and as of 2012 must create a political party. The current Student Body President is Cole Tyman.

Media

Miami has a variety of media outlets. The student-run newspaper, the Miami Student, was founded in 1826 and claims that it is the oldest university newspaper in the United States. The undergraduate literature and art magazine, Inklings, is available in print and online. RedHawk Radio (WMSR) is Miami's only student radio station. Miami University Television (MUTV) is available on cable in Oxford, Ohio.

Alumni

Miami alumni are active through various organizations and events such as Alumni Weekend. The Alumni Association has active chapters in over 50 cities. A number of Miami alumni have made significant contributions in the fields of government, law, science, academia, business, arts, journalism, and athletics, among others.

Miami University is one of four schools that have graduated both a U.S. President and a Super Bowl winning quarterback. Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the United States, graduated from Miami in 1852. Charles Anderson, the 27th Governor of Ohio, graduated from Miami in 1833. Chung Un-chan, the previous Prime Minister of South Korea, received his master's degree from Miami in economics in 1972. Other current politicians include U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington, Former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, now president of the University of Miami in Florida, U.S. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, and U.S. Representative Susan Brooks of Indiana. Rita Dove, a Pulitzer Prize winner and the first African-American United States Poet Laureate, graduated summa cum laude from Miami. John Harbaugh is the current head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Paul Brown, the partial founder of both the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals and a head coach for both teams graduated from the class of 1930. Bo Schembechler was a Miami graduate and coached at Miami before moving to coach the Michigan Wolverines for twenty years. Miami alumni that play in professional sports leagues include Dan Boyle of the NHL, Andy Greene of the NHL, Ryan Jones of the NHL, Alec Martinez of the NHL, Reilly Smith of the NHL, John Ely of the MLB, golfer Brad Adamonis, Milt Stegall (Cincinnati Bengals and Winnipeg Blue Bombers), 2002 NBA All-Star Wally Szczerbiak, and Super Bowl-winning quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of the NFL.

See also

• Earth Expeditions
• Harker's Run
• Wilson Hall
• Collins Hall

References

Further reading

• Barlow, Bert S.; Todhunter, W. H.; Cone, Stephen D.; Pater, Joseph J.; Schneider, Frederick, eds. (1905). Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio. Hamilton, Ohio: B.F. Bowen. 
• Jim Porter. "Pondering the Flipped Classroom". 

External links

• Official website
• Miami University athletics website