A celebration with Portia Simpson Miller, Jamaica’s Prime Minister

Saturday June 21, 2014

Hilton Miami Airport

5101 Blue Lagoon Drive
Miami, Florida 33126

 

5:30 PM Reception

6:30 PM Keynote Address

The Most Honorable Portia Simpson Miller, Jamaica’s Prime Minister and esteemed Union alumna (B.A. 1997) will mark Union Institute & University’s 50th anniversary at a special celebration in Miami, Florida. Click here to purchase tickets. For more information contact Angela Bolt Byles (305) 653-7141 x2108.

Prime Minister Simpson Miller is currently in her second term. Before first taking office in 2006, her illustrious career included serving as Minister of Labor, Welfare and Sport; Minister of Tourism and Sport; and Minister of Local Government, Community Development and Sport. She was recently inducted into the prestigious International Women’s Forum Hall of Fame, joining the ranks of hall-of-famers including Rosa Parks, Nancy Pelosi, and Margaret Thatcher. Prime Minister Simpson Miller earned a Bachelor of Arts from Union Institute & University in 1997.

The Prime Minister is truly a global ambassador who exemplifies the university’s mission, vision, and values in her words and deeds. She, like so many Union alumni and students have pursued their education against all odds in order to transform lives and communities. “Anything I can do to make life better for the poor or the working poor, or wherever there is injustice, I will do,” she has said. “People. That is what influences me. It doesn’t matter what class, color, religion, or creed,” she continues. “I am the voice of the voiceless in the corridors of power.”

Her many achievements include:
• Mrs. Simpson Miller was the leading architect of Jamaica’s Master Plan for Sustainable Tourism     Development, the Honourable Prime Minister has been tireless in promoting and strengthening urban renewal and community development, leading to fundamental reforms in local government.
• As Minister of Labour, Welfare and Sport, she presided over the significant expansion of Jamaica’s Overseas Work Programme.
• National Insurance Scheme was transformed into a major component of the government’s social protection system.
• She was also instrumental in establishing a Labour Chair in the University of the West Indies, Department of Government.
• The Municipality of Portmore in the parish of Saint Catherine was established while she had Ministerial oversight of the Local Government Portfolio.
As both minister and as prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller has received several local and international awards and accolades:
• In March 2007, she was awarded the International Olympic Committee’s World Women and Sport Trophy for outstanding dedication to women in Jamaican sports – both athletes and administrators.
• In 2009 she received the Distinguished Award for her dedication and commitment to urban renewal and community development from the Mayor, City of Miami.
• She also received the Bureau of Women’s Affairs Award for outstanding contribution to the advancement of women’s affairs in Jamaica.

Simpson Miller chose to study at Union Institute & University to broaden her knowledge base and solidify her academic credentials, which became necessary to advance in a political career that began while she was still in high school.

“It did not matter that I had served my apprenticeship in the intensive workshop of politics and government and had been schooled in the university of life,” she told graduates at Union Institute & University's 2001 Florida Commencement, where she received the university’s honorary doctorate for her exemplary efforts to improve the quality of life for all Jamaican citizens. “It did not matter that I was routinely called upon to represent my country at conferences all over the world. The absence of a college degree remained an issue in my life.”

From 1994-1997, Mrs. Simpson Miller attended seminars and periodically met with faculty at Union Institute & University's Florida Academic Center in North Miami Beach as she completed her bachelor of arts degree, while simultaneously attending to her parliamentary duties. When attending classes, Mrs. Simpson Miller was happy to be just another student, something that would have been impossible for her as a public figure in Jamaica.

Not only did she want to ensure that people would never be able to question her intellectual ability, Mrs. Simpson Miller was also motivated to complete her degree to prove something to her constituents, especially to the youth of Jamaica. “Anything you make up your mind to do, you can achieve,” she said. “When you have the power that comes with knowledge, you can use it for the advancement of people's lives. I will never forget my experiences at Union Institute & University because they assist me in continuing to make a difference.” Despite her demanding schedule and extensive responsibilities throughout the years since her graduation, she has maintained her friendship with the faculty and staff at the Florida Center.

Fifty years on, Union Institute & University keeps quietly growing in Uptown

Mar 19, 2014

Bob Driehaus
bob.driehaus@wcpo.com

CINCINNATI -- Cincinnati can boast of a university perched just north of downtown where undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees are offered. It's been around a long time, and its graduates include college presidents and even a prime minister.

