“I really resonate in an authentic way with Miami University,” Gregory Crawford told the more than 110 faculty members gathered to hear him in the Wilks Theater on the school’s main Oxford campus.
“I’m very passionate the liberal arts …and I love how this university is student-centric,” said the 50-year-old Crawford, who is a native of northern Ohio.
Crawford told the audience about his background, which includes a master’s in physics and nearly two dozen patents, and his long academic leadership record in encouraging interdisciplinary study as well as outreach programs within and outside his previous colleges.
“I’m very community oriented. But first and foremost, it’s students first,” he told the crowd.
Miami University officials announced last week that a nine-month search had produced Crawford as the only remaining candidate to become the university’s next president.
Crawford would replace President David Hodge, who will retire June 30.
The university spent at least $150,000 for a private search firm to track down its next leader.
Miami University is Butler County’s largest employer, with nearly 3,300 full-time employees at its main Oxford campus, and Hamilton and Middletown campuses. Total university employment is more than 4,000 workers, including part-time employees, according to Miami.
The 50-year-old Crawford was raised in Elyria, Ohio, west of Cleveland. An undergraduate and graduate at Kent State University, he visited Miami as a young adult and remembered it fondly.
Miami University trustees are scheduled to vote to hire Crawford during their Friday meeting.
According to Crawford, he earned a bachelor’s (mathematics and physics), master’s (physics), and doctorate (chemical physics) from Kent State University.
Crawford completed two postdoctoral fellowships and was a researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center before joining the faculty at Brown University.
Miami Professor Michael Bailey Van Kuren liked what he heard.
“I’m excited. I think he was able to get his ideas out quickly with a lot of energy,” said Van Kuren, a professor of engineering and interactive media.
Monday’s forum was the first of four this week prior to the trustees’ Friday vote on Crawford’s hiring.
Crawford is scheduled to hold an open forum at 9:45 a.m. Tuesday at the Wilks Conference Center on Miami’s Hamilton campus and then a 1 p.m. forum later at Johnston Hall in the Knoll Community Center on the Middletown campus.
His final public forum will be 9:45 a.m. Wednesday back at the Wilks Theater on main campus.
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