Miami University of Ohio

Miami University (informally Miami of Ohio or simply Miami) is a public research university in Oxford, Ohio. The university was founded in 1809, making it the second-oldest university in Ohio (behind Ohio University, founded in 1804) and the 10th oldest public university (32nd overall) in the United States. The school's system comprises the main campus in Oxford, as well as regional campuses in nearby Hamilton, Middletown, and West Chester. Miami also maintains an international boarding campus, the Dolibois European Center in Differdange, Luxembourg. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".

Miami University provides a liberal arts education; it offers more than 120 undergraduate degree programs and over 60 graduate degree programs within its 8 schools and colleges in architecture, business, engineering, humanities and the sciences. In its 2021 edition, '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranked the university 103rd among universities in the United States, as well as 46th nationally among public universities. Miami University is also ranked as having the 25th-best undergraduate teaching nationally. Miami was one of the original eight Public Ivy schools, a group of publicly funded universities considered as providing a quality of education comparable to those of the Ivy League.

Miami University has a long tradition of Greek life; five social Greek-letter organizations were founded at the university earning Miami the nickname "Mother of Fraternities". Today, Miami University hosts over 50 fraternity and sorority chapters, and approximately one-third of the undergraduate student population are members of the Greek community. ''Forbes'' ranked the city of Oxford first on its 2016 list of the best college towns in the United States.

Miami's athletic teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and are collectively known as the Miami RedHawks. They compete in the Mid-American Conference in all varsity sports except ice hockey, which competes in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

History

Old Miami (1809–1873)

The foundations for Miami University were first laid by an Act of Congress signed by President George Washington, stating an academy should be Northwest of the Ohio River in the Miami Valley. The land was within the Symmes Purchase; Judge John Cleves Symmes, the land's owner, purchased it from the government with the stipulation that he set aside land for an academy. Congress granted one township to be in the District of Cincinnati to the Ohio General Assembly for the purposes of building a college, two days after Ohio was granted statehood in 1803; if no suitable location could be provided in the Symmes Purchase, Congress pledged to give federal lands to the legislature after a five-year period. The Ohio Legislature appointed three surveyors in August of the same year to search for a suitable township, and they selected a township off of Four Mile Creek. The Legislature passed "An Act to Establish the Miami University" on February 2, 1809, and the state created a board of trustees; this is cited as the founding of Miami University. The township originally granted to the university was known as the "College Township," and was renamed Oxford, Ohio, in 1810.

The university temporarily halted construction due to the War of 1812. Cincinnati tried—and failed—to move Miami to the city in 1822 and to divert its income to a Cincinnati college. Miami created a grammar school in 1818 to teach frontier youth, but it was disbanded after five years. Robert Hamilton Bishop, a Presbyterian minister and professor of history, was appointed to be the first President of Miami University in 1824. The first day of classes at Miami was on November 1, 1824. At its opening, there were 20 students and two faculty members in addition to Bishop. The curriculum included Greek, Latin, Algebra, Geography, and Roman history; the university offered only a Bachelor of Arts. An "English Scientific Department" was started in 1825, which studied modern languages, applied mathematics, and political economy as training for more practical professions. It offered a certificate upon completion of coursework, not a diploma.

Miami students purchased a printing press, and in 1827 published their first periodical, ''The Literary Focus''. It promptly failed, but it laid the foundation for the weekly ''Literary Register''. The '' Miami Student'', founded in 1867, traces its foundation back to the ''Literary Register'' and claims to be the oldest college newspaper in the United States. A theological department and a farmer's college were formed in 1829; the farmer's college was not an agricultural school, but a three-year education program for farm boys. William Holmes McGuffey joined the faculty in 1826, and began his work on the ''McGuffey Readers'' while in Oxford. By 1834 the faculty had grown to seven professors and enrollment was at 234 students. Eleven students were expelled in 1835, including one for firing a pistol at another student. McGuffey resigned and became the President of the Cincinnati College, where he urged parents not to send their children to Miami.

Alpha Delta Phi opened its chapter at Miami in 1833, making it the first fraternity chapter West of the Allegheny Mountains. In 1839, Beta Theta Pi was created; it was the first fraternity formed at Miami.

In 1839 Old Miami reached its enrollment peak, with 250 students from 13 states; only Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth were larger. President Bishop resigned in 1840 due to escalating problems in the university, although he remained as a professor through 1844. He was replaced as president by George Junkin, former President of Lafayette College; Junkin resigned in 1844, having proved to be unpopular with students. By 1847, enrollment had fallen to 137 students.

