Wabash College - Class of 1991

The school year must be fast approaching because the Princeton Review's college rankings are out. Of course, their Party School ranking is always what feeds lazy journalists in a slow summer news cycle. It's also what makes university administrators cringe. Remember Myles Brand's hissy fit when he was President of IU and Indiana was ranked #1 Party School?

Wabash administrators have much to tout in this year's ratings in this year's The Best 368 Colleges guidebook:

"Students Say" Categorical Rankings
3 — Most Accessible Professors
3 — Best Career/Job Placement Services
3 — Jock Schools
3 — Best Athletic Facilities
4 — Best Classroom Experience
5 — Everyone Plays Intramural Sports
9 — Students Happy with Financial Aid
11 — School Runs Like Butter
14 — Students Pack the Stadiums
14 — Major Fraternity and Sorority Scene
19 — Professors Get High Marks

Some of the ratings we've seen many times before, especially the curious "School Runs like Butter." But the one that really stands out in my minds is "Best Career/Job Placement Services." This is a great testament to the hard work that director Scott Crawford and his staff at Wabash's Schroeder Center for Career Development have done over the past few years. They really are top-notch.

So, you're asking, how did the Dannies do? Check this out...

"Students Say" Categorical Rankings
3 — Best College Radio Station
1 — Lots of Beer
6 — Lots of Hard Liquor
7 — Major Frat and Sorority Scene
14 — More to Do on Campus
9 — Town-Gown Relations are Strained

Here are some interesting side-by-side comparisons:

Category	Wabash	DePauw
Student Faculty Ratio	10:1	10:1
Most Popular Majors	English Lit, History, Psychology	Economics, English Comp, Mass Com
Average High School GPA	3.6	3.6
Total Undergraduate Enrollment	917	2,398
Female	n/a	56.26%
Out of State	24%	54%
International	4.8%	2.96%
Greek	60%	72%
Tuition	$25,900	$29,300
Classrooms with Internet Access	100%	20%
Financial Aid Rating	99	98
Academic Rating	95	91
Quality of Life Rating	90	74
Admissions Selectivity Rating	89	92

I couldn’t sleep last night.

Whereas, I usually sleep like a rock, insomnia has been too common an occurrence this month for me. I'll spare you the details but I’ve been going through a lot this month and truth be told--I’m ashamed to admit it--I’ve been feeling a little sorry for myself. And at times like this, I’ve found that it’s best to reach for pearls of inspiration.

So... a few month’s ago, I caught this ABC report on Randy Pausch. That 47-year-old Carnegie Mellon computer science professor who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and gave this really amazing lecture last fall. It was all over YouTube and is really something to watch. (I’ve embedded it here.) Please take time to watch it.

So last night, I picked up his memoir, The Last Lecture, and read the entire book in one sitting. It tells stories from his life and a behind-the-scenes of his famous lecture. Here’s a guy whose talent, skill, and determination allowed him to fulfill his childhood goals. He achieved everything in his curtailed life everything except one: He will not see his three young kids grow up.

Randy Pausch died last Friday (July 25) of pancreatic cancer, and the professor leaves behind a great lesson for us all.

Make every day count.

I’m not much of a bandwagon guy, but ABC Primetime is rebroadcasting "The Last Lecture: A Celebration of Life" tonight at 10 pm EDT. Do me a favor: Watch, tape, or Tivo it.

I'm done feeling sorry for myself now. And I hope that the full day I've lived today affords me a good night's sleep.

...or make that $3.1 million!

Many thanks and due to the 96 of you who donated to this year's Annual Fund.

As the College closes the books on its last fiscal year, the Class of 1991 made a great impact on helping Wabash rise to the Hays Challenge and surpassing $3 million for the first time. This, of course, is especially exciting and heartening when we're all doing some extreme belt tightening in these tough economic times. Check out the full story here.

Here's how the Class of '91 stacked up:

Highest # of Donors 1. 1965 - 102 2. 2008 - 102 3. 1966 - 97 4. 1991 - 96 4. 1967 - 96 6. 1968 - 95 7. 1964 - 90 8. 1969 - 88 9. 1961 - 80 9. 1970 - 80 9. 1972 - 80 9. 1971 – 80

Largest Increase over Last Yr 1. 1958 - +12 1. 1974 - +12 3. 1964 - + 11 3. 1968 - + 11 3. 2003 - + 11 6.1965 - + 10 6. 1999 - + 10 8. 1991 - + 9 8. 1985 - + 9 10. 1981 - + 7

Really damn good, guys!

"I gave by the deadline! Are we gonna beat the Dannies? Man, I hate those girly-men."

Brett Miller, you couldn't have said it better, We don't have solid numbers yet, but DePauw's giving Web site is claiming that they came in at 39%. While Wabash garnered 140 additional donors this year, putting us over 4,000 donors for the first time in 5 years. But, our solicitable roll went up as well and we came in at a very remarkable 37.68%. OK, I'm spinning it. The damn Dannies barely beat us. (They don't mention how much they raised. Curious.)

Next question: How did our IM Giving Challenge turn out? Here are the numbers:

Living Unit	%	Rank
Phi Delt	63%	1st
FIJI	55%	2nd
Sigma Chi	45%	3rd
Beta	44%	4th
Lambda Chi	42%	5th
Delt	35%	6th
Phi Psi	33%	7th
TEKE/Theta Delt*	33%	7th
Kappa Sig	32%	9th
Independent	25%	10th

*Just like any poor IM ref caught between a Beta-Phi Psi football game, you can't win on some points. As expected, a Teke or two wasn't thrilled with being lumped in with their former pledge brothers. So, if it makes some people feel better, when you split out the numbers, Tekes had 14% and Theta Delts had 80%. Unlike IM football, there ain't no trophy.

Once again, on behalf of the College, THANK YOU for doing your part to ensure great opportunities for current and future generations of Wabash Men.

You're Some Little Giants!

Very briefly last week, the Wabash Web site featured an article on Brent Kent, who Matt Hanson and I helped get to Wabash. Brent was featured as "Intern of the Week" in the Hill, the newspaper about the U.S. Congress.

Then the post and the link disappeared from wabash.edu altogether.

Considering that he biked across country two summers ago (blog), I was curious to check in on this rising senior and what he's doing this summer. I e-mailed Brent, and he reported back that he's in DC interning for Indiana Congressman Steve Buyer. "I work for the House Veteran Affairs Committee and absolutely love the investigative work I've been doing."

This kid shows a good knack for investigative work. Last semester, when seemingly everyone else on the Bachelor was writing columns and opinion pieces--just like in our day--Brent wrote a very solid investigative piece on the campus food service's green campaign. When he followed the money, it traced the parent company of Bon Appetit back to corruption in the UN food program, bribery, and Al Queda! (Bachelor, April 3, 2008, pg. 4-5)

It led to a boycott of Bon Appetit's Low Carbon Day by Brent and others, who had a cookout instead. (Think of it, conservative students staging a boycott. Only at Wabash!)

He's also president of the Will Hays College Republicans and worked with the College Democrats to organize a gathering during Super Tuesday.

Oh, and I solved the mystery of the disappearing posting. "The article was what I call 'sob slop' and had some inaccuracies," he wrote, "so I asked [the College] to take it down."

From what I know about Brent, he's not a grab the spotlight kind of guy. (In fact, if he found out I was writing about him, he'd bristle.) No, he's more about getting things done.

Somehow, I knew he'd be a great fit for Wabash.