In a move to strengthen the university’s leadership team as online enrollment soars and the number of academic programs continues expanding, MIU has hired two new executive leaders, Bill Smith as vice president of online education and digital transformation and Chris Muller as chief operating officer.

MIU President John Hagelin

These hires come as the result of a search process that yielded more than 50 applications.

“Bill and Chris bring an enormous amount of knowledge and experience to our already talented leadership team,” said MIU President John Hagelin. “They are absolutely wonderful human beings, very empathetic, almost tailor made for our community and our culture.”

With their support, Hagelin said, he will be able to give more focus to being a knowledge leader. “This means training our faculty, leading retreats, going deeply into our foundational knowledge,” Hagelin said. “I want to help ensure that everyone who is teaching here and sharing knowledge with our students is really developed in their own experience and intellectual understanding. I also want to be more of a global spokesman for MIU and put MIU more on the global map. That’s where my capabilities are greatest.”

Bill Smith, vice president of online education and digital transformation

Bill Smith, MIU’s new vice president of online education and digital transformation

Bill brings three decades of experience in strategic enrollment management, student affairs, academic affairs, program development, fiscal planning and accountability, faculty development, and building domestic and international partnerships. 

Just before coming to MIU, Bill was in the Middle East on a mission to train a new generation of artists and storytellers as the Industry Learning Director at NEOM, where he oversaw the development and delivery of creative media programs for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s emerging film, television, animation, video game, and digital publishing industries. 

Before that, he served seven years as president and CEO of Columbia College Hollywood (now California College of Arizona State University), an independent liberal arts college focused on the arts and creative media.

He also spent eighteen years at Full Sail University in Florida, where he was the director of its flagship recording arts degree programs. He was a member of the team that helped grow the university from 200 to 20,000 students, and he was awarded Full Sail’s Top Gun Award for Outstanding Educator and Full Sail’s Lifetime Achievement Award. From Full Sail he traveled to Los Angeles for an appointment as vice president of academic affairs at the Los Angeles Film School, where he worked for five years.

Bill’s career began as a working musician and audio engineer, with a list of clients that included Disney, Universal, Warner Brothers, indie labels, and independent artists. His desire to share his passion with younger talent led to teaching courses in sound recording and music as an adjunct professor and from there to a successful career in higher education administration.

Bill describes himself as an avid bicyclist and motorcyclist, a music-loving audiophile, a gamer, a film enthusiast, and hopelessly obsessed with emerging technology. He and his wife, the award-winning screenwriter Annie DeYoung, have one daughter and one grandson.

“I am really, really looking forward to collaborating with everyone to help the university grow in support of its mission and ensure that its next fifty years are even better than the first,” Bill said. “The opportunity to take our message to a wider audience around the globe is thrilling.”

“Coming from Los Angeles to Fairfield is a wonderful transition,” he added. “I get a lot of questions about that. Frankly, I already feel right at home. I’m thrilled to be part of this remarkable community and to build a life here.”

Chris Muller, chief operating officer

Chris Muller, new chief operating officer

Chris, from Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, brings sixteen years of experience in human resources, leadership development, employee engagement, and organizational design to MIU.

“I’m genuinely excited about MIU’s focus on Consciousness-Based learning,” Muller said. “From an operations standpoint, I see a wealth of opportunities to streamline processes, enhance efficiency, and ensure that MIU’s operational backbone supports its unique educational approach.”

Muller with his son, Jaxson, age 7.

Chris says he has always taken a people-centric approach. “I believe that by understanding and catering to the motivations and aspirations of each team member, we can create a more cohesive and effective operational structure,” he said. “I’m eager to bring this blend of operational efficiency a people-first mindset to MIU.”

Chris worked most recently as vice president of personal finance for London-based XLMedia, a leading global digital media company. Prior to that he spent four years at Highmark, a large non-profit healthcare company and health insurer, where he worked as director of operations support, director of learning and development, and manager of talent development.

