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Along Slant Walk
The heart of College@ Elm, Miami’s former food service building on Elm Street will be a catalyst for economic growth, transforming part of Oxford’s uptown into a hightech innovation and creativity corridor, says Miami President Greg Crawford. The project received a $1 million jump-start from Ohio’s 2021-2022 state capital budget.
College@Elm a New Model
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Miami University and the city of Oxford are working together to revitalize a three-block business area uptown that includes a university-owned building constructed in 1933 as Miami’s food service operation. It has sat empty for 19 years.
The university and city are setting their sights on renovating the 39,000-square-foot building at the corner of College and Elm, across the street on the west side of the Oxford Community Arts Center, formerly known as Oxford College.
Under the plan, the building will be transformed into the College@Elm Innovation & Workforce Development Center and will serve as an incubator for startups, workforce development, innovation, and manufacturing.
It will have two anchor tenants — Miami, operating an entrepreneurship training and incubator center, and the Fischer Group, a Butler County manufacturer operating a business expansion that the company is calling an “innovation extension.”
Many rural communities across Ohio and the Midwest are facing the same challenges as Oxford — empty storefronts and the struggle to attract new businesses, and with them, year-round residents, Miami President Greg Crawford said.
“The vision is that the College@Elm will become a model of revitalization for thousands of similar small, rural communities across the country that find it difficult to compete in this globalized, fast-paced world,” he said.
“This joint effort demonstrates how to think big, act bold, and leverage local, state, and federal resources.”
Commencement In Person Again
1974 Western College graduate Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins featured speaker
Spring 2021 commencement returned to in-person ceremonies in Yager Stadium. As a precaution due to the pandemic, the traditional single ceremony was broken into nine smaller, divisional ceremonies throughout the May 14-16 weekend for the Class of 2021.
Hundreds from the Class of 2020 also returned to campus for their own in-person ceremony May 13 to experience what they missed last year when concerns about COVID-19 resulted in theirs becoming a virtual event.
Each divisional ceremony incorporated remarks from the main speaker, Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins, and Miami President Greg Crawford.
Jefferson-Jenkins is a 1974 Western College for Women graduate and an adjunct assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the 15th national president of the League of Women Voters, serving two terms and chairing its education fund. She was the first woman of color to be elected president of the organization.
Under her leadership, the league helped pass the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which closed the most significant loopholes in campaign finance regulation at the time. She also led a charge to focus on local elections while increasing the number of voters who participated in all elections.
“While we don’t know what the future holds, we know that this class is made for this moment — their passion, their perseverance, their adaptability,” she said. “We know they will make the world better, and their Miami education and experience has prepared them for that.”
Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins receiving Miami’s Freedom Summer of ’64 Award, which honors the 800 trained at Western College, now part of Miami, to register Black voters in the South.
— Bob Woodward, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, speaking on “How We Got Here: The State of the American Presidency” Feb. 15 as part of Miami’s 2020-2021 Lecture Series
I’M GLAD YOU ASKED
We asked members of the Class of 2020 and 2021 who graduated in May:
What will you recall about college during COVID-19?
I now truly understand the value of community and connecting with people because of how disconnected I was.
— Jannie Kamara ’21, Miami’s 2020-2021 student body president, a Black world studies and diversity in leadership major, from Columbus, Ohio
When you’re surrounded by good people, the hard and scary times feel a little less daunting.
— Alice Marshall ’21, professional writing major, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Feeling devastated when I found out my commencement was canceled. I have worked so hard for that walk across the stage. Good news is I finally walked May 13, 2021!
— Kelly Herrmann Donathan ’20, computer information technology major, Cedar Grove, Ind.
NOTEWORTHY
Elizabeth ‘Like’ Lokon MAT ’93 PhD ’97 MGS
’08 of Miami’s Scripps Gerontology Center, will take her Opening Minds through Art program to Atma Jaya Catholic University of Indonesia for the academic year 2021-2022 through the Fulbright Scholars program. Her project is titled “Using Art to Teach Intergenerational Service Learning for People Living with Dementia.”
Daryl Baldwin, Myaamia Center executive director and a leader in Native American language and cultural revitalization, has been nominated by President Joe Biden to the National Council on the Humanities, which advises the National Endowment for the Humanities chairman. A citizen of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, Baldwin is an adjunct assistant professor in educational leadership and also serves as co-director of the National Breath of Life Archival Institute for Indigenous Languages, based in the Myaamia Center on Miami University’s Oxford campus.
The Ohio Department
of Higher Education has awarded Miami nearly $600,000 to help improve Ohio’s workforce development capacity by supporting in-state students in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). With the new Choose Ohio First grant, Miami’s College of Engineering and Computing will recruit and support more than a dozen Ohio students per year studying robotics, manufacturing, or automation.
RISING RANKS
10th
In Undergraduate Engineering Program among National Public Universities, U.S. New & World Report
37th
among top 40 of nation’s “Best Value Public Colleges,” as ranked by Princeton Review, April 20, 2021
Stellar Professors
Tammy Kernodle, professor of musicology, and David Berg, professor of both biology and biological sciences, each have been awarded the title of University Distinguished Professor by Miami’s board of trustees.
“She has a stellar reputation in the field of musicology,” a nominator wrote of Kernodle, also affiliate faculty of American studies, Black world studies, and women, gender, and sexuality studies. “But more than that, she is widely admired as a person of great integrity and caring who seeks to make higher education a more welcoming place for all.”
Berg researches the evolution and conservation of biodiversity, focusing on endangered freshwater mussels.
“What I find particularly extraordinary when reviewing Dr. Berg’s career,” an external nominator said, “is his ability to manage a first-class research program, mentor graduate and undergraduate students, and serve the university and the wider community,” given his heavy teaching load at the Regionals.
What we always suspected was confirmed in April. Miami is indeed somewhere over the rainbow.
Works of Art: From letterpress printing and pastel on paper to photography, oils on canvas, and digitally printed fabric, 64 pieces of art created by Miami faculty and alumni from the past 50 years will be on exhibit at the Miami University Art Museum fall semester from Aug. 24-Dec. 11, 2021. It includes the above photo, “After School, Christin 2,” taken by Jon Yamashiro, associate professor of photography. The exhibition is a collaboration between Miami’s art museum and art department and occurs every four years. The alumni were elected by current and emeriti faculty and invited to participate. This juried show features art by 14 current faculty, three emeriti faculty, and 38 alumni.
Miami Online’s 2 New Programs
The university is rolling out two new online master’s programs to meet the growing demand of working professionals and recent graduates for rigorous but flexible graduate degree and certificate programs.
The master’s in entrepreneurship and emerging technology and master’s of science in management bolster the offerings of Miami Online (miamioh.edu/ online), a new website housing online undergraduate, graduate, and professional educational opportunities.
Both degrees can be completed in as few as 10 months.
“Through strong and innovative academic curricula and with our worldclass faculty, Miami Online provides access to the same high-quality academic experience traditional students have come to expect from Miami University — even when they may not be able to be physically present on campus,” Provost Jason Osborne said. “We have developed exceptional programs that equip our students to make an impact in the world.”
RETURN TO IN-PERSON CLASSES
Miami will return to primarily in-person classes and operations by this fall. For Oxford undergraduates, that means most of their instruction will be face to face. While there might be some remote components of classes, the university does not plan to offer a fully remote option. Regional campus students will have access to a full complement of in-person classes and activities and will continue to have access to Miami’s nationally ranked online bachelor’s degree programs.