It may sound like University of Cincinnati or Xavier, but the school is Union Institute & University, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary, fortified by $500,000 in new scholarship grants pledged by Western & Southern Financial Group and the Helen Steiner Rice Fund.

Because of its unusual learning model, UIU doesn't garner the attention of UC or Xavier, or even Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. You won't find teen-agers and early twenty-somethings on the hard court trying to reach the NCAA basketball tournament.

In fact, you'll find few traditional college-age students at all.


Union Institute is housed in a Tudor mansion that was home to Procter & Gamble's advertising operations. Legend has it that Ivory's 99 and 44/100% ad slogan was born in its board room. Photo: Bob Driehaus WCPO

That's because the not-for-profit university is and always has been a distance-learning center, conducting classes online now – and by other methods in the past – that has focused on adults.

"We developed the idea of online learning before there was the technology to support it," Associate Vice President Carolyn Krause said.

Students come from all walks of life, but the most common are single mothers returning to school after hard knocks or missteps got them off their education and career tracks. Minority representation is also much higher than at traditional campuses, with 47 percent of students being white, 23 percent African American and 20 percent Hispanic.

"She is 38, of color and/or with kids. She's involved with her church and social causes," Krause said of the most typical Union student.

While it's headquartered on McMillan Street in Cincinnati, Union has satellite facilities near Miami, Fla., Los Angeles, Sacramento and Brattleboro, Vt. Total enrollment is 1,640, including 306 students in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.

Union formed in 1964 after 10 university presidents gathered to dream about the future of higher education, according to the school. They formed a consortium with two goals in mind:

• Create an alternative delivery model of higher education for adult students.
• Inform the field of higher education about what was learned in the process.
Fifty years and the school is still growing.

It offers more than a dozen bachelor's degrees, with many more concentrations; multiple master's degrees and doctorates in psychology, philosophy in interdisciplinary studies and education. In January, it added a new master's of science in organizational leadership, a 12-month online program.

So, with no students milling about campus, no sports teams or other organized extracurricular activities, it's hard to put a face on the university.

But one face is Ginny Ruehlmann Wiltse, who earned her doctorate in 2000 with a concentration in spirituality. She is now a Union board member.

She is a daughter of the late Eugene Ruehlmann, who served as Cincinnati mayor 1967-71. Western & Southern, established a $250,000 grant in his name last fall. The grant is provided to one Ph.D. student each year who is pursuing a doctoral dissertation project that "embodies Ruehlmann's guiding principles of cooperation, collaboration compromise, communication and community-building," with the promise of significantly contributing to a community.

Wiltse's education was happily interrupted by her choice to focus on raising her three children. When she considered her options to complete her doctorate, the flexibility and proximity of Union's program proved most appealing.

"My program at Union was transformative to me," she said. "And it was the perfect place because it was flexible."

Union emphasizes the importance of service the community in its mission, and Wiltse said the doctorate she earned there helped. "I feel like I’m living my degree by the work that I do," she said. "The people who thrive at Union are predispositioned to use their degrees to do good in the world," she said.

Its graduates include Portia Simpson Miller, prime minister of Jamaica, who earned a B.A. in 1997. Sojourner-Douglass College President Charles Simmons, Bethany College President Scott Miller and Thomas Edison College President George Pruitt are among the educational leaders who earned doctorates there.

"It definitely caters to people's busy lives," Krause said.

Like most universities, Union has experienced some headwinds since the 2008 recession, particularly with a dip in employer-sponsored scholarships for workers to earn an advanced degree. Despite those challenges, its surplus and enrollment are up slightly this school year, Krause said.

Its mission has shifted in recent years to send representatives out to businesses and organizations. Instructors hold classes at Colerain's police department, where officers pursue degrees of every level – some to qualify for a promotion, some to earn a bachelor's after work and sometimes military service delayed their pursuit.

Degrees aren't cheap, with undergraduate degrees costing $490 an hour, master's costing between $500 and $778 an hour and doctorates costing up to $1,110 an hour.

But students cobble together financial aid and scholarship packages to make it work. Nearly 90 percent of undergraduates and doctoral candidates receive financial aid, and virtually all master's candidates do, according to the school.

Wiltse looks forward to the Ruehlmann scholarship continuing the mission.

"Union gave a template, an option for women who were underserved," she said.

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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