North America/United States of America/Ohio/Oxford/Miami University/
Miami University
- Location & Contact Information
- Address, Directions, & Map:
- 501 East High Street, Oxford, Ohio, United States of America
- Telephone Numbers: 513-529-1809
- Official Website: [2]
- Address, Directions, & Map:
- History & Memorable Moments
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." This was known as the "College Township". [1]
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, and was known as the "Yale of the Early West". It was at one point the 4th largest university in the United States 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 except the military academies. The majority of those that didn't, primarily from Southern states (such as Jefferson Davis' nephew) volunteered in the Confederate 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. [1]
With the help of alumni and Ohio legislators, "New Miami" was restarted as a coeducational school of education and liberal arts. Although the Ohio State University, then the Ohio Agriculture and Mechanical College (Ohio A&M), 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." [1]
Several women's colleges in Oxford were associated with or effectively merged with Miami University including Oxford College and 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 Differdange, Luxembourg. [1]
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, and is called "Mother of Fraternities." These were Beta Theta Pi (1839), Sigma Chi (1855), and Phi Delta Theta (1848). The Delta Zeta sorority was also founded at Miami University in 1902 as was the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity in 1906. Alpha Delta Phi was the first fraternity to arrive on campus in 1833. [1]
In 2004, the Oxford campus theoretically abolished tuition differentials between state residents and nonresidents (all Ohio residents receive an automatic scholarship). This effort was undertaken to make Miami more affordable to moderate-income families in Ohio by giving the university more flexibility in the disbursement of state funds. As of the 2004–05 academic year, all students pay tuition of over $19,000 per year; Ohio resident scholarships are $10,000 or more depending upon financial need, extraordinary ability, talent in mathematics or science, or declared interest in teaching. [1]
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- Duke, Raoul (October 1992 - October 2002)
- Marie, Alex Joseph (August 1993 - February 1994)
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