Dear Visitor!
It is indeed a great pleasure for me to extend to you my warmest welcome to Miami University’s John E. Dolibois European Campus. I am delighted that you are visiting and invite you to look around. My most sincere wish is that you will enjoy your visit, that you will sense the special nature of our program and that you will understand why former students say, “After Luxembourg You Will Never Be The Same Again.” The successful combination of a strong European-focused curriculum, host family experiences, study tours and weekend travels facilitates this. For MUDEC alumni, your visit will be an opportunity to become reacquainted and to reminisce—I am happy you came back. For first-time visitors, it will be an opportunity to become familiar with our unique and most successful program—warmest welcome to you.

Our campus is in a very beautiful, charming and romantic medieval castle and is surrounded by a lovely, spacious and tranquil park. Located in the center of Luxembourg’s third largest city, our students experience a truly European setting in which they are encouraged to pursue serious studies and where they feel comfortable and secure and enjoy all modern conveniences.

A challenging, relevant and European-focused curriculum taught by distinguished European and American faculty, offers an exciting learning experience and gives our program its excellent academic reputation. Our host family program provides our students with the unique opportunity to observe European family life and become part of it. Life-long friendships between host families and students are testimony to its success. Center-sponsored and independent weekend travels enable our students to explore Europe, to reinforce formal classroom learning and to observe, experience, and feel comfortable in Europe’s various cultural settings. In fact, the combination of an exciting and rigorous curriculum, host family life and travel turns Luxembourg and Europe into our students’ classroom and laboratory.

Small classes, a committed, caring and supportive faculty and staff, a pleasant and attractive environment and an accommodating and engaging atmosphere create at MUDEC a community of learners that is cohesive, supportive, and comforting. A distinguished speaker series and organized visits to concerts, museums and other events provide additional venues for academic, personal and cultural enrichment and growth.

I encourage you to explore our web site and hope that you will give serious thought to enrolling in our exciting and very successful program. It will change your life in the most positive sense. The new perspectives, self confidence, tolerance and ability to effectively function in different cultural settings gained through our program will prepare you for a successful, fulfilling and happy life. The easy transfer of credits and grades and the opportunity (for Miami students) to complete a thematic sequence while at MUDEC are additional benefits.

Again, warmest welcome! I am delighted that you are visiting us. Please, contact me (estiller@mudec.lu) or the Luxembourg Office (luxembourg@muohio.edu) if you would like to have additional information.

With kind regards and sincerest wishes for a wonderful future,
Ekkehard Stiller, Ph.D.
Dean

As MUDEC’s coordinator on the Oxford, Ohio campus, I’d like to add my words of welcome and invite you to visit us or contact us if we can be of service in any way.

Our mission in the Luxembourg Office in Oxford is truly a joy: we are part of the most stimulating, enriching, and rewarding chapter of our students’ education. Academically and personally our students experience a giant leap forward in their knowledge and understanding of the world and their many opportunities in it. We have the happy charge to inform students of Miami’s unique Luxembourg campus and help make that a reality for them. We see them expand their cultural horizons and spread their wings to become the next generation of wise leaders and citizens in the era of globalization. Nothing could be more satisfying for us personally or professionally because this is a program of academic excellence.

Daily we hear from our alumni that the MUDEC experience is “amazing.” Large numbers of our recent alumni ask to work with us here in the office in order to be a part of it all and tell prospective students about it. We couldn't do our jobs without them. Their enthusiasm and many talents are invaluable to us. This year our student alumni employees are Jeff Budde, Torey Corrado, Lisa Daily, Hannah Goehring, Katrina LeMense, Isaac Reynolds and Shelby Steger. Each and every year our student employees bring impressive skills to the task. They inspire us and they share their love for MUDEC with new students. We are also very grateful to the Lux Club alumni here on campus for their marvelous recruiting efforts. When they join us for presentations at student and parent gatherings, the audience hangs on their every word. They are incredibly gifted recruiters for MUDEC!

We stay in touch with many of our alumni off campus who contact us for all sorts of reasons and often send us updates for the MUDEC Alumni Newsletter and plans for reunions. They have been terrific about organizing alumni groups and special occasions to rekindle old friendships and fund raise. Villmols merci!

