The Miami University Senate reviewed the community arena survey and discussed the implementation of Student Workday and Online Library Video Educational Resources (OLiVER) during its meeting on Feb. 23.
Before the meeting began, Nathan French, vice chair of senate and chair of the senate executive committee, opened with a moment of silence to honor the legacy of Dan Darkow, the late director of the Miller Center for Student Disability Services.
“It’s those values of patience, generosity and empathy that will see us through in these moments of anxiety,” French said, “and I am very thankful to Dan for embodying them for us in his 11 years of service to Miami.”
French then discussed the implications of the recently-introduced House Bill 698.
He said the bill would require every university to annually certify compliance with Senate Bill 1. This includes eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Non-compliant universities could face penalties.
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Bri Fitzgerald, senior organizational leadership major, and Anna West, junior independent studies and comparative religion double major, presented a summary of the community arena survey they conducted last fall.
The survey received more than 3,000 responses, the majority of which were against the use of Cook Field as the relocation site for Millett Hall.
“Throughout the survey and our detailed analysis, the community sentiment remains the same,” West said. “Sustaining Cook Field as a green space, and renovating Millett Hall or building a new arena at or near the current location allows for the preservation of the culturally, symbolically and emotionally-significant space of Cook Field.”
Fitzgerald and West answered questions concerning self-selection bias due to the high emotions about the topic.
“I think it’s important to acknowledge that any survey is going to have some type of self-selection bias,” West said. “Without clear parameters, we can’t really know the extent of this bias.”
Randy Hollowell, manager of IT Communication and Client Advocacy, provided an update on the implementation of Student Workday.
The project, set to replace BannerWeb — the current program used by Miami students for course scheduling, payments and transcript services — took a year-long break to ensure financial aid functionality. Hollowell said they still wanted to introduce the new system before spring semester 2027, so that students can register with Student Workday and have a seamless transition.
There will be a training event to help faculty and students to learn how to navigate the system in the first week of November this year.
Carla Myers, coordinator of scholarly communications, discussed her role at King Library as the affordable learning librarian. She helps students find cheaper alternatives to purchasing textbooks and other course-required expenses.
“Every now and then I run into this perception that every student at Miami University is rich, and that learning materials and other costs are not a big deal,” Myers said. “But there are many students who work hard to navigate these considerations.”
Myers introduced OLiVER, an online library that can be embedded into Canvas and allows faculty to easily provide library resources for their courses. The platform reduces faculty workload and expands student access to free resources, including online textbooks.
Following that, Danny Martin, president of Associated Student Government, discussed his plan to hold an aluminum can drive at the fraternity houses from March 13-20.
“It definitely helps in all shapes and sizes,” Martin said. “This really started from the fact that the current houses are getting an alarming number of fines because of littering on their lawn.”
The University Senate will meet again on Monday, March 9, at 3:30 p.m. in 111 Harrison Hall.
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