“On a personal note, my twelve-year commitment to vegetarianism and my appreciation for meditation and holistic practices align well with MIU’s values,” Chris said. “It feels great to be in a place that not only strives for operational and academic excellence but also emphasizes holistic growth.”

Chris and his wife, Julia, have three children, ages 7, 3, and 1.

Outside of work, Chris enjoys playing basketball and biking when possible. He and his family love the outdoors and are usually hiking or at some kind of park with the kids on the weekend. Chris is also a movie enthusiast, particularly fond of horror and action genres, although comedy remains his ultimate favorite. Additionally, he’s a dedicated Cleveland sports fan, specifically the Browns and the Cavaliers.

Chris holds a bachelor’s of business administration in finance and an MBA in finance from Cleveland State University.

“I’m ready to collaborate, optimize, and help MIU achieve its operational and educational goals, always keeping our people at the heart of every decision,” Chris said.

Banner photo by Craig Pearson

After teaching her popular undergraduate course “Geometry for the Artist” for many years, Cathy Gorini, MIU professor of mathematics, has published a beautiful full-color book based on the course.

The long-awaited book is loaded with images and diagrams, featuring 244 illustrations in its 254 pages.

Who is the target audience?

“Geometry for the Artist is aimed at artists wishing to dive deeper into geometry and at mathematicians wishing to learn more about applications of mathematics in art,” Gorini said. “It should be of interest to students, teachers, and anyone interested in the intersections of art and mathematics.”

But do artists really use geometry?

The cover art was created by Gregory Latta when he was a student in the “Geometry for the Artist” course.

“The American artist Frank Stella says there is no art without geometry,” Gorini said. “Every branch of visual expression relies on shape and form. So whether an artist is schooled in geometry or uses their own geometric intuition, they are using geometry all the time. In fact, artists were developing and using many areas of geometry, including symmetry, perspective, and fractals, well before mathematicians understood them. And artists use every aspect of geometry, often in unique and unexpected ways, ways that a geometer would hardly imagine.”

What areas of geometry does the book cover?

“The main topics are symmetry, perspective, Euclidean and non-Euclidian geometry, fractals, and topology,” Gorini said. “I analyze works of art from each of these points of view.”

Can you give an example?

“Consider the painting ‘Venice: The Doge’s Palace and the Riva degli Schiavoni,’ by the eighteenth-century Italian artist Canaletto, who painted in the late 1730s,” Gorini said.

“Canaletto makes use of transversals, orthogonals, horizon line, and central vanishing point. The central vanishing point is low, giving a wide expanse of sky above that balances the activity on the plaza, and is located far to the right, allowing the viewer to see the façades of the buildings facing the river. Knowing the location of these details of the painting reinforces our perception of a peaceful cityscape.”

The pink lines highlight lines in the painting that converge at the central vanishing point, defined as a point at which receding parallel lines — known as “orthoganals” — seem to meet when represented in linear perspective. This creates the illusion of depth and perspective, guiding the viewer’s eyes and adding realism. The blue line highlights Canaletto’s use of horizontal line. The green lines exemplify “transversals” — lines that are parallel to the picture plane.

What other features does the book have?

“At the end of each chapter, I include exercises that encourage students to experiment with the new ideas in their own work,” Gorini said. “It’s not enough to see how others use geometry, so this course offers opportunities in every lesson for students to create works of their own using the new concepts and techniques that they have just learned.”

When did you start teaching “Geometry for the Artist,” and how did that come about?

“It was in the 1980s,” Gorini said. “Michael Cain, chair of our art department, asked me for a geometry course for art students. Art students took the course somewhat reluctantly, as their mathematics requirement, but they seemed to enjoy connecting geometry to their artwork. Then mathematics majors began enrolling, and pretty soon students from every academic department were signing on. It’s been the most popular pathway for undergraduate students to fulfill MIU’s general education requirement in mathematics.”

Clearly students enjoy your course.

