AROUND THE CAMPUS


The Western College Program's academic year got underway with a convocation picnic on Alumnae Green, followed by a ceremony in Kumler Chapel, featuring both faculty and student speakers. A key image of Dean William Gracie's welcoming remarks was one near and dear to Western hearts: the unbroken circle. Quoting lines from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets ("We shall not cease from exploration/ And the end of all our exploring/ Will be to arrive where we started/ And know the place for the first time."), he said in part, "The circle requires that we move out but it also requires that we always return."  To learn more about the WCP, visit: http://wcp.muohio.edu/.

John-Thomas Crockett, Western senior, delivers student message at convocation.  The convocation concluded with the singing of the Western College Alma Mater
Events at Ernst
Lively student actors and actresses once again trod the grass in Ernst Nature Theatre, as the MU Theatre Department presented The Little Clay Cart, August 23-25. A Sanskrit play, directed by theatre professor Howard Blanning, it featured authentic hand-sewn Indian costumes funded by the WCAA. Sunday evening was designated “Western Night,” and several alumnae and friends of Western gathered at Clawson for dinner before the performance.
Attending "Western Night" (left to right): Betty Sipe Gerber '52; Edwin Griest MU '36; Judy Waldron, WCAA director; Cathy Bauer Cooper '60; Don Gerber; Peace Osangir, Mboya Scholarship recipient; Pris Strand Berry '53; and friends.

Handsome young Brahman waits patiently while his adoring wife tries to unravel the mystery of her disappearing jewels in The Little Clay Cart at Ernst.
  
Ernst is the official home of Miami's Thrall Children's Theatre. Annual performances are sponsored by the outreach program of Ruth Marder Rosenberg '49 and the Rosenberg Foundation. On September 5, children from the Hamilton City School District were delighted with The Girl Who Wanted to be Everything that Everybody Else Was.
Theresa Hurst
Lauren Collins
Ross Meyer

Scholarship Students
Western-connected students were busy receiving awards at Miami's convocation. Among 10 seniors presented the Provost’s Student Academic Achievement Award were WCAA scholarship recipients Theresa Hurst and Lauren Collins, as well as WCP student and Turner Scholar Ross Meyer. This $1,000 award goes to students who, at the end of their junior year, "have established an outstanding record of academic achievement and have contributed to the university's intellectual climate." 

All work and no play? Summer scholars -- and WCAA scholars -- Bindi Mehta and Elisabeth Price completed projects on "Feminist Themes in the Films of Mira Nair" and "Modems and Monkeys: Publishing Children’s Literature on the Internet," respectively. They were among 100 of Miami’s top students who won awards to support independent "research or other creative activities" for 10 weeks over the summer.

Bindi Mehta

Elisabeth Price