May 1965 at WMU | WMU Alumni Skip to main content

May 1965 at WMU

May 1965 at WMU


May 1965 brought many changes to Western Michigan University’s campus, from a newly improved baseball team, to a new Western Herald editor, and new trimester system.

Here a few highlights from the May, 1965 issues of the Western Herald.


“Whap! That can be the sound of a baseball meeting the bat and it can also be the sound of the ball hitting that nice, big, round catcher’s glove.” Last year the Bronco baseball squad listened to the sound of that ball hitting the glove more than a little as they fielded a team that featured strong pitching and a distinct lack of any sort of hitting… This spring, however, there has been a drastic change. Western has been rapping out hits at a fantastic rate to support their surprisingly strong pitching.”

“The team, as a whole, is still slapping out safeties at over a .300 rate and that includes the pitchers. With the tough card that the Broncos sport, one wonders how, yet they show no signs of slowing down. This was shown emphatically in their 14-4 rout of Wisconsin on Monday in which they rolled up 16 hits.”

The Broncos would go on to win the regular season the following year.


The editorial leadership of the Western Herald also changed in May of 1965, as reported in “Krueger Named New Herald Editor for Summer, 1965-66 School Year”

“Ronald Krueger, current Herald associate editor and three year staff member, was appointed Herald editor Monday by the publication’s student-faculty committee. Krueger is a junior in the general curriculum with an English major and minors in history and general business. He was associate sports editor in the spring and fall semesters of 1963 and was named news editor in February, 1964, where he remained until filling a new position, associate editor, just after the beginning of the current semester.

The appointment will become effective at the close of the semester and Krueger will edit the six-week Herald publication of which was begun last summer under editor Jim Stommen, and continue in that capacity through April, 1966.

Krueger has been interested and involved in journalism ever since he was sports editor for his community’s weekly, the Clio Messenger, which perennially has won top honors among Michigan weeklies. He began writing there in 1957.

Whether anyone,” says Krueger, “realizes it or not, the Herald has improved tremendously in the past few years. But some of our major difficulties remain, like informing the campus community of our basic operation at present and hoping it considers its evaluation in that light.”


In 1965, WMU adopted a trimester schedule, allowing for summer classes.

“Western isn’t the only school to go onto the year-round plan of operation-far from it.

In fact, according to Dr. John Pruis, administrative assistant to President James W. Miller, about 60 colleges and universities are now on, or are nearly ready to go on, such a program.

What prompted WMU to turn to such a program? Or better yet, what served as the stimulus for such a departure from the established two-semester, one summer session schedule?

The major stimulus, according to Pruis, is related to the increasing number of graduates from the nation’s high schools as the post-World War II “baby boom” products reach college age and clamor at the doors of the nation’s institutions of higher learning.

Another factor has been the tendency of the college student to stay in school longer. The student who was satisfied with a bachelor’s degree a decade ago now settles for no less than a master’s, while the master’s recipient of 10 years ago now finds that he needs a doctorate to achieve his goals in life.”



Posted by Samantha Macy