Students in 1848 participated in the "Snowball Rebellion". Defying the faculty's stance against fraternities, students packed Old Main, one of Miami's main classrooms and administrative buildings, with snow and reinforced the snow with chairs, benches and desks from the classroom. Those who had participated in the rebellion were expelled from the school and Miami's student population was more than halved. By 1873, enrollment fell further to 87 students. The board of trustees closed the school in 1873, and leased the campus for a grammar school. The period before its closing is referred to as "Old Miami."

New Miami (1885–present)

The university reopened in 1885, having paid all of its debts and repaired many of its buildings; there were 40 students in its first year. Enrollment remained under 100 students throughout the 1800s. Miami focused on aspects outside of the classics, including botany, physics, and geology departments. In 1888, Miami began inter-collegiate football play in a game against the University of Cincinnati. By the early 1900s, the state of Ohio pledged regular financial support for Miami University. Enrollment reached 207 students in 1902. The Ohio General Assembly passed the Sesse Bill in 1902, which mandated coeducation for all Ohio public schools. Miami lacked the rooms to fit all of the students expected the next year, and Miami made an arrangement with Oxford College, a women's college in the town, to rent rooms.

In 1902, the Ohio legislature also authorized the establishment of the Ohio State Normal School "to provide proper theoretical and practical training for all students desiring to prepare themselves for the work of teaching." The normal school was Miami's first professional college and would evolve into the College of Education, Health, and Society. Miami's first African-American student, Nelly Craig, graduated from the Ohio State Normal School in 1905. Hepburn Hall, built in 1905, was the first women's dorm at the college. By 1907, the enrollment at the university passed 700 students and women made up about a third of the student body. Andrew Carnegie pledged $40,000 to help build a new library for the university. The McGuffey Laboratory School opened in 1910 and was soon housed with the teacher preparation students in the new McGuffey Hall, completed in 1917. McGuffey Hall was named to honor William Holmes McGuffey, author of the McGuffey Readers textbook series.

Enrollment in 1923 was at 1,500 students. In 1928, Miami founded the School of Business Administration and acquired the Oxford College for Women. The next year, the School of Fine Arts was established. By the early 1930s, enrollment had reached 2,200 students. The conservative environment found on campus called for little change during the problems of the Great Depression, and only about 10 percent of students in the 1930s were on government subsidies. During World War II, Miami changed its curriculum to include "war emergency courses" and a Navy Training School took up residence on campus. During wartime in 1943, the population of the university became majority women. Due to the G.I. Bill, tuition for veterans decreased; the enrollment at Miami jumped from 2,200 to 4,100 students. Temporary lodges were constructed to accommodate the number of students. By 1952, the student body had grown to 5,000.

In 1954, Miami created a common curriculum for all students to complete to have a base for their other subjects. By 1964, enrollment reached nearly 15,000. To accommodate the growing number of students, Miami University opened its first regional campuses at Middletown, Ohio, in 1966 and Hamilton, Ohio, in 1968. Miami founded the Dolibois European Center in Luxembourg in 1968, which would move to Differdange Castle in 1997; it is home to a study abroad program where students live with Luxembourgish host families and study under Miami professors. Miami experimented with a trimester plan in 1965, but it ultimately failed and the university reverted to a quarter system. On April 15, 1970, a student sit-in at Rowan Hall, home of Miami's Naval ROTC program, in opposition to the Vietnam War resulted in 176 students being arrested. Edgar W. King Library was completed in 1972. In 1974, the Western College for Women in Oxford was sold to Miami, and President Phillip Shriver oversaw the creation of an interdisciplinary studies college known as the Western College Program. The program was merged into the College of Arts & Science in 2007.

Responding to the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, trustees changed the athletic teams nickname from the "Redskins" to the "RedHawks" in 1997. The School of Engineering and Applied Science (later College of Engineering and Computing) was created from the former School of Applied Science in 2003. The Farmer School of Business building was completed on the East Quad in 2009. The newest regional campus, the Miami University Voice of America Learning Center also opened in 2009 in West Chester. In 2014, the Armstrong Student Center was completed to replace the Shriver Center, which was repurposed. All campuses were closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reopening partially that fall. Also in 2020, Miami began revitalizing its research programs and academic offerings as part of the MiamiRISE plan. This included the establishment of the Honors College in 2021.

Campuses

Oxford

Miami University's main campus is in Oxford, Ohio; the city is in the Miami Valley in southwestern Ohio, about 30 miles (48 km) from Cincinnati and 34 miles (55 km) from Dayton. Development of the campus began in 1818 with a multipurpose building called Franklin Hall; Elliott Hall, built in 1825, is Miami's oldest standing building and residence hall. Miami is renowned for its campus beauty, having been called "The most beautiful campus that ever there was" by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Frost, a friend of then Miami artist-in-residence Percy MacKaye, a poet. Miami has added campus buildings, such as the Farmer School of Business building, in the style characteristic of Georgian Revival architecture, with all buildings built three stories or less, or "to human scale". Today, the area of Miami's Oxford campus consists of 2,138 acres (8 km²).