“They find it rewarding to analyze works of art from a geometric point of view, looking to see how artists use the different aspects of geometry we study. But some students go even deeper. One student analyzed painted buffalo hides, an important part of her cultural heritage. At first, she felt such analysis would conflict with the spiritual values of the works. But later, as she saw the highly developed use of geometric principles supporting the spiritual meanings, she had a much greater appreciation and respect for the traditional artists. Mathematical analysis of a work of art does not make it dry and lifeless but rather gives new life to the work, enriching our insight and appreciation.”

So how did the book come about?

“The real inspiration for the book has been students getting excited about seeing geometry in art and using geometry in their own work. I am continually amazed and delighted by the ways geometry appears in art and how students use it themselves.”

— Professor Cathy Gorini

“As I developed the Geometry for the Artist course over the years, the need for a textbook became clear,” Gorini said. “But the real inspiration for the book has been students getting excited about seeing geometry in art and using geometry in their own work. I am continually amazed and delighted by the ways geometry appears in art and how students use it themselves.”

Roy Saper, founder and director of the award-winning Saper Galleries in East Lansing, Michigan, has high praise for the book. “I enjoyed Geometry for the Artist, as I see math in art every day here at our galleries, and I’ve never seen a book before that focuses on that connection,” he said. “Professor Gorini aptly defines and explains mathematical/geometric relations as they apply to a wide range of artworks. I will share the book with the artists on our team, as they will certainly enjoy the art we have here with an understanding and explanation of the mathematical/geometric associations.”

Cathy Gorini has taught mathematics at MIU for more than forty years. She earned her PhD at the University of Virginia and has written two previous books, Facts on File Geometry Handbook (Facts on File, 2003), and Geometry at Work (Mathematical Association of America, 2000). She served for many years as MIU’s dean of faculty and before that as the chair of the Curriculum Committee. In 2001 she won the award for Outstanding College Teaching from the Mathematical Association of America.

Click here to read her article, “Geometry for the Artist: An Interdisciplinary Consciousness-Based Course.”

Click here to read her article, “Consciousness: The Last Frontier of Geometry.”

 Thank you to Cathy Gorini for her contributions to this story.

Maharishi International University President John Hagelin sent the following message to the campus community on October 24:

Dear MIU students, staff, faculty, and community members,

Our hearts go to all those who have suffered because of the violence unfolding in the Middle East. Most especially, we mourn the suffering of innocent people caught in the crossfire of the war, many of whom are children. Every human life is precious. The loss of any human life is lamentable.

Violence begets violence, and that is what we are seeing. The whole situation is immensely complex. It did not begin on October 7. This area of the world has been a focal point of acute societal tensions for millennia. Nothing has succeeded in bringing lasting peace to this fraught region. 

Most regrettable to me personally is that this could have been avoided.

For nearly fifty years now, we have been demonstrating a method for neutralizing the social stress that gives rise to conflicts, terrorism, and war. To date, 56 empirical studies conducted around the world, including 28 published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals, have demonstrated the effectiveness of the Maharishi Effect — created by group practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi programs — in reducing social stress in all its forms: from crime, substance abuse, and suicides to terrorism and open warfare.

For the first time in history, we now have a scientifically validated technology of peace. It remains only to be implemented on a global and permanent scale.

I also regret that despite study after study, proposal after proposal, demonstration after demonstration, our world’s governments and philanthropists have not yet taken advantage of this approach — what the Global Union of Scientists for Peace (gusp.org) has declared the most powerful antidote 

to terrorism and war: a “Brain-Based Approach to Peace” that addresses the problem at its source.

Yet we must continue forging ahead. I, and I hope all of us, recommit ourselves to doing everything possible to practice and promote this simple, profound, low-cost solution to the age-old problem of war and violence.

The upcoming 10,000 course in India aims to create a world-wide surge of peace and harmony, calling attention to this proven approach and laying the groundwork for a permanent large peace-creating group in India. My gratitude to all those in our community and across the country who are planning to attend.

During those same two weeks, December 29–January 13, we are holding a simultaneous “satellite” course here at MIU, hoping to gather 2,000–2,500 TM and TM-Sidhi practitioners to generate coherence for the whole country and — if we reach 2,500 — for all North America. 

