As university senate voted on final recommendations for the Western College Program (WCP) before Thanksgiving break, current WCP members were already planning the next steps for the program - a transition stage.

Members of the Momeyer Committee, which studied and proposed various methods for transforming the WCP, broke the recommendations down into six sets and voted on each set separately at the Nov. 20 university senate meeting.

The first few proposals surrounded the topic of Miami University's Honors and Scholars Program and the senate decided not to integrate the WCP into the honors program and not to create a separate Honors College.

The rest of the recommendations dealt directly with the WCP, with regards to its curriculum, staff and administrative location (see below).

Senior interdisciplinary studies major Kara Love said that there are multiple ways students are involved with efforts to support the continued existence of the WCP.

"We are sending letters to board of trustees members, we have started a transitions and traditions Committee and students can continue to support Western and stick with it," Love said.

Love hopes that the door stays open for the participation of Western students in future debates.

"Western students never got a voice on the Momeyer Committee like we expected; we want a voice in whatever happens next," Love said, adding that the committee, despite not having student input, did represent the best interests of the Western program.

As for what will happen next, this was the final vote for university senate at this stage, but the fate for WCP is still undecided and now lies in the hands of the board of trustees. After taking university senate's recommendations into consideration, the board of trustees will be the final judge of whether the WCP will still exist.

Richard Momeyer, professor of philosophy and chair of the committee that proposed the recommendations, said that the board of trustees will presumably act Dec. 15. There will not be a first-year class in WCP next year, as faculty and administration restructure the curriculum of the program. After a committee decides upon the curriculum and administrative establishment of the WCP, this aspect will also be presented to university senate for final consideration and passage.

U. senate's decisions

At the Nov. 20 meeting, university senate members voted that the curriculum be broadened to allow non-WCP majors access to classes that will satisfy Miami Plan Foundation requirements. A committee comprised of around half current and half non-WCP faculty will work to create a new curriculum.

Members of university senate expressed concern that part of the current problem with the WCP was that it was too expensive to fund.

"We are looking at issues like class size (and) teaching load, in comparison to other departments in the (College of Arts and Science)," said John Skillings, vice provost and former dean of the College of Arts and Science (CAS).

While voting, staffing was a huge concern for members of university senate, who felt that faculty currently in the WCP whose futures are still unknown should be taken into account. University senate recommended a faculty limited to six to eight members, which is about half the size of the current 15 full-time faculty members in the WCP. However, some senate members were quick to point out that many of the full-time seats are empty due to early retirement or previously unfilled vacancies.

"Just as we have made it clear to students that the program they've entered will continue, we have made it clear to faculty and staff that there will be continuing employment," Skillings said.

Faculty concerns are a top priority according to Provost Jeffrey Herbst.

"I have made a commitment to (current WCP faculty)," Herbst said. "The line travels with the faculty. Faculty members would not have to go hat in hand to the music department to ask if they have room."

The last set of recommendations was the most controversial, as it dealt with the debate surrounding the administrative location of the WCP. Ultimately, university senate voted in favor of identifying the program as a department located in CAS.

"What Western has done is what CAS is about, with regards to the intellectual environment," said Bill McKenna, chair of the department of philosophy.

The wording of the second clause of this recommendation, which would elevate WCP's status to a department versus a program, elicited a round of debate at the Nov. 20 meeting, with the proposal of an amendment to change the word "department" to "program." Senate members threw around words like "superprogram," making reference to the strength of the recently created journalism program, and "quasi-department."

The amendment was voted down, maintaining the recommendation that WCP be considered as a new department in CAS, although members agreed that the ultimate fate of the WCP would most likely be program status. Members said that the dean of CAS, who has the ultimate power in determining whether WCP will be a program or a department, does not seem to be in favor of the latter.

"The dean is very resistant to making the program a department," McKenna said.

Momeyer said that the dean's current position is not simply a reflection of a personal stance on the WCP, but rather a stance on behalf of members of CAS.

"(The dean) is under a lot of pressure to accommodate a lot of chairs and program directors," Momeyer said.

He added that there are a lot of others who can weigh in on whether WCP becomes a department.

"I don't want to concede that it could be a program and not a department," Momeyer said. "The president and the provost have some say (in the decision)."

The vote for the last recommendation was rushed as the meeting drew to a close and committee members went on to other engagements, but there was, in general, large support for the inclusion of the WCP into CAS.

Initial reactions

"The first four sets of recommendations were passed either with unanimous support or very little opposition," Momeyer said. "We're all a bit stunned at the extraordinary strength of support behind the recommendations. I don't mean (that) we weren't also pleased."

Momeyer feels that this strong support was due to the time and effort the committee put into structuring the final recommendations.

"My opinion is it was such a well-researched and thorough report that there wasn't much of anything to oppose," Momeyer said.

Momeyer emphasized that these are only recommendations, or guidelines, for the creation of a new WCP, and will be taken as strictly or loosely as administrators and faculty members wish to take them in structuring the new program.

Members of the WCP are pleased with the results of the vote, although they are not settling in to the idea that their work is done advocating for the program.

Jan Shanklin, a sophomore interdisciplinary studies major and a resident assistant in Peabody Hall, said that she is concerned about the future of the program since there will be a gap in graduating classes, due to the interdisciplinary studies program being closed off to the class entering Miami in the fall of 2007.

"We're very worried about that," Shanklin said. "For one thing it means that the residents of Peabody Hall won't all be Western students; they won't be part of our community. That's something that we think could break up the community or decrease the sense of Western-ness … Also we're worried about maintaining our traditions and what makes those things special to us - and part of that is having a new class to teach those traditions to and mentor," Shanklin said.

Yet overall, Western students seemed relatively pleased with the vote.

"I would like to extend a thank you to (university) senate for putting aside personal differences to recommend something that's best for the Western program," Shanklin said.