'We Band of Brothers'
When I’m back on campus, especially on the occasion of what is now Freshman Saturday, I find myself gravitating toward those places that essentially remain untouched from when we loped across the campus as undergraduates. I’ll duck my head into Baxter 101, which looks the same except for the addition of two more presidential portraits above the long, green chalkboard. I’ll perchance walk up the steps in Center Hall just to hear the creak of my footfalls. I’ll tromp up the wide steps of the Chapel where we sang—or rather, yelled—and fought the school song.
Standing just inside the Chapel, I craned my neck to see the podium from which our new president would carry on the grand tradition of matriculating the new class by the ringing of Caleb Mills’ bell. It’s been almost 20 years now, but I still remember Lou Salter’s words from our Ringing In Ceremony:
You parents of our newest Wabash students. I’d like to take a moment to talk to you about your sons. Now, those of you with sons who made mostly B’s and maybe a few C’s in high school, don’t worry. Your sons will do well here. But those of you with sons who made only straight A’s, your sons will struggle at Wabash.
A new president presents a chance to hear a new perspective on the school we know so well. Being a fresh man himself, Dr. Pat White spoke to his fellow “brothers” about the insecurity of taking those first steps at Wabash. He asked them to greet their fellow classmates, whom he referred to as “your teachers.” He built his speech around this concept of brotherhood and the smallness of Wabash. At the crescendo, he quoted Shakespeare’s line from Henry V’s St. Crispin’s Day speech, “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.”
It was such an apt interpretation that warmed the heart of this one-time English major.
The campus has been transformed so radically from the dump that Wabash was when we attended. Yeah, you heard me correctly. I called it a dump. But it was our dump, and we loved it. What I really mean is that we weren’t attracted to Wabash by spacious new fraternity houses or the weight room that rivals any high-dollar health club. We went to Wabash for the intangibles: the opportunities it provided us and the faculty and fellow students who challenged us.
It’s easy to think that high school seniors are drawn to Wabash now because of its buildings. But in talking with some of these incoming freshmen, I get the strong sense that the attraction remains those same opportunities and people. It’s still those few, those happy few, that band of brothers who steel themselves to go forth and lead.
So, as we welcome a new president and another new class of Rhynes, we notch one more year but reflect on how the character of our alma mater remains immutable and constant. That’s the best tradition we carry on.
