- This is an article about Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. For the article on the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, see University of Miami.
Miami University is a public university founded in 1809. It is located in Oxford, Ohio (not in Florida) in southwestern Ohio about thirty miles northwest of Cincinnati. The Miami in this school's name refers to the Miami Rivers valley, cut by two medium-sized rivers, the Little Miami River and the Great Miami River, that flow through southwestern Ohio; the rivers were in turn named after the Miami Indians who lived in that area before European settlement.
Miami was named one of the original Public Ivies in Richard Moll's 1985 classic entitled, 'The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Undergraduate Colleges'. Miami is known as the "Cradle of Coaches" because several prominent football coaches worked there before achieving greater fame at more prominent college programs or the NFL. Among these coaches were Paul Brown, Sid Gillman, Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Weeb Ewbank, and Bo Schembechler. It is also considered the Mother of Fraternities and the Mother of Ohio Governors.
Miami graduated an American President (Benjamin Harrison) putting it in a prestigious category of a league of Presidential alma maters.
For many years, the athletic teams at Miami were nicknamed Redskins, but in 1997, the nickname was changed to RedHawks. The RedHawks participate in NCAA Division I in all sports (I-A in football). Its primary conference is the Mid-American Conference; its hockey program competes in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Yager Stadium is home to Miami football.
It is also famous for its School of Education, the McGuffey School, named for Professor William Holmes McGuffey who taught there and wrote America's most widely used pioneer text books.
Miami University was first provided for under the Northwest Ordinance, which would regulate the free states of the Midwest. On May 5, 1792, "the President of the United States was authorized to grant letters patent to John Cleves Symmes and his associates . . . provided that the land grant should include one complete township . . . for the purpose of establishing an academy and other public schools and seminaries of learning. After Ohio became a state in 1803, the State legislature assumed responsibility for making sure that John Cleves Symmes would set aside a township of land for the support of an academy. Such a law was passed by the State legislature April 15, 1803. . . . Finally, on February 17, 1809, the State legislature created Miami University and provided that one complete township in the State of Ohio in the district of Cincinnati was to be vested in Miami University for its use, benefit, and support."[1] This was known as the "College Township"
Miami was chartered by the government but was considered a private college engaged in classical training. Antebellum Miami University took students from all over the West. It was at one point the 4th largest university after Harvard, Yale, and Dartmouth. As the East-West rivalries subsided, but the North-South rivalries surged, Miami University split apart at the time of the Civil War. Most graduates volunteered for the Union, more than any other school bar the military academies. The majority of those that didn't, primarily from Southern states (such as Jefferson Davis' nephew) volunteered in the rebel armies. Because its students had left for war, because many alumni and professors died in the War, because the West opened up to other universities, and because Southern families no longer sent their sons to the North for an education, "Old Miami" passed on and Miami University nearly died. The university, unable to pay its huge debts, closed in 1873 and did not reopen until 1885.
With the help of alumni and Ohio legislators, "New Miami" was restarted as a coeducational school of education and liberal arts. Although Ohio State University had been launched in the interim, Miami University gained a fair share of Ohio students by the 1890s, and by the 1950s had massively grown. The rural Oxford campus with Georgian architecture is considered to be similar to Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia campus and one of the most beautiful in the U.S; Robert Frost once called it "the prettiest campus there ever was." [2]
Several women's colleges in Oxford were associated with or effectively merged with Miami University including the Western College for Women (now the Western College Program), a daughter school of Mount Holyoke. Miami University was coeducational long before most schools in the Ivy League. Miami has been a non-sectarian school as were other pioneer universities in the Midwest, though its early leaders were often Presbyterians.
Miami University's current enrollment is approximately 15,000 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students. In addition to its Oxford campus, Miami has additional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown, Ohio, and a European Center in Luxembourg.
Miami University is known around the Greek World for the Miami Triad, three fraternities founded in the 19th century that spread throughout the United States. These were Beta Theta Pi, Sigma Chi, and Phi Delta Theta. The Delta Zeta sorority was also founded at Miami University in addition to the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity.
The Oxford campus has become the first major public school in the United States to abolish tuition differentials between state residents and nonresidents. As of the 2004-05 academic year, all students pay tuition of over $19,000 per year, although Ohio residents are guaranteed scholarships of at least $10,000. [3]
Divisions
- School of Fine Arts
- Richard T. Farmer School of Business
- School of Arts & Sciences
- School of Engineering
- School of Interdisciplinary Studies (aka Western College Program)
Alma Mater
Miami Glee Club singing the Miami Alma Mater
Old Miami from thy hillcrest,
Thou hast watched the decades roll,
While thy sons have quested from thee,
Sturdy hearted, pure of soul.
Old Miami! New Miami!
Days of old and days to be;
Weave the story of thy glory,
Our Miami, here's to thee!
Presidents of Miami
- Rev. Robert H. Bishop, 1824-1841
- Rev. George Junkin, 1841-1844
- Rev. John McArthur, 1844
- Rev. E.D. McMaster, 1845-1849
- Rev. William C. Anderson, 1849-1851
- Professor O. N. Stoddard, 1854
- Rev. John W. Hall, 1854-1856
- Rev. R. L. Stanton, 1866-1871
- Rev. A. D. Hepburn, 1871-1873 (then closed twelve years)
- Professor R. W. McFarland, 1885-1888
- Ethelbert D. Warfield, 1889-1891
- Rev. William O. Thompson, 1891-1899
- Rev. William J. McSurely, 1899
- Rev. David S. Tappan, 1899-1902
- Rev. Guy Potter Benton, 1902-?
Famous People related to Miami University
Famous Graduates
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Walter Alston, former manager of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers.
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Maria Cantwell, U.S. Senator from Washington.
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David A. Caputo, president of Pace University.
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Art Clokey, creator of famous childhood icons Gumby and Pokey.
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Mike DeWine, U.S. Senator from Ohio.
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Rita Dove, African-American U.S. Poet laureate.
- Richard T. Farmer , CEO of the Cintas Corporation and namesake of Miami's School of Business.
- Ron Harper , former NBA player.
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Andrew L. Harris, former Governor of Ohio.
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Benjamin Harrison, former President of the United States.
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Bill Hemmer, CNN anchor.
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Samuel Laws, inventor of the ticker tape used in the stock markets and the gold exchange.
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Mojo Nixon, musician.
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P. J. O'Rourke, conservative satirist.
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Michael Oxley, Member of Congress and co-sponsor of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
- John Miller, Senior VP of NBC Sports
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Joseph Ralston, Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
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Paul Ryan, U.S. Representative from Wisconsin
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Donna Shalala, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, current president of the University of Miami and a graduate of Miami of Ohio's Western College Program.
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Wally Szczerbiak, NBA player, Minnesota Timberwolves.
External links
References
- Bert S. Barlow, W.H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, and Frederick Schneider, eds. Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio. Hamilton, Ohio: B.F. Bowen, 1905.
Last updated: 05-23-2005 05:24:01
