Envision the Future

Bicentennial Student Center  |  Message from the President

Celebrating the past, building the future: the Bicentennial Student Center

University architect and campus planner Bob Keller discusses considerations shaping the Bicentennial Student Center.

Vision

At the beginning of its third century, Miami University will celebrate its past, and boldly strengthen its future, by building the Bicentennial Student Center, an exciting new facility that will be the cornerstone of the contemporary "Miami Experience." The Miami Experience of today retains the best of what our alumni recall about their own Miami days, and combines it with the best of twenty-first century student learning: collaborative intellectual inquiry, curricular and co-curricular leadership opportunities, 24/7 student-to-student interaction, civic engagement and service, entertainment, and reflection. True to Miami's tradition and identity, Miami's Bicentennial Student Center (BSC), will serve as the nexus of vibrant interactions that will enhance student learning and personal and professional development.

The BSC will provide a critical platform to facilitate the "engaged university." Miami's core vision calls for the fusion of curricular and co-curricular aspects of student life with an understanding that every aspect of our students' experiences contributes to their ultimate success. Our firm belief is that we should view our students holistically, building character as well as intellect, and developing those intangibles, like leadership and initiative, that increase our students' capacity to use their education to its fullest. The BSC will add to the many innovative campus-wide efforts to strengthen the Miami student experience, most notably the second year residency requirement that provides more opportunities for student development and the engaged learning paradigm that emphasizes active learning inside and outside of class.

Student centers also have a significant impact on the perception of a campus by prospective students and parents, as well as enhancing retention, by providing experiences that integrate students into the fabric of the university. This has led to a dramatic increase nationally in the development of a new generation of student centers. Several other Ohio universities, including Ohio University, Ohio State, University of Cincinnati, and Bowling Green have either completed or are in the planning/construction stages for new - or substantially renovated - student center buildings. The Bicentennial Student Center will symbolically and functionally "center" the Miami experience, providing the surroundings needed to advance the "engaged university" philosophy of student interaction, collaboration, engagement, and discovery. The Center will add substantially to our efforts to recruit and engage the very best students in an increasingly competitive higher education environment.

Building

The Bicentennial Student Center, with approximately 207,000 square feet of space, will be designed to reflect the traditional style of the Miami campus, with an interior that will be open and vibrant. It will be a combination of high-energy open spaces and small, relaxed nooks with plenty of room for students to gather, study, eat, work on group projects, plan and enjoy student events, and just relax. The building will include meeting rooms of various sizes, lounge spaces to accommodate informal gatherings, a copy-technology center, a theatre, and a large event space.

A centerpiece of the building will be the Center for Student Engagement and Leadership, the home base for student organizations on campus, all conveniently located in proximity for the first time so that they can easily collaborate on programming. Students will have priority on all event spaces for planned activities, unplanned activities like "open-mike" evenings, speakers, performances, or movies. Students will benefit from state-of-the-art technologies and resources that support these programs and enhance the co-curricular experience.

The BSC will provide a variety of opportunities for students to learn and interact. A cultural lounge will visibly highlight the multiculturalism of the campus. An art gallery will feature student art, a community kitchen will be available for various programming, and a meditation room will provide space for quiet reflection. The Market Place will provide the most up-to-date food service features that appeal to students while the RedHawk Zone and Irish Pub will provide non-alcoholic entertainment venues.

The BSC will also provide a visible learning opportunity for environmental sustainability. In accordance with the new Sustainability Plan and Miami's increasing emphasis on sustainability, the BSC will be only the second Miami University building to be LEED-certified.

Planning for these spaces is the result of a program analysis that lasted nearly two years, including a strategic asset value analysis, focus groups, benchmarking analysis, an internet based student survey, and demand model analysis. The team analyzed various possible locations and determined the best location to be on Spring Street between Shideler and Kreger Hall, at the very heart-the center-of the University. In preparation for this, Kreger will be renovated for the Physics Department and Culler, Rowan and Gaskill halls will be deconstructed. The Fine Arts units within Rowan Hall and IT Services within Gaskill Hall will be relocated to other campus facilities.

