By Tricia Cherry —
This past Wednesday, November 19th marked the final TEE Time of the semester. The speaker on this day was Pat Moeller, mayor of the city of Hamilton, Ohio. Mayor Moeller is also a lawyer and says that he “goes back and forth from mayor to lawyer, because it’s just the way I talk sometimes.”
Mayor Moeller began with a conversation about his dog, Happy Gilmore, named by a little girl. Happy the dog greets and disarms people who go to seek Mayor Moeller as an attorney, with Mayor Moeller noting that people looking for lawyers don’t tend to do so for happy reasons, and often tend to be upset. “People don’t get along well in those situations,” he said, “You put a dog into the mix—they start petting the dog and it brings that stress level down. If you’re ever in the office sometime, bring your dog.”
Mayor Moeller then went on to say how proud he is to have a Miami University campus in the city of Hamilton, calling it “huge.” On the topic of Miami’s shift to a polytechnic model, Mayor Moeller called it a pioneer move: “The idea of having a career school combined with more of your classical education. With those two combined, I think each becomes stronger. That’s incredible stuff.”
While Mayor Moeller never attended Miami University himself, his uncle Jack Conrad was a contractor who helped to build several of the buildings on the Hamilton campus, including Rentschler Hall where TEE Time takes place. This is a second point of pride for the mayor, who says he’s “darn proud of that.”
Mayor Moeller welcomed questions about the data center, water reservoirs, and energy sources. The river was brought up as being an excellent source of both water and power, with the plants at just the right locations so that the water flows consistently and doesn’t become too high or too low. When asked if the city needs the data center, Mayor Moeller said that he’s looking toward the future more than the present. “I’m sure we can live without it, but will it be helpful? Yes.”
At the conclusion of the talk, the mayor was invited to a Thanksgiving-themed luncheon that was being held in Wilks.
When asked at the end of the event if TEE Time would continue into further semesters and whether she considers it a success, Dr. Hamilton assured those gathered that she sees the events as a massive success and plans to revive the program for next semester. “As long as we have at least two students in attendance, I consider it a success, and we’ve had an average of about seven.”
Dr. Hamilton would like to extend an offer in the meantime: So long as they fall into one of the established five pillars of discussion (academic, well-being, socio-politics, entrepreneurship, and economics), anyone is welcome to suggest a topic or speaker to her office, which is in the Center for Social and Economic Empowerment in Rentschler Hall.