Mixed motives: Regional forum raises questions

By Rebecca Huff, For The Miami Student

The Regional Task Force, recently appointed by President David Hodge, held an open forum for the public in the Wilks Conference Center at Miami University in Hamilton last Tuesday, Oct. 28.

The conference room was silent as the meeting began. Many are still skeptical whether the re-branding and re-evaluation of the regional campuses is necessary.

"The current trajectory of the regional campuses is not financially sustainable, nor is it programmatically sufficient to meet the needs of the students," Moira Casey, associate dean and professor at the regional branches, said.

The task force, which consists of professors from the regional and main campuses, as well as some students from both branches, explained they are seeking improvement in the areas of regional enrollment and independence from the Oxford campus. However, they said, at the same time it's also vital to maintain a Miami identity.

"What I think I'm hearing is, 'we want you to go off and be different and be separate, but we're going to tell you how to do it,'" an audience member said.

Many university constituents have begun to question Miami's motives.

Students are concerned whether the differentiation for the regional campuses is to benefit students who want to remain regionally located, or if it's intended to prevent students from taking classes in Oxford at a regional price.

However, the task force stressed that the path to relocate will remain the same.

Only 10 percent or less of regionally located students actually relocate to Oxford, so to benefit the majority of students who want to stay at the regional branches of Hamilton and Middletown, those branches need to offer more 4-year degrees.

The way the system works now is a Miami Hamilton or Middletown student can take Oxford classes at the regional's price, as long as he or she has at least one credit hour more at the regional branch.

"The way students move around this [taking Oxford classes for the Hamilton price] is quite unofficial in the system." Casey said.

Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter

However, some students from the regional campuses are confused why, after several years, this has suddenly become a hot issue.

"If they didn't want us to take Oxford classes for the Hamilton cost, they should have never created the loophole," zoology major Adam Davisson said.

Average tuition for an in-state student studying on the Oxford campus is $13,533, while the price is only $7,819 for a regional campus student who has earned 68 or more credit hours.

"Think about it in the point of view of the Oxford student," Beverley Taylor, a physics professor at the regional campuses, said, "when they realize the student sitting next to them is paying half of what they're paying and they're both sitting in the same class."

The Miami BannerWeb system couldn't charge students different prices for attending both campuses. Though it may boil down to a technical glitch, student had to be enrolled at the Oxford campus to be charged Oxford tuition rates.

"The state has basically said they don't want regionals to offer associate degrees," Taylor said. "They want us to offer bachelor degrees and let the community colleges do the associate degrees, so I think they're not going to reward us very much for producing associate degrees."

The main objective of the task force is to look at models from other campuses that have differentiating branches. The team is still in its early stages of information gathering and research, but through meetings like the open forums, they are remaining transparent with all members of the university community.