OXFORD — The Miami University Senate expressed its displeasure with a plan to create an academic division for the regional campuses by voting against four of the plan’s seven provisions and questioning the necessity of the other three.

The proposal is for Miami to have the regional campuses in Hamilton, Middletown and West Chester Twp. have more autonomy as a separate academic unit. The plan was first proposed in January and would impact how Miami, Butler County’s largest employer, operates its branch campuses.

Many of the senators who spoke out against the provisions also spoke out against the need to have a separate academic division based on geography. They also wondered whether there was a hidden agenda.

Senators took issue with responding to a document rather than being asked to create a plan or being given an opportunity to make changes to the plan given to them, and that there seems to be no justification for having a plan in the first place.

“Even if it were a good thing,” one senator said, “this still has the flavor of something that was imposed rudely from above.”

“There’s a lot at stake here and this proposal is difficult to decipher,” said another. “There are words in here that seem to be coded to stand for something else.”

If the problem is that it’s difficult for the regional campuses to create new degree programs, another suggested, it would be better to create an academic division with an academic mission rather than lumping the regionals together arbitrarily, a move he likened to “throwing the baby out with the bath water.”

The senate voted 27-21 against the first provision that would give the new academic division the authority to develop new degrees and programs.

The senate voted 35-5 against the second provision, which would give the new academic division the authority to hire new faculty members in consultation with but not the approval of current academic divisions.

The senate voted 29-7 against the third provision, which stipulates that there can be joint appointments between the new academic division and Oxford divisions.

The senate voted 34-12 against Provision 7, which states that the name of the academic division would be specified on a students diploma.

No senators voted against the other provisions. Provision 4 states that current faculty members would continue to be promoted and granted tenure in their own department. Provision 5 encourages collaboration between the new division and Oxford divisions. Provision 6 states that the new academic division would be named after “appropriate consultation with the stakeholders.”

According to Steven DeLue - chairman of the Executive Committee of the Senate, who presided over the vote - the matter will still go to the university trustees for further action at its April 27 meeting.

“This was just an advisory opinion and the trustees will take it into consideration when they make the final decision,” he said.

G. Michael Pratt, dean of regional campuses, said that the senate’s vote typically carries some weight with the trustees, but that the proposal to create a new division is largely an administrative one and not an academic one.

“The vote basically gives the faculty a chance to express their opinion, and they’ve done that,” Pratt said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.