To first-year students, welcome to Miami University! And to all who are returning, welcome back!
This year is an exciting time for us as we continue to celebrate our bicentennial anniversary, open a beautiful new school of business ready to support the needs of the 21st century student and welcome one of Miami's most diverse first-year classes ever.
This year The Miami Student editorial board has graciously offered me the chance to speak with you regularly about timely issues that are important to our university in this column. I will be providing you with a candid picture of our university on a variety of topics and will seek your input as well.
In order to prepare for this year, I spent my summer in Oxford meeting with faculty and staff from Miami and engaging with Oxford community members to better understand the complexity and importance of the issues we face this year. Also, members of your student government leadership have met with the leadership of Miami and the Oxford community including President David Hodge and Mayor Prue Dana to ask tough questions about the future of our community and find ways we can collaborate to improve the student experience.
What has come out of these meetings is the creation of a set of four-year strategic goals developed to represent a vision of Miami from an undergraduate student perspective. It is also my hope this document will provide continuity for the next generation of student leaders. In two more weeks these strategic goals will be presented to the university community, and I encourage you to critique them and let me know your thoughts. Your student leaders are prepared to represent you well, but your input is essential.
We also face many challenges this year as a university. The budgets for universities across the United States have been slashed due to decreased state support and losses on investments during the recession, causing many institutions to make significant cuts.
Miami is no different. While the state of Ohio has protected its funding of higher education, they now only provide 14 percent of Miami's budget. This year we will need to cut another $5 million from Miami's fiscal year budget. I say "we" because this is not a problem for university faculty and staff alone but an issue for our entire community.
Student leaders will be involved in this process on a daily basis by meeting with staff and administrators to provide student prospective. Through the strong representation by ASG Treasurer Thomas Foster, who represents students on the Fiscal Priorities and Budget Planning Committee of University Senate, he will help set priorities for Miami's short and long-term budget.
Regardless, this means tough decisions will have to be made. As a community we will begin to recognize the effects of these cuts on our daily lives, however, not all of these changes are bad. Tough financial times allow us the opportunity to re-address our priorities as an institution, and Miami's priorities are to focus on undergraduate excellence. For instance, the Division of Student Affairs has had multiple leadership initiatives geared toward different constituencies for several years. While at times it has been mentioned these programs could be collapsed into one, there has never been an impetus to change, but now there is. This change and many others can and will have positive outcomes for years to come.
As a community we must also find fresh ways to recruit top students to Miami. This year's first-year class is both diverse and academically talented, but we missed our admission marks by nearly 300 students, which caused important financial implications on our budget. A committee led by Vice President of Student Affairs Barbara Jones has been formed to study what changes need to be made to improve our recruitment.
From my perspective, there are several aspects of the student experience we must improve upon to be a competitive university in today's environment. We must build a new student center, renovate residence halls, better leverage our financial aid, improve upon our undergraduate academic experience and find new ways to involve alumni in our university.
In the end, we must maintain a positive attitude and work to prepare Miami for the next generation of students. Miami has given much to us, and we have an obligation as members of this great community to return the favor. But just as important, our degrees are only worth as much as the reputation of the next generation of students.
These are all issues that I will be involved with this year, but I need your help. I look forward to your questions, comments and honest feedback. Good luck this year!
