2006: The Year at Western

This blog was launched on February 12, 2006. Since then, we have covered a variety of events at Western Michigan University.

On February 22, Ann Coulter spoke at an event organized by the College Republicans. This upset the campus left, including columnist Ron Rikkei. I responded to his column, as did Greg. The left tried to censor our flyering. I summarize Coulter's speech, liberals' stupid questions, and the dinner afterwards.

In March, Diether Haenicke, former President of Western, and now interim President of Western, wrote an article praising our group. Liberals continued to whine about Ann Coulter's speech. Leaders of the Western Student Association discussed a tax increase, but nothing came of it. A survey of the faculty showed that they overwhelmingly disliked Judy Bailey. I criticize evolutionist Michael Ruse, who spoke on campus. Historian Paul Maier debunked The DaVinci Code. Liberals held a bizarre anti-McDonalds protest. March 31 was the one-year anniversary of Pat Buchanan's speech on campus.

In April, liberals continued their long-running living wage campaign with a dance party in the administration building. The WSA and WMU College Republicans both held elections. Graduate assistants signed enough union cards to force a vote on unionization, then overwhelmingly voted to unionize. Sarah Weddington, the lawyer who argued Roe v. Wade, spoke on campus.

At the end of the school year, I posted an evaluation of Judy Bailey's performance as President of Western. In May, Linda Delene, Western's Provost resigned. In June, Western changed its nondiscrimination policy to include transgendered people. Over the summer, controversy boiled over the Bailey/Delene administration's attempt to cut many graduate programs. A review was set up, and most were eventually saved. In July, Western hiked tuition by six percent.

On August 15, WMU President Judy Bailey was fired, and Diether Haenicke was appointed Interim President.

The new school year started in September. The Herald ran an article on campus politics.

The campus left kept busy. In October, I profiled the Kalamazoo Peace Center. The communist World Can't Wait hosted a speech by Scott Ritter. A column in the Herald by John Silver caused a controversy concerning foreign students. Western sold land west of campus for a million dollars below its actual value. Judy Bailey settled her lawsuit against Western.

In December, WMU's flat rate tuition policy spurred controversy. The Western Student Association achieved some positive results. Western scrapped the purchase of a downtown building.

The biggest story had to be Judy Bailey's firing. The change in leadership has been notable on campus.