Oxford, Ohio is a college town, with over 70.0% of the residents attending college or graduate school. ''Forbes'' ranked the city of Oxford first on its 2016 list of the best college towns in the United States. All first and second year students are required to live on campus and all dorms are three stories with basement levels. Miami University's dining options includes about 30 dining destinations on campus, including the Bell Tower Commons, Garden Commons, MapleStreet Station, Martin Commons and Western Commons dining halls, each with multiple dining options. Miami's dining services have won 52 awards since 2004. Miami University also has a Recreational Sports Center. The center has three basketball courts, an Olympic-sized pool and diving well, outdoor pursuit center, rock-climbing center, fitness room, large exercise classrooms and a weight room.

There are four museums on campus, including the Miami University Art Museum, William Holmes McGuffey Museum, and the Karl Limper Geology Museum. The Hefner Museum of Natural History, in Upham Hall, features displays of many hoofed animals and other animal mounts, shells, corals and sponges, skeletons and fossils.

Academic buildings

The original portion of campus starts at the intersection of South Campus Avenue and East High Street, where the Phi Delta Theta Gates lead into the slant walk path. In this area are the oldest academic buildings, including Hall Auditorium (Philosophy) and McGuffey Hall (Education, Family Science, Social Work), built in 1909, and Alumni Hall (Architecture), built in 1910. King Library and Harrison Hall (Political Science) are also in this area. Going eastward along East Spring Street are Irvin Hall (Classics, World Languages) and Kreger Hall (Physics) before the Armstrong Student Center, the largest building on campus. Surrounding Bishop Woods are Shideler Hall (Geography, Geology), Upham Hall (Anthropology, Comparative Religion, History, Sociology and Gerontology, Statistics), Laws Hall (Emerging Technology in Business + Design), and Hughes Laboratories (Chemistry and Biochemistry).

Buildings north of East High Street begin at the McVey Data Science Building site on Tallawanda Road. Going eastward is the campus of the College of Engineering and Computing, which includes Benton Hall (Computer Science, Software Engineering), Garland Hall, and the Engineering Building. Around North Patterson Avenue are Pearson Hall (Biology, Microbiology), the Psychology Building, and the Farmer School of Business building (Accountancy, Economics, Finance, Information Systems and Analytics, Management, Marketing).

There are four streets south of East Spring Street with academic buildings. On South Campus Avenue is the Clinical Health Sciences and Wellness facility. On Oak Street are Williams Hall (Media, Journalism, and Film) and Phillips Hall (Kinesiology and Health), in between Spring and Maple Street is McMillan Hall (Global & Intercultural Studies), and between Maple and South Patterson Avenue are the Shriver Center, Hiestand Hall (Art) and the Art Building, and the Center for Performing Arts (Music, Theatre). Also along Patterson Avenue is Bachelor Hall (English, Mathematics) before the entrance to Western Campus. Western Campus includes Boyd Hall, Hoyt Hall (IT Services), Peabody Hall (Honors College), and Presser Hall (Music).

Historic landmarks

* William Holmes McGuffey Museum, a National Historic Landmark
* Zachariah Price Dewitt Cabin, listed on the National Register of Historic Places
* Elliott and Stoddard Halls, oldest dormitories in use in Ohio
* Langstroth Cottage, a National Historic Landmark
* Old Manse (home of the Office of ASPIRE) Presbyterian Parsonage, East High Street, listed in the Historic American Buildings Survey
* Simpson-Shade Guest House, listed in the Historic American Buildings Survey
* Lewis Place, home of Miami presidents

King Library

Edgar W. King Library was originally known as the King Undergraduate Library when the south section was completed in 1966. When the north section was completed in 1972, the word "undergraduate" was dropped from its name. Before King Library was built, Alumni Library was the main university library. When King Library was completed in 1972, Alumni Library was changed to Alumni Hall. King Library is home to Miami University Libraries’ humanities, government, law, and social sciences collections as well as the Walter Havighurst Special Collections and university archives. It additionally houses King Café, the Center for Information Management, the Center for Digital Scholarship, a makerspace, and the Howe Writing Center.

In addition to King Library, the university's library system also includes the Amos Music Library in the Center for Performing Arts and the Wertz Art & Architecture Library in Alumni Hall on the Oxford campus, as well as the Rentschler Library at Miami University Hamilton and the Gardner-Harvey Library at Miami University Middletown

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