Miami University history

Miami created a grammar school in 1818 to teach frontier youth, but it was disbanded after five years.

Cincinnati tried—and failed—to move Miami to the city in 1822 and to divert its income to a Cincinnati college.

The University began instruction in 1824.

1825-26 – The Erodelphian and Union literary societies become Miami’s first two students organizations.

The first degrees were awarded in 1826.

1827 – The first edition of the Miami Student – the nation’s oldest university newspaper – is compiled.

A theological department and a farmer's college were formed in 1829; the farmer's college was not an agricultural school, but a three-year education program for farm boys.

Alpha Delta Phi opened its chapter at Miami in 1833, making it the first fraternity chapter West of the Allegheny Mountains.

By 1834 the faculty had grown to seven professors and enrollment was at 234 students.

In 1839, Beta Theta Pi was created; it was the first fraternity formed at Miami.

He was replaced as President by George Junkin, former President of Lafayette College; Junkin resigned in 1844, having proved to be unpopular with students.

The Miami Student, founded in 1867, traces its foundation back to the Literary Register and claims to be the oldest college newspaper in the United States.

Convinced that petty pilfering by clerks was cheating him of profits, he bought three new machines called cash registers, invented in 1879 by a Dayton tavern owner, James Ritty.

The university reopened in 1885, having paid all of its debts and repaired many of its buildings; there were 40 students in its first year.

Women were first admitted in 1888.

Within the year, five women were admitted as “special students.” The first women would not graduate from Miami until 1900.

24, 1902 – Delta Zeta becomes the first sorority founded on Miami’s campus.

Miami's first African-American student, Nelly Craig, graduated from the Ohio State Normal School in 1905.

1909 – Miami launches its first alumni campaign, raising $40,000 to match a grant from the Carnegie Foundation for the construction of Alumni Library – Miami’s first dedicated library.

Patterson became nationally known when he spearheaded the relief work after a flood devastated Dayton in 1913 and raised $2 million to fund a flood control and prevention plan.

In 1925, William Hargraves and Eleanor Reece become the first African-Americans to earn bachelor’s degrees from Miami.

In 1928, Miami founded the School of Business Administration and acquired the Oxford College for Women.

The School of Fine Arts (now the College of Creative Arts), with curricula in architecture, music, painting, printmaking and design, was created in 1929.

1946 – The G.I. Bill allowed thousands of former veterans to attend Miami in the years following the war.

In 1947, graduate study was incorporated into a Graduate School.

By 1952, the student body had grown to 5,000.

In 1954, Miami created a common curriculum for all students to complete to have a base for their other subjects.

1957 – The University Center, today known as the Shriver Center, opens on Miami’s campus.

1964 – Training for the Mississippi Summer Project is hosted on the campus of Western College For Women, in which more than 1,000 college students were trained to assist in voter registration of African-Americans in Mississippi.

Miami founded the Dolibois European Center in Differdange, Luxembourg in 1968 with the purchase of Differdange Castle; students live with Luxembourgian host families and study under Miami professors.

In 1974, the Western College for Women in Oxford was sold to Miami, and President Phillip Shriver oversaw the creation of an interdisciplinary studies college known as the Western College Program.

Fall 2003 – Miami’s football, ice hockey, and men’s cross country programs all find themselves ranked among the nation’s Top 25 in their respective sports.

The newest regional campus, the Miami University Voice of America Learning Center also opened in 2009 in West Chester.

Miami University has a 2018 fall semester headcount enrollment of 19,934 at the Oxford campus (including students at the Luxembourg and VOA Learning Centers) and a total of 4,482 at the two regional campuses (based on official, October 15 enrollment figures).

All campuses were closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reopening partially that fall.