Tuesday night marked the return to Oxford of Miami University alumnus and former chairman and CEO of AT&T Mike Armstrong to announce his historic 14.7 million dollar donation to Miami.
The announcement was made during an interactive media studies (IMS) symposium at the Marcum Conference Center.
The 14.7 million dollars put forth by Armstrong makes him the second most prolific alumni contributor in school history behind Richard T. Farmer, for whom the business school is named.
The money from this contribution is being allotted by Armstrong to Armstrong Interactive Media Studies (AIMS), an institute at Miami started in 1999. The institute houses the university's IMS program, according to Glenn Platt, director of IMS and co-chair of AIMS.
Armstrong said that differences will be seen in a few years with new equipment and facilities for the schools of business, engineering and fine arts, as well as King Library's Thunder Room on the first floor.
"(The Thunder Room has) technology of radical collaboration that goes beyond video conferencing," Armstrong said.
Lisa Santucci, associate librarian at King Library, said the Thunder Room has an electronic flip-chart system, which students can use to do online collaborations. She said while this one already exists in the library, Armstrong's donation will go toward the creation of another for AIMS.
Armstrong said that AIMS is meant to help students gain experience in the real world in their respective disciples.
"AIMS will enable digital technology to fuse teaching, research and service into expansive, yet individualized learning through interdisciplinary collaboration," Armstrong said.
AIMS consists of two chairs and two professors. The chairs are Platt and someone from the school of business who has yet to be named. The two professors will include one from the School of Education and Allied Professions and one from the School of Fine Arts.
An advisory committee also exists, chaired by Miami President David Hodge and Armstrong. Additionally, all institutional funds will be overseen by the provost.
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AIMS sponsors projects that groups of students and professors wish to do, either through AIMS classes or out of their own free will. All projects must include at least one faculty member to oversee the student's progress. Armstrong said an example of a project would be installing GPS in the helmets of soldiers so that when they parachute from helicopters, their land vision would be further enhanced.
Prior to the formal announcement, Armstrong expressed fond feelings toward Oxford. Yet, he stressed the problem with Miami's geographic location as an obstacle to overcome.
"(Miami is) a wonderful enclave of recreation, education, athletics and one or two social activities," Armstrong said. "The bad news is you're away from the rest of the world ... (so) the genesis of what we want to do here at Miami is motivate Miami to do interdisciplinary collaboration using digital technology to reach out to the rest of the world and have the world reach into Miami."
Hodge also spoke at the symposium following Armstrong's formal announcement.
"This is a very special day in Miami's history," Hodge said. The message (to students) is to help shed the confining definition of 'student' and replace it with the expanding definition of 'scholar-researcher-discoverer' and realize that there is a world out there for them right now, not just after they graduate."
Platt described institutes such as AIMS at Miami as being above programs but different from departments. He said the unique part of an institute is the money allotted toward having an endowed chair, which is a professor paid for outside of any department.
Platt, who was recently named Armstrong Distinguished Professor, expressed how excited he was to work with a man such as Armstrong, who has such a vision and sees the IMS program as highly unconventional.
"He sees things other people can't see," Platt said. "He sees possibilities, he sees potential that people can't see in themselves. (He's) been a tireless champion who has worn many hats for Miami ... AIMS is about creating structure for breaking rules."
Part of the presentation also featured a few recent Miami graduates who took part in AIMS through their capstones. The alums thanked Armstrong greatly for his historic contributions.
"Nothing I came away with was more important than how to learn and respect the perspectives of others," said 2006 graduate Joe Budde, who is now doing a project with Oracle, a database management mogul. "We were forced to work together through the obstacles by teaching each other (our respective) disciplinary backgrounds."
Others spoke via video message to take part in Oxford's groundbreaking event in the field of digital technologies. Ed Miller, the CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine-where Armstrong was receiving extensive cancer treatment nearly two years ago-delivered a message on a projector screen both thanking Armstrong for his past funding at Johns Hopkins Medicine and congratulating him on his current donation to Miami.
Scott A. Shamp, director of University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, traveled to Oxford to hear Armstrong's announcement at the symposium and expressed amazement at Armstrong's generosity. He also wished for the same luck in the future at Georgia.
"That type of commitment of resources can move a program really far, really fast," Shamp said.
Shamp also spoke about his connection with Platt and what that means for university's striving to create institutes such as Armstrong's.
"Also, now there's a good connection of schools that understand the importance of media education for the future, (Platt's) a leader in that and you like to spend a lot of time figuring out what leading institutions are doing," Shamp said.
Hodge said that over time, as the gift is received in increments by Miami, there will be more faculty hired specifically for AIMS who will add the needed critical mass for this unconventional institute.
"(It will be) just a whole bunch of people breaking the rules in the same room, it's going to be pretty wild," Hodge said of the future of AIMS.
Armstrong graduated in 1961 with separate degrees in business and economics. Along with his academic workload, Armstrong also played football on scholarship at Miami and was the president of his fraternity, Sigma Nu.
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