Crawford highlights Miami’s success and future at fall 2022 State of the University address

Miami University President Greg Crawford delivered his biannual State of the University address on Wednesday, Sept. 28, at Hall Auditorium.

Now in his sixth year at Miami, Crawford focused on the university’s various emerging programs and departments, the many successes of students and faculty, and plans for the future.

“We’ve had an extraordinary year, we’ve reached many milestones and many goals in a record-setting year in so many different ways,” Crawford said.

Crawford began his presentation at 3:30 p.m. to a sizable crowd of faculty, professors and students from all across campus. His speech lasted just over an hour and was split into distinct sections highlighting the different aspects of Miami’s achievements.

Starting with “Accelerating Excellence,” Crawford showed a series of graphs detailing acceptance and graduation rates, including the statistic that the incoming 2022 class had a record-breaking combined GPA of 3.89. Crawford then moved into “Achieving Impact,” where he spoke about student and faculty accomplishments on campus.

“Our students, our faculty, our staff are so highly accomplished,” Crawford said. “They exemplify excellence in their teaching and scholarship, outreach and community service. They are true to the values of Love & Honor, and they really elevate the reputation both nationally and internationally of this great university.”

Crawford also spoke about the Howe Writing Center, pointing to a number of awards it had received, as well as an upcoming book. The book has been co-edited by five members of the Writing Center’s staff and written by 22 authors at Miami across four divisions.

Then came an announcement that the Eli Lilly Company, a pharmaceutical company based out of Indianapolis, Indiana, would sponsor a new initiative through the College of Engineering and Computing.

“We’re going to create the next generation of computer scientists and technologists and engineers to lead in this Industry 4.0 world,” Crawford said.

Crawford continued to exude the achievements of the university’s faculty and students in his sections on “Serving Staff” and “Discovering Solutions,” largely focusing on the record amount of external grant money Miami had been awarded. “Championing Teacher-Scholars” highlighted the integration of top scholars into teaching positions and the advancements that are being made as a result, including the development of the MyGuide system through the libraries, the first of its kind in the country.

The discussion turned to diversity as Crawford introduced the section on “Advancing Inclusion.”

“Inclusive excellence has always been our strategy,” Crawford said. “We think more holistically about DEI: how we engage, learn from and reflect diversity across our campus.”

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Presenting a list of statistics and awards given to the university for diversity initiatives, Crawford said DEI is integral to Miami’s continuing success and gave a spotlight to programs focused on growing underrepresented communities on campus.

Crawford circled back to mental health services in “Securing Wellness” before moving on to talk about infrastructure and construction with “Building Collaboration.”

“When we think about new spaces and renovative spaces, we want them to be more trans-disciplinary, to engage that so we’re crossing disciplinary boundaries,” Crawford said. “We wanted to have more collaborations for success … and more partnerships, not just internally within divisions but externally.”

Schematics of the in-process Clinical Health Sciences building, as well as the upcoming McVey Data Sciences building and eventual renovations to Bachelor Hall and the Center for Performing Arts, were shown as part of this discussion.

The architecture talk continued into “Prospering Together,” where Crawford tied the modern relevance of small towns with their connections to technology and innovation. He then gave a look at College@Elm, designed to be a center for collaboration between artists, entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts. The center is scheduled to finish construction in January.

“Sustaining Earth” looked at Miami’s environmental efforts through the Climate Action Task Force and Sustainability Committee.

Nearing the end of the presentation, Crawford brought money back up with “Lowering Costs” and “Funding Success.” The former showed how the university is working to keep costs down for students, while the latter centered on scholarships.

This included the announcement of the John Metz ‘57 & Ali Khan Scholarship Fund, the largest single scholarship commitment in Miami’s history at $46 million.

In the final section, “Reaching Out,” Crawford looked forward to developments that will impact Miami in the near future.

“Our tradition of excellence is really focused on engaging and reaching out toward the broader communities and broader society,” Crawford said. “Our service and partnerships and connectivity with others really exemplifies how we sustain excellence at this institution, which is so important for the future.”

Crawford first mentioned the anniversaries of the Scripps Gerontology Center and Miami’s relationship with the Myaamia Tribe, turning 100 and 50 respectively this year.

He then switched to athletics, making reference to this being the 35th consecutive semester student athletes had averaged a combined GPA of 3.0 or higher.

Crawford also announced that Sean McVay, head coach of the Super Bowl-winning Los Angeles Rams, would be the newest inductee into Miami’s Cradle of Coaches later this year.

Next came the reveal of the May 2023 commencement speaker: Nicole Fleetwood, author and professor at New York University. A Miami alum from the class of 1994, Fleetwood, whose work centers around incarcerated artists, will return to campus next spring.

As part of homecoming weekend, Lewis Place, the Crawfords’ home, will be turned into an art gallery in collaboration with the College of Creative Arts. The gallery will feature works done by faculty and alumni at Miami and will run throughout the semester.

Finally, Crawford ended by showing off a new promotional campaign Miami will roll out soon, with the formal title “For Love. For Honor. For Those Who Will.” He thanked the audience and the university community before exiting the stage.

“It’s been an extraordinary year, I don’t even know how to explain it,” Crawford said. “It’s been great to lead this really fine institution. I think our resilience, our will and our care for others really carried us through this pandemic, and the compassion and fortitude and focus we have really has advanced excellence in so many different ways.”

The event was bookended by a reception in the lobby of Hall, featuring refreshments and posters designed by various departments on campus highlighting their achievements over the past year.

@HollowCentral

hollowrr@miamioh.edu