I hope you all will participate. This is one of our university’s central missions. 

There is a solution, and it’s in our hands. This is what we can do. 

Let us come together and give this every possible support, starting with our own personal practice in the Golden Domes, and let us radiate peace and harmony to our dear world family.

With my profound gratitude and best wishes to all of you.

John Hagelin, President

Student Activities is hosting its annual Halloween Dance Party for all MIU students on Saturday, October 28, from 8 p.m. to midnight.

The sober rave will take place at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center, 200 North Main Street.

Admission is free and requires a student ID to enter. 

An ongoing shuttle from Argiro to the Convention center will be available for the event.   

Students are encouraged to come in costume to enjoy the live photo booth, fortune-telling, glow flow performers, dancefloor, and chill-out room.  

International pop music will be provided by DJ Server from 8 to 9:15 p.m., house music by DJ E-Man from 9:15 to 10:30 p.m., and EDM by Bring the Noize from 10:30 p.m. to midnight.

Professional dance lights and sound by Lucid Journey’s Productions. 

In just three days, a group of eleven students and two community members framed a complete 320-square-foot tiny house while also designing their own tiny house floor plans.

“Working with a group hands-on is one of the best ways to learn, and I feel like I got that from this workshop!” said Lauren Saeger, who is studying Sustainable and Regenerative Living and Cinematic Arts and New Media at MIU.

The workshop, entitled “How To Frame A Tiny Home” and held at MIU’s Sustainable Living Workshop, began Thursday evening, October 5, and continued through Sunday, October 8.

The instructor was Mark Stimson, master builder and chair of MIU’s Sustainable and Regenerative Living department.

Stimson’s typical tiny house building course is two months long, and students carry the process through to a finished, ready-to-move-into house, including electrical, plumbing, and HVAC systems. He has taught five of these so far, and they are among MIU’s most popular undergraduate courses, always fully enrolled and drawing students from a variety of majors. His next course, in May and June 2024, has already reached its maximum enrollment.

But he had never done a crash course like this before.

The Thursday evening introductory session was free and open to all. Then followed a three-day intensive weekend workshop. Participants spent the morning and afternoon sessions doing practical, hands-on building and framing of the tiny home and evening sessions diving into theory and design.

Class sessions were 8:30–12:00 and 1:30-4:30 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, with evening sessions Friday and Saturday from 7:30-9:00.

“The instructors are extremely knowledgeable, and very patient with the students,” said Pierre Diaz, a Regenerative Organic Agriculture student. “Everyone had a chance to work on all aspects of the build. Can’t wait for the next workshop.”

Many students had never worked with power tools. “They bring both fear and respect for power tools into the class,” Stimson said. “But we start by learning how to use the tools safely and properly. Students lose their fear but keep their respect. It just amazed me how quickly they were able to turn around and do full-on professional-quality work.”

The course was “well worth every penny,” said Shawn Daudi, an MIU alum and professional engineer. “It was both fun and rich with knowledge.”

It was valuable for those at both ends of the experience spectrum, Shawn added. “The course is definitely comfortably paced for beginners who have never even held a hammer in their life and who might want to try something new for fun, but in my opinion, it can also be considered an excellent professional development course for anyone in the trades. As an engineer, I feel like this course broadened my skillset, and I feel more confident in my construction ability.”

“The only issue I had was that the workshop ended too soon!” he said. “I had so much fun and the people in the class were an absolute pleasure to share this experience with. I’m looking forward to the next one.”

Professor Mark Stimson, chair of the Department of Sustainable and Regenerative Living, tiny house builder, boat builder, sea captain, painter, novelist

“Hands-on learning has always been an important feature in our classrooms in Sustainable and Regenerative Living,” Stimson said. “Our courses and workshops on building tiny houses take this pedagogy to the max. Many of our students come into the course with minimal or no practical skills, some not knowing even which way to turn a screwdriver.”

