It's a quiet Tuesday in Williams Hall. Groups of students are gathered around small study tables, and the TV plays recent student media projects. First-year Jack Bellinger walks through the lobby and up to the second floor.
The stage in Hall Auditorium was filled with an assortment of instruments that most of the audience wouldn't have seen before. The vocalists sang in Spanish, so most people listening were not able to understand the lyrics. The eclectic mix of classic Latin music and modern pop was foreign to their ears.
https://youtu.be/zl38tfgsCSU
For Doug and Kathy Jenkins, thinking of what they love about each other is simple.
Set to the silky tunes of the Solomon Douglas Quartet and the upbeat tapping of numerous pairs of feet, Miami Swing Syndicate's MUDE Swings: Lucky 7s dance took place this past Friday and Saturday in the Heritage room of the Shriver Center.
"Is there a reviewer from the student paper here?" comedian, actor and writer Joe Mande asked toward the end of his set. "Because I will give you 20 dollars to say this was good"
Late in the evening, the Chinese New Year celebration in Marcum Conference Center drew to a close and the hustle and bustle of Miami University students quieted to a dull roar.
A list of names flashed on the TV screen, some familiar to Monica Touby, others less so. One by one, a group of amateur matchmakers paired the names into compatible couples. In an age of dating apps and algorithms, the matchmakers relied on intuition and Facebook stalking to create the best combinations.
My Wednesdays are pretty hectic, so I decided to celebrate Valentine's Day on Saturday night.
When David Schwab graduated from Miami in 1994, he knew he was going to miss High Street. All of his fond memories of college life seemed to culminate at this familiar meeting place.
"My seventh grade science teacher was low-key wise," William Carson said. "She said one day in class -- and no one knew what the hell it meant at the time, but now I finally get it -- she said, 'Guys listen, one day you'll realize science is just failure to disprove something."
With its warm, clear nights, verdant foliage and musical wildlife, summer is nearly always a wonderful time to be in Oxford. The weather allows for comfortable outdoor exploration, and the magic that is air conditioning provides relief whenever the sun gets to be too hot. Truly, summer is a season for exploration, activity and enjoyment.
"Do you want to try one on"
Recent recasting in the Department of Theatre has stirred discussion of an elephant in the room: Miami's lack of racial diversity.
Mambo. Cha cha. Quickstep. Foxtrot. All ballroom dances involve a "leader," which is traditionally a man, who directs the "follower," traditionally a woman. To help others learn to dance -- regardless of gender identity -- through the ballroom dance club, first-year Brynne Menkhaus and graduate student Josh Schussler are learning to be both leaders and followers.
On the evening of January 24, days before the majority of students would be flocking back to Miami's campus, freshman Connor Catlett arrived before he even had a dorm to stay in. A transfer student from the University of Georgia, the new RedHawk ended up sleeping on a friend of a friend's couch the night before his freshman transfer orientation.
If one of my neighbors were to have looked out their bedroom window last Saturday morning around 7:15, here's what they would have seen: Me, dressed in sweatpants, a gray fleece and moccasin slippers, sprinting across my lawn and around the block, an empty leash in hand.
This past weekend, the university saw a blur of students and professors rushing back into the Oxford city limits, thus ending their winter vacations and settling back in for a new semester, as is the late January custom at Miami. But for members of the Miami community that traveled for a J-term study away program, this transition was particularly stressful.
"It's still going to be good," I heard a familiar voice say from behind me.