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Miami highlights strong points with Centers of Excellence

Amelia Carpenter

During a time of financial insecurity, the University System of Ohio (USO) is working to improve higher education in public universities statewide.

A total of 15 universities have self-identified "Centers of Excellence" after Chancellor Eric D. Fingerhut's September 2008 proposal to have each Ohio public university identify its respective strengths in education as part of his 10-year strategic plan.

"There are multiple centers. Miami has proposed six of them," said Jim Oris, associate dean for research and scholarship at Miami University. "All of the public universities were asked to identify strengths and excellence and submitted (them) to the center as part of the strategic plan."

Miami's Centers of Excellence include the Scripps Gerontology Center, the Institute for Entrepreneurship, the Ohio Evaluation and Assessment Center for Mathematics and Science Education, the Center of Structural Biology and Metabonomics and the Center for Aquatic and Watershed Sciences.

The ultimate goal of these centers is to map out each university's strongest areas in which they will invest, according to Carol Whitacre, associate vice president for health sciences research at Ohio State University.

"It was really an important thing to do," Whitacre said. "We came out of it knowing ourselves better. It sort of is a plan for investments in those areas where you're the strongest. It (will) make us all better by focusing on our strengths."

Oris gave the example of a student looking to study gerontology. As a prospective student, Miami will look appealing because of its Center of Excellence in Gerontology that offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in gerontology.

Oris said the idea is to first identify the distinctive missions of each university and then move forward to compete for talent, recognition and potential funding.

"As we move forward there may be competitive funds awarded to the universities for their centers for excellence," Oris said.

No immediate funding exists for these programs through the state, but there is funding in place based on extra funds from grants, endowments and donations, Oris said.

"When this program first started there was going to be a budget ... there were going to be resources attached," Whitacre said. "With the state budget situation that idea sort of went away for right now. It's not clear that its going to be forever this way and hopefully some day there will be some resources attached to it."

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Regardless of funding, Oris said this is a strategic step the USO is undergoing to enhance the quality of education statewide.

"(This) helps get our name out through the state, country and internationally," Oris said. "The state of Ohio is being very proactive in investments in the future. Our plan of action isn't to sit back and wait for things to get better, but to look forward and make things better so we are positioned for success before things get better."

Oris explained Miami will submit its six centers for approval from Fingerhut and the board of regents in early August, along with the other universities' submissions.

"Chances are (our Centers of Excellence) will be approved," Oris said.

Oris said the number of Centers of Excellence varies by university. He said Ohio State University submitted five; Wright State University, six; Ohio University, three; and the University of Cincinnati, 11.

Fingerhut's idea stemmed from the establishment of the USO last year by Governor Strickland.

The USO's two major goals are to increase enrollment by 230,000 by 2017, and increase the rate of graduation by 20 percent, according to the USO Web site at http://www.uso.edu.

Fingerhut's 10-year plan to meet these goals includes steps like graduating more students, keeping graduates in Ohio and attracting more talent to Ohio, according to the USO Web site.


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