{"id":641,"date":"2023-11-01T16:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T21:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/?p=641"},"modified":"2025-11-26T12:34:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:34:54","slug":"ku-western-civ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/ku-western-civ\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Civ at KU: Gone but not forgotten"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Photo: Begum Colpan, who teaches Turkish courses as a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant, strolls past the new Bailey Hall plaque commemorating KU\u2019s Western Civ program.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A touchstone of intellectual growth for many, culturally skewed to others, and assuredly challenging for generations of students, KU\u2019s once-vaunted Western Civ program this fall was memorialized with a plaque on the third floor of Bailey Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Described by Professor Emeritus Jim Woelfel as \u201ca widely known and distinctive KU tradition,\u201d Western Civilization was launched in 1945, followed two years later by the rigorous, and relatively small, Humanities interdisciplinary degree program. Western Civ and Humanities merged in the late 1980s, then dissolved in 2022 during cutbacks driven by enrollment trends. Two Western Civ courses and an Introduction to Humanities course survive, now housed in the classics department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Woelfel, program director for 25 years, created and funded the reflective memorial \u201cso that the existence of these programs will not be simply erased from KU\u2019s institutional memory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Chris Lazzarino, j\u201986, is associate editor of Crimson &amp; Blue.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Photo by Steve Puppe<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bailey Hall plaque honors legendary program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,26],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-tradition","tag-college-of-liberal-arts-sciences"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Western Civ at KU: Gone but not forgotten - Crimson &amp; Blue - KU Alumni<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bailey Hall plaque honors legendary program.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/ku-western-civ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Western Civ at KU: Gone but not forgotten\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bailey Hall plaque honors legendary program.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/ku-western-civ\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crimson &amp; Blue - KU Alumni\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-01T21:56:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-26T18:34:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/KU-Western-Civ-program.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Lazzarino\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Lazzarino\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kualumni.org\\\/stories\\\/ku-western-civ\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kualumni.org\\\/stories\\\/ku-western-civ\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Lazzarino\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kualumni.org\\\/stories\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/bace5b41e514faa0992191ef43cc840a\"},\"headline\":\"Western Civ at KU: Gone but not forgotten\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-01T21:56:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-26T18:34:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kualumni.org\\\/stories\\\/ku-western-civ\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":183,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kualumni.org\\\/stories\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kualumni.org\\\/stories\\\/ku-western-civ\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/kualumni.org\\\/stories\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2025\\\/11\\\/KU-Western-Civ-program.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"College of Liberal Arts &amp; 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