Difficulties With Socially Integrating At Miami University

By Tyler Pistor

Miami University journalism student

Promoting the success of students at Miami University is a goal of faculty members -- but helping students thrive is a much more complex issue than one would think.

That was one of the themes of the academic and student affairs committee meeting on April 20. It happened just before the university Board of Trustees meeting.

Statistics presented from the Student Satisfaction Survey show that students at Miami are adjusting better academically than socially on campus -- the committee report saying that "more than 81 percent agreed or strongly agreed that they were finding it easy to adjust academically (82% last year), while 73 percent felt they were finding it easy to adjust socially (68% last year)."

The results of the survey provide a goal for committee members to increase the retention rate of students at Miami, as well as student satisfaction.

"The other thing that people mentioned were student activities. They are looking for more social things to do on campus -- more concerts, more movies, more things for people that don’t drink or not in Greek life," says Vice President of Student Affairs Jayne Brownell.

According to the Student Satisfaction Survey, students that are Pell Eligible -- or students from low-income families that receive federal aid -- feel that they fit in the least at Miami, with 59 percent of Pell Eligible students saying that they fit in at Miami versus the overall 74.4 percent of students that feel that they fit in.

"For me, Miami’s done nothing to help me integrate socially with Miami. I personally don’t really like it here. I believe that I don’t belong here and I feel like I’m an outsider, because I’m not rich, I’m not preppy, and it feels like that’s the kind of attitude that they foster here," says Josh Beuerlein, a freshman Miami student who will be transferring to Miami Hamilton after this semester.

The difficulty of social integration seems tied to what Miami offers students -- the Student Satisfaction Survey section titled "the social activities that Miami offers provide me with enough to do" shows that only 50.3 percent of people feel like they agree with that statement.

"I know for the most part, they heavily encourage Greek life, they just show it off as a great thing that everyone should be involved in, and I think that just keeps people divided," Beuerlein says. "You’ve got people that aren’t really in Greek life who just don’t really socialize well with others, and these people don’t socialize—won’t socialize—until they have a reason to, like a class project. I don’t know if Miami’s giving people much of a reason to socialize."

One of the issues outlined at the committee meeting was that there needs to be more for students who aren’t in Greek life and who don't engage in Miami’s drinking culture to do. Not all students participate in these activities.

"Are we ignoring our community because we make assumptions about who our students are?" asks Brownell.

Student affairs workers reached out to some of the students who completed the survey, helping them to get a better idea of how to help improve student satisfaction on campus as well as lend a hand to students who need help.

Photo: Josh Beuerlein works on his computer, finishing up work for his classes this semester, preparing for the shift to Miami Hamilton in the next academic year. -- Photo by Tyler Pistor