lickety jackblog

More on Western

After heated debate on the dissolution of WCP, Garland issues another statement.

And here's an article from The Student regarding the "difficult decisions" being made. It's pertinent to know that in watching the alumni listserv recently, there have been several rather nasty accusations leveled against WCP ex-faculty member Carolyn Haynes, who would be dean (apparently without any further National search, which is sually required) of the Honors program to replace Western.

The Columbus Dispatch covered the issue and seemed pretty pro-Western.

Talk now primarily concerns how rapidly all this information came across, and the lack of transparency in the decision-making process. University Senate wants Garland & Co. to delay the decision by a year or so. He's obstinate, so seems his statement.

Support from Alumni (especially from around the early '80s) is very impressive on the list. It's worth watching, if you're interested. They've put ads in the newspapers with thousands of signatures from people opposed to the closure. Alums are threatening to withdraw or withhold monies, to take Miami out of their wills. There's even talk of trying to have Western secede from Miami in order to be its own university again.

Also, apparently there was an alum-donated reserve of $100,000 or so which was meant to be used to promote better Western recruitment (possibly to hire a staff person for just that purpose), which has been sitting unused since around 1997. One of Garland's big critiques has been low enrollment, but of course weren't willing to give Western money to recruit...

Tired. More later.

posted by Little Gordie @ 12:19 AM