The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

I went to both schools. Bad leadership at WMU during the growth years of state colleges in Michigan during the 1960's and 1970's contributed to this. Presidents James W. Miller and John T. Bernhard presided during this period, most of the blame should go to Bernhard-IMO. They both lacked a vision of what WMU should be and could be.

With the exception of monumental mediocrity Judith Bailey, WMU has had good leadership since then-Haenicke, Floyd and Dunn all did a great job developing Western with respect to our regional college competitors-CMU and EMU. Montgomery gets his chance to show what he can do.

As for student population, it isn't all about that. University of Notre Dame only has 12,000 students, yet has prestige and impact far beyond that. True, they are a private school unconstrained with the implications of filling a role as state school.

Adding our Medical School and Law School were outstanding moves and projected Western's mission far beyond our compatriots in Mt. Pleasant and Ypsilanti. We've pushed to maintain our classification as a Research/Doctoral University, GVSU doesn't have the maturity, longevity or history to compete with Western on those terms.

Montgomery needs to focus on developing our schools and offerings like Dunn did. In the future WMU will be judged on the caliber of students we bring in, the quality of our research and the select nature of the programs we offer. When GVSU has an accredited Engineering School, a nationally recognized Flight School, a Medical School, a Law school and a Paper technology program-THEN they can pose a threat to Western. As it is now, they're just a large, liberal arts type college that caters largely to commuter students in Michigan's 2nd most populous city and THE most populous city in west Michigan.