Melanie Ziegler: “Possible desecration of iconic green space has brought me to my first-ever Trustees Meeting”

At the Board of Trustees meeting on December 13, Miami alum, Oxford resident and retired faculty member Melanie Ziegler spoke up against plans to build an arena near Miami’s historic Slant Walk. For more on FAM’s direct action at the Board meeting and links to other speeches members made to the Board, click here.

I am a proud Miami Grad, class of ‘73, one half of a 1974 Miami Merger, and a Miami Parent, whose daughter is a 2006 graduate of the Farmer School of Business. My family has lived in Oxford since 1990, and I was a CAS faculty member until I retired in 2019. When I very recently heard that Miami might locate a new sports arena on or near Slant Walk, I was first shocked and then deeply dismayed.  The very thought of such a possible desecration of the most iconic green space and soul of this university is what has brought me here to attend my first ever Trustees meeting and to appeal to your better judgment.

Feeling like a powerless stakeholder, I vented my concern to my classmates, former students, and colleagues on FB.  Their response was unanimous in opposition.  I will share with you today only one of the comments that I received from one of my Delta Zeta sorority sisters:

“I live near two universities (UNC & Duke) and neither of them disrupts their academic Quadrangles for sports.  This is beyond reprehensible.”