|
And last but certainly not least, we set a new record in private giving—over $50 million in cash contributions—and launched the 100 Professorships and Chairs campaign.
In other words, it was quite a year! As exciting as these accomplishments are, the coming year looks even better—if we have the determination and the focus to make it so. In that spirit, I would like to turn to the future and share some thoughts and goals that I believe will take us to higher levels of success and accomplishment.
Over the past several years, Miami has worked hard to establish and achieve the goals established in the "First in 2009" initiative. We have looked to our peers to set benchmarks to measure our progress and we have focused energy on some of our most difficult challenges, and most promising opportunities, that we face. During this past year we concluded this effort with a reflective analysis focused on how these individual efforts together have impacted the university. The final report, recently printed in the Miami Report, provides a compelling description of what Miami is and, even more importantly, what Miami is becoming. The core message is simple and powerful: "A single phrase," the committee wrote, "captures the essence of our vision for the future: The Engaged University." This phrase may not be unique to Miami, but I believe that no university is better situated to live that charge, and in so doing, to achieve extraordinary success.
To achieve that success, though, we must continue to set goals that will keep us energized and focused. In May, the Board of Trustees held a retreat to assess where we are and where we want to be. In preparation for this meeting, the President's Executive Committee drafted a set of strategic goals to provide a sharper vision of where we want to go and what it will take to get there. Let me be very clear in emphasizing that these goals do not present new directions for Miami. Rather they are intended to provide a more coherent and focused road map for extending, and stretching, what we are already doing.
During the fall semester, I am requesting that all of us take time to review these goals and that every unit provide, by January, a "localized" version of the goals, that is a set of unit goals that mesh with or expand on the University-wide goals outlined here. We will then use the unit responses to review and finalize the five year strategic goals in January or February.
Even more importantly, I am asking that each one of us review these goals on a personal level and ask how we can make Miami better in what we do every day. I know that at first glance this might seem like yet another planning exercise, and you might be thinking, "Haven't we done this before?" To a degree that is true. But the need to think strategically never ceases as the world around us changes at an increasingly challenging rate, and we continually grow in our potential to excel. In my experience, whether it is how we teach, how we involve students in our scholarship, how we respond to students and parents, how we make the campus more beautiful or run more efficiently, or how we provide core services, knowing what we are trying to achieve together will increase the impact of what we do individually.
There is not enough time to go through all of the goals today, so I will simply provide a quick overview and then elaborate on a few of the goals I believe are most critical to our success in order to begin the campus conversations and our individual deliberations.
We propose a total of nine major goals. The first three goals relate to our core missions of teaching and scholarship.
I. Make the Miami Undergraduate Experience the Best in the Country
The defining hallmark of a Miami education is an intense focus on both the intellectual and personal development of our undergraduates, achieved in large part by an emphasis on the partnership between academic life and student affairs.
II. Ensure Excellence in Graduate Education
Miami seeks to be outstanding in the graduate programs it chooses to offer. Selective excellence provides for focused accomplishments that best benefit graduate students and contributes most effectively to our teaching and research missions.
III. Raise the Level of Scholarly Accomplishments
The teacher/scholar model
is at the heart of Miami's model for faculty. Professors who are at the intellectual frontiers of their respective disciplines make important contributions to knowledge, and they provide exceptional learning and discovery opportunities that define the Miami Engaged Undergraduate Experience.
The next two goals speak most directly to our role as a public university.
IV. Increase the Impact of the Regional Campuses on the University and Their Communities
Miami University Hamilton and Miami University Middletown are core components of the University that must innovate to further increase their contributions to the University and the communities they serve. They should be the foremost educational institutions in their communities, driving their economic, civic, and cultural resurgence.
V. Improve the Future of Ohio
At the core of Miami's mission as a public university is the promotion of educational and economic opportunities for our region and the state. We will contribute significantly to Ohio's transformation to a stronger, knowledge-based economy.
| 
