OXFORD — A controversial plan to create a separate academic division for the regional campuses of Miami University is likely to be endorsed soon.

The faculty members of the Executive Committee of the Miami University Senate meet Monday. Steve DeLue, Sara Butler, and Jim Kiper will attached their endorsement, with reservations, to the agenda, which indicates that the Senate will vote on each of eight provisions of the proposal, which was submitted Jan. 30 by Provost Bobby Gempesaw.

“This change in the academic structure of the university is a major change that has some significant effects,” the recommendation says. “We may first ask why this is necessary.”

The faculty members cited three reasons for supporting the proposal:

• It would provide the regional campuses with autonomy to “more purposefully serve the people of the state of Ohio, especially the Ohioans who live near the regional campuses and have the most direct access to them.”

• “Over the years, there have been several examples of situations in which the regional campuses has been frustrated in their attempts to add new programs that fit their mission because those programs do not match the expertise or interests of the corresponding Oxford departments in which those new programs are housed.”

• Divisional status would allow the regional campuses “to find ways to maximize their income and to use resources as efficiently as possible.”

However, the endorsement includes a concern that conflicts between the new regional division and existing academic departments. It could create “shadow departments” should professors in the new division would want to create new courses and new programs.

“It is our belief that this should be avoided,” the recommendation states, and adding that “faculty hired to teach in subject areas that have discipline based departments on the Oxford campus ... should be hired, promoted, and tenured as members of those departments.”

To ensure this, the faculty members of the Executive Committee suggest that an Implementation Committee consisting of members representing the regional campuses and the existing divisions “be put in place to resolve the key problems.”

The University Senate meets at 3:15 p.m. Monday in room 11 of Harrison Hall.

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