New dean must stay engaged

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Updated 4:05 PM Wednesday, February 3, 2010

The long-awaited announcement from Miami University came last week. Three finalists have been chosen to vie for a newly created post — dean of Miami’s regional campuses in Middletown, Hamilton and West Chester Twp.

That’s significant because — as you probably already know — the 40-plus-year-old regional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown have always operated independently with their own executive directors or deans.

News that Miami officials in Oxford were recommending, as part of a new strategic plan for the regional campuses, that they operate under one dean and one budget raised concerns in both communities about diminished leadership at the campuses and whether Miami’s presence in Middletown and Hamilton would recede. After all, both regional campuses have raised their community profiles significantly in recent years, adding downtown facilities in both cities and encouraging community involvement by staff and students. That level of community engagement has been welcomed in Hamilton and Middletown, and no one wants to see it curtailed.

The Middletown and Hamilton campuses have been important institutions in both towns since they were created in the 1960s. Thousands of area residents — traditional college-age and non-traditional students, often adults returning to school — have attended the local campuses, which offered Miami’s high quality educational programs within easy driving distance and at affordable prices. The current economic recession has made their roles even more crucial — because living on a college campus has become unaffordable for many families.

We can’t disagree with Miami’s decision to consolidate leadership at the regional campuses. That decision should be conducive to developing a cohesive strategy for utilizing and positioning the regional campuses in the more competitive market Miami now finds itself in. Miami does not need three regional campuses in Butler County competing with one another.

A dean overseeing all three campuses will undoubtedly see opportunities and synergies that will benefit students and the university in the long run.

We’re also excited by Miami President David Hodge’s recent comments about moving more professors between the university’s campuses as a way of spreading their creativity and knowledge throughout the region.

After the new dean is selected, the challenge for Miami is to maintain the level of community engagement and connection that Middletown and Hamilton have grown to appreciate and to rely on. And we suggest that the new dean — whoever is chosen — be as receptive to feedback and recommendations from community residents and leaders as past campus directors have been.

Hodge has promised that the three finalists will participate in community forums — to give you an opportunity to meet them and ask questions. We urge our readers to consider attending the open forums and making your views known.

The finalists, chosen from a field of 50 applicants, are Kevin Corcoran, professor of the department of psychological science at Northern Kentucky University; David Pearson, special assistant to the provost of the University of Texas Brownsville; and G. Michael Pratt, associate vice president for academic affairs at Heidelberg University. We look forward to hearing their views and learning more about them, as the process continues.

Of course, the good news for Miami University is that the residents of Middletown and Hamilton care deeply about what happens on these campuses and will want their voices heard. That’s a good thing. If they didn’t, Miami would then have something to worry about.

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