Last weekend, families from all across the country made their way to Oxford, Ohio for Family Weekend.

This was a weekend where students led their families on tours of the tree lined Georgian campus, explaining all of the University’s rich history and tradition.

Established in 1809, Miami has well over two hundred years’ worth of history and tradition to explain.

Still, one can’t help but notice, that in the midst all of that history and tradition, the wheels of progress are spinning.

In a few years, there will be a brand new state-of-the-art student center, a grand dining hall, and a revitalized western campus.

There’s nothing wrong with progress, but if that progress comes at the expense of our rich history and tradition then perhaps we should reconsider.

And as the fate of one our great institutions on campus hangs in the balance, that’s exactly what I ask you to do — reconsider.

Founded in 1988 by Randi Thomas, Jeff Carpenter and Mike Thomas, the credit union was founded by students for students.

Noticing the lack of a financial institution on campus, these three students went about establishing one of their own.

Today some twenty years later, the credit union still lives to serve the student body.

And while the credit union lives to serve the student body’s financial needs — offering all of your basic banking amenities and even running financial education seminars — the introduction of PNC on campus has threatened its very existence and this is the progress we must reconsider.

Walk into the PNC bank and what do you see?

You see group of bankers working for shareholders and board members back east.

Walk into the credit union and you see just the opposite, a group of students working for you.

The fact that they are an institution run by students like you and I is what makes the credit union an institution worth saving.

Here at Miami University we are blessed with the Farmer School — a business school second to none.

And I would argue that the mission of the credit union goes hand in hand with the mission of the business school.

Nowhere else on campus do students have the chance to get firsthand experience handling transactions and managing accounts.

And, it’s that type of experiential learning that compliments the knowledge gained in the classroom that makes our students so competitive on the job market.

But the credit union doesn’t just offer business school students firsthand experience.

They also offer College of Arts and Science majors opportunities to gain insight into the world of finance.

So, the next time you walk into Shriver, stop and ask yourself which financial institution is giving back more to the community.

Is it the institution that pays Miami for its prime real-estate and the right to be the sole ATM on campus or is it the institution that employs students?

So, if you have realized by now just how much good the First Miami Student Credit Union does for this campus, go to lower level of the Shriver Center and open up an account with them.

Hopefully, enough of you will do this that one of the uniquely Miami traditions doesn’t fall by the way side to big banks and progress – Love and Honor.