In July 2003, we moved to 217 MacMillan Hall, where we have decorated our new office with Luxembourg paintings, mementoes, and books given to us by MUDEC’s special friends and supporters, Ambassador and Mrs. John Dolibois. A very heartfelt thank you to you both, John and Winnie, for all you continue to do for MUDEC, the Luxembourg Office, and MUDEC’s students. To all MUDEC friends: Please come and visit us at our new location soon!

Clearly what we do is a team effort in every sense of the word. On this side of the ocean, our office staff members are Billie Fields, Sue Clark, myself, and our very loyal and enthusiastic alumni student workers. On the other side of the ocean in Luxembourg we have a great team that we are in contact with every day by email, fax and phone and it sometimes seems that we read each other’s thoughts. We only wish we could see them more often – for coffee, tea, weekends, wine fests, celebrations. Any excuse will do to get together with such good friends and colleagues. It makes our work all the more interesting that we also work closely with a large number of colleagues in many offices all over the Oxford campus and sometimes the Middletown and Hamilton campuses as well. Every day I am very favorably impressed with the enthusiasm and support we meet when contacting Miami administrators, professors and staff in our role as liaison. Our success is made possible by the generous support and untiring efforts of the Provost’s Office, the faculty on the MUDEC Subcommittee, the Registrar’s Office, the Luxtech team, the Student Affairs Office, the Office of International Education, the Alumni Office, the Office of Student Financial Assistance, Miami’s student advisors for the divisions and dorms, and many others behind the scenes. The extended MUDEC family in Luxembourg and here in Ohio shares very special bonds of friendship rooted in the memories of all the great times we have experienced together and the knowledge that our goal is to provide our students and faculty with their most enriching educational and cultural experience ever. No wonder we love what we do!

Eng Begréissung...

that's Luxembourgish for welcome! And the purpose of this message is indeed to welcome you to the Miami University Dolibois European Center, better known as MUDEC. And I mention the name of this institution with a tremendous amount of pride. One of the great moments of my career was that in which Miami's European Center in Luxembourg included my name. I came to the United States as an immigrant in 1931, eventually graduated from Miami University, and in due time became a member of the administrative staff. My continued interest in international affairs and my position at Miami provided an opportunity to get deeply involved in the choice of a site for a study center abroad. In 1968 we properly inaugurated this Miami "branch" in my native country, Luxembourg.

Since then, I have followed its development and growth with great enthusiasm and satisfaction. So, I say WELCOME most earnestly. You're in for a fabulous experience, and there is much truth in saying: "You'll never be the same!" Of course, you've already made big plans for visits to well-known places in all directions from Luxembourg. Take it all in! Grasp the many opportunities available. But then I make one strong suggestion: don't overlook the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg itself. It holds some of the most interesting attractions on the European continent. The History buff can trace old Roman roads and Napoleonic campsites, monuments and remnants of historic events of centuries ago. The archeologist can find kitchen middens containing artifacts, coins, and items dating back to Celtic and earlier periods. The romantic can spend hours in charming villages and among medieval castle ruins, with delightful inns and pubs in each vicinity. The outdoors-lover can hike his or her choice of well-planned trails through hills and valleys, around lakes, across streams, orchards and vineyards. It's all there, in addition to the modern structures in the Kirchberg international community, and the inspiring village churches and chapels; don't forget the various museums -- dramatic reminders of the two world wars; and the moving American Military Cemetery in Hamm.

(Well, I didn't mean to turn this into a travel advisory. Just want you to know that my native Luxembourg has much to offer and is guaranteed to enrich your stay in Europe.)

I've been back to my "old country" many times since leaving there as a boy, as an American officer during WWII, as a tourist, on official business, and then as the U. S. Ambassador. It was a thrill every time. I wish it to be so for you. I'll be thinking of you as you wander along the same trails I hiked many years ago, and as you sit in Place d'Armes sipping the good Luxembourg brew and its grand Moselle wines. I'll think of you meeting some of my old Luxembourg friends, and I hope all that you experience will serve you well. I already know that "you'll never be the same." Good luck!

JOHN E. DOLIBOIS
Miami '42
Vice President Emeritus, Miami University
U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg '81-85