But by the end of the second week of his longer courses, he says, “They are doing professional-quality work.”

“The transformation in them is amazing to watch, going even to the level of their physical bearing, core attitudes, and newfound self assurance. By combining this hands-on approach with meaningful academic challenges we provide an ideal learning environment. Head, hands, and heart, as the saying goes. I think all education should integrate hands-on and project-based learning into their pedagogies and curricula.” 

Thank you to Mark Stimson and Shreya Sood for their contributions to this story.

The journal Heart and Mind, a respected peer-reviewed medical journal, recently published an editorial by three MIU faculty describing a holistic “unifying systems medicine model” that encompasses and unites all aspects of health — mind, body, environment, and consciousness.

They focus their approach on addressing the epidemic of physician burnout and holistically improving physicians’ mental health and well-being.

The article is being picked up in the media — for example, Science Magazine, the Global Neurology Academy, the Global Women’s Health Academy, Medtelligence, reachmd/com, and more.

Physician burnout has become an epidemic in the US and around the world. More than 50% of physicians and healthcare providers report symptoms of burnout. Burnout impairs physicians’ quality of life, increases their risk of cardiovascular disease and mental health disorders, and impedes their ability to care for their patients. Physician burnout costs the US an estimated $4.6 billion annually.

Dr. Robert Schneider, lead author of the paper and Dean of the MIU College of Integrative Medicine

“Healthcare provider burnout is a major threat to health care quality, patient outcomes, and the medical workforce,” said Robert Schneider, MD, FACC, Dean of the MIU College of Integrative Medicine, and senior author of the paper. “Urgent action is required to alleviate this crisis.”

The new model incorporates biological, psychological, environmental, and consciousness factors into an interconnected framework the authors call the Connectome of Health. The model emphasizes the role of the Transcendental Meditation technique in enhancing resilience and preventing burnout and related mind-body conditions such as cardiovascular disease.

Connectome of Health

The diagram above illustrates how the proposed systems medicine model incorporates four fundamental domains of health: environmental health (environment), physical health (body), mental health (mind), and spiritual health (unified field of consciousness).

“The spiritual domain corresponds to the unified field of quantum physics,” Schneider said. “In the Connectome model, the unified field is identified as a field of consciousness that underpins both mind and matter. As such, we term it the unified field of consciousness. Each of these four domains interacts with the others, forming an interconnected whole system — The Connectome of Health.”

Dr. Fred Travis, co-author and director of the MIU Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition

“Transcendental Meditation allows the mind to experience a unique state of restful alertness, providing a buffer against the stresses of medical practice,” explained Fred Travis, PhD, co-author and director of the MIU Center for Brain, Consciousness, and Cognition.

The authors reviewed studies showing that TM practice reduces symptoms of burnout, anxiety, depression, and PTSD in healthcare providers. One of the largest studies on the effects of TM practice in a healthcare setting was conducted at three Miami hospitals during the height of the Covid crisis, where the effects were almost immediate.

“After two weeks, symptoms of depression and anxiety decreased nearly 45%, while insomnia, emotional exhaustion, and well-being improved significantly. These changes became even more significant throughout the three-month study,” reported Mark Nestor, MD, PhD, lead investigator and Voluntary Professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. 

The Heart and Mind authors suggest that TM’s benefits stem from unique neural mechanisms that counter the brain patterns underlying burnout and simultaneously balance interconnections between body, mind, environment and consciousness.

Dr. Tony Nader, co-author and Director of the Dr. Tony Nader Institute at MIU

“This systems approach highlights the value of developing consciousness through meditation for cultivating mental, physical and social health in an integrative manner,” said Tony Nader, MD, PhD, co-author, and Director of the Dr. Tony Nader Institute at MIU. “It offers a new paradigm for preventing disease and promoting whole health.”

The researchers call for continued investigation and application of this framework to tackle burnout and transform healthcare. “By incorporating evidence-based meditation programs, we can create a new wellness model that supports clinicians’ health and improves care for all,” Schneider said.

