Just about a month after announcing the school’s board of trustees voted to eliminate the Department of Comparative Religion, Miami University began a $72 million renovation of an academic building, according to a report from the Journal-News.
The report indicates the 46-year-old building is home to several academic departments, in addition to the Humanities Center, the American Culture and English Program, and the Ohio Writing Project for students on Miami’s main Oxford campus.
“It’s a big moment for us,” Renée Baernstein, incoming dean of the College of Arts and Science, told the Journal-News of the two-year project. “There are a lot of shared spaces, places for interacting, and modern classrooms.”
The construction begins on the heels of the elimination of the Department of Comparative Religion last month, which followed through on a letter sent at the beginning of the Fall 2023 term from Provost Dr. Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix to department chairs that stated school had been forced to make “very difficult decisions” regarding undergraduate programs with low enrollment, according to a report from WKRC.
A number of Ohio schools have followed a national trend of tighter budgets, including:
- Kent State slashing its budget by tens of millions of dollars
- The University of Toledo planning to suspend and merge 48 of its degree programs
- Youngstown State eliminating six programs
- 13 academic programs at Baldwin Wallace either being cut or merged while 23 faculty and staff positions being eliminated
- Marietta College eliminating 10 programs and a number of faculty and staff positions
- More on cuts across the state from The Ohio Newsroom
