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Opinion | Facts matter in spending debate

Denise A. Krallman and Andrea I. Bakker, krallmda@muohio.edu and bakkerai@muohio.edu

While we, like many Miamians, are deeply concerned with some of the issues addressed in the recently published letter, "Miami's spending should be questioned, not dismissed," we were disappointed by the use of misinformation and sensationalist language to address these issues. The appropriate use of university funds, student engagement and university marketing practices are important issues worthy of a real conversation, rather than arguments based on hyperbolized claims of "bamboozlement on an epic scale."

Professors Brock, Cottell, Hall, Hart and Miller erroneously stated, "The administration counts sections of classes with 200 students as including 10 sections of 20 students each, because there is a once-a-week breakout session with a graduate student — an obvious distortion downward of an official measure of class size." The Common Data Set Initiative set the guidelines used by Miami University to calculate class size and are the same guidelines used by universities across the country.

Contrary to Brock et al.'s assertion, a class of 200 students who meet together would be counted as a class of 200. Breakout sections, where students are indeed meeting in classes of 20, would be counted separately as 10 sections of 20 students each.

Brock et al. also provide an absurdly simplistic explanation of the methods used to measure student engagement when they wrote, "the methodological legerdemain underlying this claim [of student engagement] is to tell students constantly how engaged they are, and then ask them if they feel engaged." Offices and departments across the university use a variety of methods to examine students' engagement with their education, with an emphasis on students' behaviors and the activities they participate in. Measures of student engagement address questions such as: What type of activities do students participate in in the classroom? How many hours do our students spend preparing for their classes? What type of activities do students participate in outside of the classroom? How many of our students complete internships, work on research with a faculty member, or study abroad?

We support conversations about whether we, as an institution, are creating an environment that encourages and supports our students as well as whether we accurately communicate to all those involved with Miami the features that constitute a Miami education. However, we hope these conversations will be based upon accurate information, and we invite all who are interested in learning more about course enrollment size or measures of student engagement to visit Miami's Office of Institutional Research website (www.muohio.edu/oir) or to email Institutional Research at institutionalresearch@ muohio.edu.