Fund-raising campaign

The Bicentennial Student Center Campaign will be the largest individual fundraising effort ever attempted at Miami University. Our goals are ambitious, specific and attainable: (1) to raise the money needed to construct the BSC, (2) to encourage 50% of Miami's alumni to make a commitment toward the BSC effort, (3) to achieve and sustain an ongoing annual alumni participation rate of at least 25 percent (up from 17%), and (4) to use the Bicentennial and the BSC as a way to generate a new level of excitement and engagement within the Miami family.

Alumni support for the new student center will commemorate our Bicentennial in much the same way that alumni donated the funds for Alumni Library (now know as Alumni Hall) to commemorate our Centennial. The campaign will draw on the excitement surrounding the Bicentennial and the centrality of a student center to all Miami students. The legacy of the campaign will be both an extraordinary new facility on our campus and a much more developed culture of "giving back." By encouraging so many Miami alumni to donate to the BSC, we will significantly increase alumni awareness of our financial needs, demonstrate the tangible impact of the power of numbers-that many people giving very modestly can accomplish great things-and encourage the habit of giving on a regular basis.

Our aim is to raise half the money needed for the project through major gifts by providing recognition opportunities throughout the center and for the center itself. Named spaces within the building will honor gifts of at least $25,000 up to $10 million. Additionally, we seek a lead gift of $20-25 million that will name the entire facility for a generous donor or family.

The remaining half of the required funds will be raised through a series of unprecedented peer-to-peer, marketing, and direct mail initiatives, aimed at connecting Miami alumni in new ways. The goal is to get half of our alumni - 71809 individuals - to donate an average of $200 per year, one dollar for every year of our history, for three years. The sum of these gifts is more than $14 million per year, with a total over three years of more than $42 million, roughly half of the cost of the entire building.

All alumni will be invited to commemorate the Bicentennial by supporting the BSC. Alumni who are current givers to Miami will be asked to make an additional annual gift to the BSC effort through an ambitious Alumni National Campaign. In order to encourage those alumni who have never given to Miami, individuals will be contacted personally by other alumni who will be part of an online social community that has been created to serve as a Miami "Hub" of interactions. We anticipate that at least 30,000 giving requests will be made in true Miami fashion, by Miami alumni connecting personally to other Miami alumni.

All individuals who donate $200 or more to the BSC will have their names placed in the building. We have selected this modest, symbolic figure so that all Miami alumni and friends will have the opportunity to participate in commemorating the Bicentennial, leaving their personal legacy for our third century. By seeing the tangible impact of their gifts on the future of Miami, we hope to achieve much higher levels of ongoing annual support by our alumni. Participation at this unprecedented level will also significantly raise the energy level and connections of alumni to Miami, an outcome that will benefit the university in all sorts of positive ways, such as more alumni visiting campus, attending university events, recruiting new students, serving as mentors, providing internships, and joining alumni career networks.

Financing and construction plan

Miami plans to build the Bicentennial Student Center at a cost of approximately $90 million when it opens in fall 2014. We will not be able to move forward with a building contract until we have raised at least $40 million in cash and pledges, a target projected to be reached no later than December 2010. Any construction costs not covered by private giving will need to be financed by issuing bonds, but they should not exceed $50 million in the worst case scenario, with no more than $20 million of the bonding (at a cost of about $1.6 million annually) to be paid for by the core university budget. The rest of the bonding will be covered by student fees (up to about $150 annually). As private giving moves beyond the $40 million mark, as expected, the amount of bonding necessary to be paid for from university funds will be progressively reduced, ideally to zero.

Since this is a building dedicated to student use, we expect the ongoing operating costs of the Bicentennial Student Center will be paid from student fees (of approximately $200 per year), in order to completely dedicate the building to student use priorities and avoid any ongoing commitments from the core Educational and General (E and G) budget.