Independence day could be coming for Miami University's regional campuses, as planned functional changes in the near future would make the sites more autonomous. However, a group of faculty is hoping this does not come to pass.
President David Hodge said the 2009 Regional Campus Committee, as well as the 2010 Strategic Priorities Task Force, in part, looked at the future of the regional campuses. This prompted the administration to combine the two campuses under a single dean. Since then, the administration has been working towards further changes based on their recommendations.
Hodge said it was found that fewer than 15 percent of students relocate to Oxford from the regionals, demonstrating that the locations should not be designed as stepping stones to and offshoots of the main campus.
Instead, he said, they should serve students looking for alternative education, whether they want to enter into a specific part of the local workforce or they are time and place bound. To do so, Hodge said the campuses must change.
"In order to have them fulfill their mission, we believe that it's important, as the committee did, that we create a new structure that allows them to have more autonomy," Hodge said. "Not total autonomy, because they are still Miami and so they need to be coordinated with the rest of what we do."
If the changes occur, the schools will be a separate academic division from Miami Oxford, removing the regional campuses from the disciplinary divisions they are currently in. In other words, they would be their own sovereign college, with their own departments, governed largely by their own faculty, which Hodge said would allow the regional campuses to efficiently respond to the needs of their student body without concern about whether the sister department in Oxford approves.
According to Hodge, students that attend the regional campuses would still be able to seek admission to the Oxford campus if they choose. He said Oxford students will likely still have options to take classes on both campuses, but did not comment on the specifics of how or if this process would change.
Traditionally in the past, Miami diplomas were all the same, regardless of where a student took classes. With the possible changes however, the specific campus where the student graduated may be indicated on diplomas, Lee Sanders, regional associate dean for administrative affairs said.
A letter signed by 70 faculty members from Oxford and from the regional campuses was sent to Hodge and Provost Bobby Gempesaw outlining concerns about creating a new division. David Berg, a zoology professor at the Hamilton campus and one of the signees, said chief among these is that the new model would allow the regional campuses to hire their own staff, a decision he said they are not necessarily equipped to make.
"Our belief is that creating a separate division that is defined only by its location will significantly devalue the degrees of all students at Miami University," Berg said. "Our goal is to provide a Miami quality education to Miami students everywhere. Standards of teaching and research need to be met everywhere for this to occur, and the best way to ensure this is to have the disciplines decide how the disciplines are taught on all campuses."
Berg said that while he is one of three zoologists at the Hamilton campus, he is also part of the department of 30-plus in Oxford; a very appealing aspect of teaching on the regional campuses that will no longer be true. He said that, without this, the kinds of people that take teaching jobs at the regional campuses will change for the worse.
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According to Berg, the signees are also displeased that they were not notified of any plans for these changes until a meeting of all Hamilton and Middletown faculty Dec. 2. By then, the plan was already well in motion. Furthermore, faculty members have not seen any written documentation of the plans. Berg said that, above all, the faculty should have their say on any potential campus changes.
Sanders said that there will be opportunities for faculty and staff input throughout the process.
"We very much value our connection with the Oxford departments, but I suspect there are ways to work with that," Sanders said.
Hodge said a proposal will be available and shared on campus in the coming weeks outlining the specifics.
The University Senate Executive Committee and a newly formed regional campus faculty committee will consider the proposal. After this, the general body of the University Senate will be given the opportunity to make recommendations to the President and the Board of Trustees. Finally, the Board of Trustees will decide if a new school will be created.
Governor Kasich and the Ohio Board of Regents partially prompted the changes when they indicated that they want Miami's regional campuses to provide more bachelor degrees for Ohio citizens, according to Sanders.
Currently, Hodge said local legislators and the state chancellor of the board of regents have been very supportive of the plan, as they feel this will help prepare an educated workforce for Ohio.
Michael Pratt, Dean of the Regional campuses, who responded via email, gave another perceived benefit that would be a result of the change.
"By all indications, adding additional four-year degree programs to our current offerings will grow the enrollment of the regional campuses," Pratt said.
While no part of the plan is finalized, Hodge said this is the direction the regional campuses are moving in.
"This is a win for the regional students because they will have more options that better suit them on the regional campuses," Hodge said. "The campuses are different. Their missions are different. That difference is a strength, not a weakness."
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