Three public forums will take place next week as part of the Miami University Regional Campus Implementation Committee’s process to create a separate academic division for the regional campuses.

The creation of the academic division, similar to the Farmer School of Business or the College of Arts and Science, will allow the campuses to create their own degree programs without the approval of academic departments in Oxford.

The move represents a major change in focus for the regional campuses, from being “satellites in orbit whose main purpose is to feed students to the Oxford campus” to increasing the availability of affordable degree opportunities that can be fully completed on these campuses, said Provost Bobby Gempesaw.

Miami University is the top employer in the county with more than 3,000 employees.

“Keeping in mind that the regional campuses were established to serve the needs of the region, it became evident over the years that the current structure did not give these campuses the flexibility to develop new programs and degrees in response to changing conditions in the region, thus hampering their efforts to fulfill their mission,” President David Hodge told the university Board of Trustees prior to the board’s unanimous approval of the new division in April.

Since receiving its charge from the provost in August, the Implementation committee has created a website, posted minutes of its weekly meetings, communicated to the campus community through open forums and emails and met with either the entire department or representatives of each department or program to be transferred to the new division.

The committee has released a draft of its report, available online at www.miamioh.edu/rcdivision, to solicit feedback on potential recommendations regarding the name of the academic division, its organizational structure, the process for hiring new faculty for the division and other issues before a final draft is delivered to the University Senate.

“The shared goal of everyone on the Committee was that the process would be transparent,” said the draft report.

The draft report includes two possible organizational charts for the new division and recommendations for naming it, based on the results of a questionnaire that was sent to faculty and posted online.

A final report based on the results of the forums and further discussions with the provost, president, deans and other interested parties will be delivered to the Senate sometime after the holiday break, the report said.