Senior Ali Tanker is Western 2.0. It's not software or a BannerWeb module. Western 1.0 is the former Western College Program (WCP) as it was. Western 2.0 is 1.0's last stand, the final graduating class of WCP. Tanker was a first-year in 2006 during the highly politicized dissolution of WCP.
Western Campus has been a part of Miami University since 1974 as the Western College Program, but after the changes in 2006, the future of Western has been up in the air.
The future, Tanker said, is Western 3.0.
Western 1.0
Prior to its inclusion at Miami, Western Campus was home to the Western College for Women, founded in 1853. Absorption into Miami University transformed the Western College for Women into the Western College Program.
Genevieve O'Malley Knight is an alumnus of the WCP. Graduating in 2004, she now is a program associate for the new department and major. Working with the program during the process of dissolution and being a graduate leaves a bitter taste in her mouth.
"I think the dissolution of the division was done in a really poor way," Knight said. "It almost encouraged bad feelings."
Philosophy professor Rick Momeyer headed the university senate special committee charged with coming up with the solutions to save Western.
"Garland and (Provost Jeffrey) Herbst decided to just close the program down," Momeyer said. "There was uproar from alumni and the community."
Momeyer said the uproar in 2006 spurred Western alumni, faculty and students to action to save the program from a definite administrative fiat end.
"The best thing that happened was that the program was eliminated in such a ham-handed way and the protest that followed got a new program created," Momeyer said.
Bill Gracie is a retired Miami English professor and the former dean of Western College Program and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies from 2003-08.
Gracie said he remembers the dissolve of WCP as a very complex and difficult time. Gracie said the open session meetings to discuss WCP with administration were emotionally charged for students, faculty and alumni.
"People shouted," Gracie said. "Not with anger but with their grief. People had to get up and leave the meeting in tears."
With university senate and President David Hodge, the decision was made to keep Western as a major within the College of Arts and Science.
Momeyer said he sees irony in Western's administrative disposal and bounce back that followed.
"If Western had limped along, it wouldn't have survived this past budget year," Momeyer said. "It had problems and needed rejuvenation … it would have been eliminated by a fiat and no one could have done anything about it."
2004 Western alumnus and independent filmmaker James Flynn worked in the Western archives for four years. Flynn's film, Eastern College, is based on his undergraduate time on Western and the program's dissolve.
"It shouldn't surprise me (all that's happened with Western), it's always had a rocky history," Flynn said. "Maybe through doing the movie or because I've had a catharsis about it, I've become removed from it."
A new major is being developed as a replacement for the Western College Program, which will graduate its final class this spring.
Western 2.0
Twenty seniors are the last bastion of WCP.
These students were first-years when the program dissolved and will now be the last alumni of the program.
"I think they've been brave and hearty and inspiring souls from the beginning and lots of us in the same situation would want to go somewhere else," Gracie said. "They have been pretty inspiring for all of us."
Tanker said Western has made her college career and the controversy just intensified the class of 2010's bond.
"We're a really tight knit class," Tanker said. "We've been so close because of it all, because we knew we were the last class."
Teresa Zaffiro, a WCP senior, said Western's dissolve wasn't just hard when she was in Peabody, but also when she had to face the rest of the Miami community.
"You have to be brave socially," Zaffiro said. "People would say (when Zaffiro said she was in WCP), 'I thought they got rid of those hippies.' It can be really hard to hear that, so our class had to rally around each other."
Zaffiro said she appreciates the way their voice has been used by Western Program Interim Director Mary Jean Corbett and the new Western faculty.
"We're the culminating class of Western as we know it and as what we were taught it is," Zaffiro said. "The new faculty is just as excited as we are about the new program and in incorporating us into it."
Tanker said that because of the way WCP was ended, it was important to incorporate student opinion in forming the new program.
"I was bitter and sour on the front end and with some right because it was a top down approach to end the program," Tanker said. "It was to the point that our opinion and voice in this is just as important if not more (than administration) because we understand the program, we've gone through the program."
Flynn started writing Eastern College in September 2006 when Western 2.0 was in its first year. Initially, Flynn said what had started as a straightforward narrative changed to incorporate the spirit of what was going on in Oxford.
"The process of making your first movie is very much learning how to make a movie, how long they take, how long and then it becomes a part of who you are," Flynn said. "I think it's a good start for my career."
The film, released on DVD Sept. 15, was shot in Oxford, Chicago and Indianapolis.
Western 3.0
Knight said she is excited to see the new program develop and hopes it will become a better fit with the university.
Momeyer said he's excited to see the new program get started.
"It has a stellar faculty and the support of the dean," Momeyer said. "It's still a creative program that encourages students to design their own curriculum."
Corbett said alumni have been important to the major's curriculum design.
"Some alumni harbor negative feelings, but a lot are excited and encouraged by Dr. Hodge and Dean Karen Schilling's commitment," Corbett said.
Corbett said the new major will honor the contributions made by the Western College for Women and the Western College Program while doing something cool, fun and interesting for the 21st century.
The new major is currently in the curriculum approval process. The timetable for approval and offering the major is looking toward January 2010, but according to Corbett, fall 2010 is a more realistic goal. The major has yet to be given a name, but it is being billed as a major focusing on individualized studies.
The new major will be similar to a "create your own major."
While there are more individualized courses of study that will be available, the traditions of the past will not be completely lost. All Western majors will still be asked to complete the yearlong senior project, a feature of the old Western College Program.
A change between old and new Western is there will not be two years of coursework that majors take together to begin their college careers. Corbett said with more and more students coming in with Advanced Placement or alternative credits, it is no longer feasible to have this continuity of curriculum across the major.
Gracie said the new design will also allow more transfer students access to the major and returning students may find the program later on in their career.
The Western and Engaged Learning living learning community is housed in Peabody Hall and embodies engaged learning by placing a residence hall, office areas and classrooms all in one building.
Peabody is working to entice more students and faculty to come to Western with new technology and re-imagining uses of older buildings and establishments, Corbett said.
"We have improved technology in three of the four classrooms on the first floor and one classroom on the fourth floor," Corbett said. "We are also working to increase interaction with the rest of campus and are developing a new inquiry center."
Let the circle be unbroken
Western 2.0 is planning its spring commencement ceremonies, the program's last. Tanker said they hope to bring at least one member from every graduating class together, celebrating not just the students passing onto the next stage of their lives but the program as well.
"We have a motto in Western," Tanker said. "'Let the circle be unbroken.' If they we could all the alumni back, we could be very iconic with that motto."
Flynn said he started to appreciate his days on Western in retrospect as an alumnus.
"When you're in college, you're so mired in the day-to-day," Flynn said. "Once I graduated and stayed friends with the people I knew at school, that's when Western really became more special to me."