“Physician burnout is an on-going predicament that gained prominence with Covid-19,” said Marie Loiselle, PhD, director of evaluation and assessment at MIU, who did her doctoral research on the effects of Transcendental Meditation practice on academic physician burnout and depression (see below). “This editorial by Schneider, Travis, and Nader not only updates our understanding of the impact and scope of the problem, but perhaps more importantly presents empirical solutions to it. Specifically, they explain how the TM technique works in diminishing burnout on the neuro and cardiovascular levels.”

In 2021 the American Heart Association published a statement acknowledging the lack of a holistic approach. “As clinicians delivering health care, we are very good at treating disease but often not as good at treating the person,” the statement said. “The focus of our attention has been on the specific physical condition rather than the patient as a whole. Less attention has been given to psychological health and how that can contribute to physical health and disease.” The statement went on to acknowledge the “increasing appreciation of how psychological health can contribute not only in a negative way to cardiovascular disease (CVD) but also in a positive way to better cardiovascular health and reduced cardiovascular risk.”

Although the AHA statement acknowledged the role of mind along with body, mind and body comprise only two of the four elements in the holistic Connectome of Health model.

Further resources

“Effects of Transcendental Meditation on Academic Physician Burnout and Depression: A Mixed Methods Randomized Controlled Trial,” article in the Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions. 43(3):143-144, Summer 2023, by Marie Loiselle*, Carla Brown, Frederick Travis*, Gregory Gruener, Maxwell Rainforth*, and Sanford Nidich*. *Denotes MIU faculty.

NEW — Podcast interview with three authors of the above study (Loiselle, Brown, and Gruener), October 17, 2023.

Thank you to Dr. Robert Schneider for his contributions to this story.

A record 796 new students representing 85 countries and territories enrolled at MIU this fall — a 24% increase over last August — lifting MIU’s total enrollment to 2,771 students, up 2% from last August.

The biggest growth is in online programs, with substantial gains at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. New online undergraduate enrollment increased 41%, with total online undergraduate enrollment increasing 22%. New online master’s enrollment increased 34%, with total online master’s up by 10%

Several academic departments saw significant enrollment growth among all their programs:

Six new academic programs added this fall

Six new programs have been added to the university’s repertoire, bringing in 61 new students among them. Two are online versions of programs that had been available on campus, the BA in Regenerative Organic Agriculture and the BA/BS individualized major.

And four are brand new programs:

“These new programs show our commitment to expansion by offering an increasingly wider range of educational opportunities for students both on campus and online,” said Rod Eason, vice president of enrollment and student affairs. “As we move forward now with an unprecedented number of applications from prospective new students, we feel well positioned for even greater levels of enrollment success.”

Thank you to Rod Eason for his contributions to this story.

The long-awaited inauguration of the newly renovated swimming pool — now renamed the Cowhig Family Aquatic Center — will take place this Saturday afternoon, October 7, from 2:30 to 3:30. The whole community is welcome.

The inauguration will feature remarks by President Hagelin and friends of the pool, a ribbon cutting, a tour of all the renovated features, and a “delectable edibles buffet.”

It may or may not, however, include swimming.

That depends on whether the Iowa state pool inspector comes before Saturday to give final approval to open the pool. The official policy is no inspections after September 30 each year, when the swimming season is considered over.

MIU officials have requested an exception.

Otherwise, we can indulge in dipping toes, dangling legs, and looking forward to a full season starting in the spring.

The pool was last open during the 2019 season. The Covid pandemic kept it closed the next two summers. And by 2022, the widening cracks in the deck made clear that the pool needed major renovation.

Trustee emeritus Dr. Vincent Argiro — the lead donor for the Argiro Student Center — stepped forward and led the way with the private donations that made this renovation possible. The overall budget, donor funded, is about $1 million.

Dr. Argiro chose the name Cowhig Family Aquatic Center in honor of the Cowhig family of British Columbia, Canada, a number of whom have contributed significantly to MIU.

Here’s what’s new

Photos by Soren Pearson and Craig Pearson.