University Senate met on June 8, 2020, via WebEx. Senate approved a new major: Digital Commerce (B.S. Commerce). Also approved was a Sense of the Senate resolution regarding racism listed below,

The following items were received on the Consent Calendar:

1. Curriculum
2. Graduate Council Meeting Minutes – April 2020
3. Center for Teaching Excellence – Annual Report
4. KNH Department Name Change
5. Committee on Faculty Re/search – Annual Report
6. BA/MA – Combined Program Credit Requirements

With the approval of the May 4, 2020, University Senate meeting minutes and the June 8, 2020, University Senate abbreviated meeting minutes, the following resolutions were approved.

SR 20-24

June 8, 2020

BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED that University Senate endorse the proposed degree, Bachelor of Science in Commerce, with a major in Digital Commerce, College of Liberal Arts and Applied Science.

AND FURTHERMORE, that the endorsement by University Senate of the proposed degree and major will be forwarded to the Miami University Board of Trustees for consideration.

SR 20-27

June 8, 2020

Whereas we as representatives of the Miami Community reject the reported racist views expressed by Doug Brooks with the full awareness that they are not uniquely held nor expressed within the Miami University and demand that he express a public apology;

Whereas we recognize that there are many other forms of racism working within the Miami Community to alienate and exclude people of color;

Whereas we understand that the first amendment applies to all and that all who protest against white supremacy, police brutality, and systemic racism should be allowed to do so at Miami University without fear of retaliation or reprisal;

Whereas we understand that often people of color often bear the brunt of these actions;

Whereas we want to emphasize the role of healthy dialogue that spans the Miami Community;

Whereas we recognize the need to acknowledge the ways in which faculty and students of color are often held to different standards of practice at Miami University and in Higher Education more broadly than their white counterparts;

We, the members of the Miami University Senate do agree to work to dismantle the systems of oppression that are operating at our University. We will work in the immediate future to prioritize resolutions that take specific and measurable action including, but not limited to the following:

1. Protect existing programs that are vulnerable but that teach the core values of how to be better, more critically engaged, human beings.  

2. We commit ourselves to anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-ableist, decolonial and LGBTQ education and to learning more about, challenging, and transforming systems of oppression that imbue our world by interrogating them in our courses across campus in the co-curriculum university experience;

3. Extend anti-discrimination education to all members of the Miami Community and hold people publicly accountable for perpetuating hate and discrimination on campus;

4. Make the work of faculty, students, and staff of color more visible to white colleagues;

5. Increase the number of students, staff and faculty of color campus-wide and make sure that we identify and create programs that support their work and health;

6. Identify and rectify all forms of bias in our methods of evaluating professional activity and progress.

7. Actively cultivate spaces for our students to be engaged alongside staff and faculty in open forums. To make anti-racism a core value of Miami, it must be something we talk about regularly and work aggressively and purposefully to combat.

8. Ensure that love and honor embraces all of our students, faculty, staff and community members.

9. Honor our commitment to our diversity and inclusion statement, “We also actively work to address and eliminate acts of harassment, hate, and violence that negatively impact the ability of our community members to engage in their intentional work together. We oppose activities that threaten our educational mission and the rights, dignity, or humanity of the students, faculty, and staff who are fulfilling that mission and working in good faith to engage respectfully across difference. In these ways, we work to ensure that all students, faculty, and staff experience and recognize Miami as a community environment where a diversity of thoughtful ideas and lived experiences are welcome, valued, and contribute to collaborative and respectful knowledge-making.”

https://miamioh.edu/diversity-inclusion/about/statement/index.html