Western College for Women alumna fondly remembers its multiculturalism, campus life — and sneaking into Miami football games
The theme for Miami's Homecoming Weekend Sept. 26-29 is 'Celebrating the Spirit of Western: A Homecoming for Love, Honor, and Legacy'
Western College for Women alumna fondly remembers its multiculturalism, campus life — and sneaking into Miami football games
Lynne Drucker Albukerk WA ’64 fondly remembers going to Miami University’s football games when she was a student at nearby Western College for Women.
“It was usually free if you had a Miami ID,” Albukerk said, recalling how she would sometimes borrow the ID of a Miami student who wasn’t going. “I would put my thumb over the picture and walk in.”
The licensed geriatric psychologist from Glen Cove, New York, will be joining other Western alumnae at Miami’s Homecoming 2024, taking place Sept. 26-29 and featuring the theme “Celebrating the Spirit of Western: A Homecoming for Love, Honor, and Legacy.”
Founded in 1853 as the Western Female Seminary and renamed the Western College for Women in 1904, the school is renowned as a forward-thinking institution on the forefront of international and multicultural education.
When Western closed in 1974, Miami purchased the land. It became part of Miami’s Western campus and home of the university’s oldest residence-based learning community and division, the School of Interdisciplinary Studies/Western College Program.
Albukerk served on the Western College Alumnae Association (WCAA) board for 12 years (1990-1996 and 2018-2024). She also chaired the scholarship committee and “was instrumental in leading their work with the MU Student Financial Aid Office during the preparations for closing the WCAA in June of 2024,” said Debbie Baker, director of the Western College Alumnae Association.
On June 6-9, the WCAA hosted its final Alumnae Weekend on the Western campus as a separate organization. Operations were closed on June 30, and Westerners joined the Western College Spirit 1853-1977 affinity group supported by the Miami University Alumni Association.
Celebrating the Spirit of Western
Baker expects a good turnout this Homecoming Weekend. So far, more than 50 Western alumnae or alumni of the Western College Program and their families have registered.
“Western College has a rich history in our community,” Baker said. “I think honoring Western during Homecoming Weekend is an incredible opportunity to acknowledge the school's legacy and celebrate the unique relationship developed between Miami University and the Western College Alumnae Association, Inc. upon the closing of the college in June of 1974.”
Albukerk is looking forward to seeing her alma mater have a moment in the Homecoming spotlight.
“I think it’s extremely generous of the university to acknowledge our small group in this way,” she said. “We are very honored.”
“I liked Western’s multiculturalism right away”
Albukerk — who lived in Clawson Hall her first year and in Peabody Hall the last three years — believes Western College was ahead of its time.
The first-generation college student came from a small graduating class of 86 at Ardsley High School in Westchester County, New York. She had the highest SAT score in her class and was a National Merit semifinalist.
Albukerk first saw Western’s campus when she arrived in Oxford to study Psychology. She loved everything about it — from the beautiful campus to her fellow students.
“By the time I went to Western in the fall of 1960, Western was integrated racially,” said Albukerk, whose family had lived in Harlem before moving to the small village of Ardsley.
“I liked Western’s multiculturalism right away,” she said, noting that she traveled to Spain and Latin America during her college experience. She had a fun social life at Western, and by extension, Miami.
Near the end of her undergraduate experience at Western, she began taking some graduate-level classes at Miami. That started her on a path that would eventually lead to her earning master’s and doctoral degrees from Hofstra University in New York years later.
She graduated from Western in May 1964, on the cusp of Freedom Summer.
"I was fully in favor of it"
That summer, 800 volunteers, many of them college students, came to Oxford to train on the Western College for Women campus as part of the initiative to register Black voters in the South and set up freedom schools and community centers.
Three civil rights activists — Michael Schwerner, 24, James Chaney, 21, and Andrew Goodman, 20 — were murdered in Mississippi soon after leaving Oxford. Their deaths stunned the nation.
By then, Albukerk was married to Jak Albukerk, M.D. and living in Cincinnati during his residency at Cincinnati General Hospital.
Not everyone supported Western’s campus being used for the training, she said, but “I was fully in favor of it.” She called it “the right thing to do” and said she might have joined the volunteers if she had still been a student.
“I felt then and I feel now that our nation has been moving not fast enough toward what we were taught: the melting pot,” said Albukerk, 81, the mother of three grown children. Her husband died in 2016.
This summer, President Crawford presented Miami’s Freedom Summer of ’64 Award to the Western College Alumnae Association during the June ceremony on the grounds of their beloved institution, near the campus memorial that bears the award’s namesake.
The award is given each year to a distinguished leader who has inspired the nation to advance civil rights and social justice.
“Western College was the garden that nurtered young students with solidarity, truth, and passion to change the world,” Miami President Gregory Crawford said at the event. “It was just extraordinary and so far ahead of its time.”
Albukerk was back in Oxford for the WCAA’s board meeting and the ceremony. Now she is looking forward to returning to campus for the Homecoming game — and no longer having to sneak in.
“It will be a fun weekend,” she said.
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