Wabash College - Class of 1991

As the College readies itself for what looks to be a record enrollment of students this fall, Greeks will undergo the last "fraternity shuffle" as new and renovated facilities come online and the last housing projects begins construction. Here's what's happening:

Tekes

The Tekes have a new house and a new location, on the site of the old Sigma Chi house on the corner of Crawford St. & Wabash Ave. Dedication of the new house is set for the day of the first home football game: Saturday, September 20. The house will be open for tours at 9:30 a.m. with a dedication and ribbon cutting at 10:30 a.m.

While the new TKE House has beds for 40 students, I've heard that the Tekes have been hitting rush really well, and expect to fill up the new house. Construction began last year and was completed this summer.

Delts

The same day, Sept. 20, the Delt house will open its doors at 10:30 a.m. for tours with a dedication at 11:30 a.m.

Like the Betas, the Delts did the only true renovation project, with a 63-student capacity. Construction straddled the school year over two summers. Last year construction included the basement, kitchen, and dining room. This year the renovations re-configured and re-modeled student rooms.

Kappa Sigs

Much to the rejoicing of the Phi Delts, the Kappa Sig house has been torn down. For the school year, the Moids will take up residence in the old FIJI house. The new Kappa Sig house will house 50 students.

I heard a funny story recently. It seems that the College couldn't host a class dinner at the Phi Delt House during the Big Bash weekend because of a new cockroach problem. Turns out, the intrusion of insects migrated across the street after the demolition crew knocked down the Kappa Sig house. In 2004, when the old Phi Delt house was knocked down, a pack of rats scurried across Walnut to the Moid house. I guess karma is a funny thing!

 

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.

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.

File this post under “You Must Read This.”

At the Class Agents Forum in the early fall of ’05, I met Details magazine editor-at-large Jeff Gordinier. A Princeton grad, he was on campus researching a story on Wabash College. (Yeah, that's a Webcam still of him wearing a Wabash t-shirt.) When his article came out in the November issue, I thought he gave a very fair and well-researched outsider’s examination of Wabash, its atmosphere, and its impact.

Jump ahead a couple of years, and Gordinier is giving another well-researched examination, but this time it’s from the inside: a musing about our lowly and disregarded generation dubbed by Douglas Coupland as “Generation X.”

Gordinier's book is half-ironically titled X Saves the World with the curious subtitle How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking, and it’s gloriously chock full of pop-culture references from our era.

Thanks to YouTube, I can add video of Gordinier reading an excerpt of his book. Enjoy.

Admit it, news is slow on this blog this time of year, so—if you’ll indulge me—I’d like to devote the next few posts on this book and the topics it addresses.

Be sure to add X Saves the World to your summer reading list. Amazon Barnes & Noble Borders (No, I don't get a commission from this rec. Damned distrustful Xers!)

Just because most of us aren't in Crawfordsville anymore doesn't mean that we can't connect to the Wabash. Across the country, there are more than 40 regional alumni associations where Wabash alums and families can participate.

Here in Indy, the Indianapolis Association of Wabash Men just set up a Web page (http://www.wabash.edu/alumni/ra/indy). It lists up-to-date information on the many events the IAWM puts on each year, lists officers, news, and past honorees.

As a huge Cubs fan, I'm definitely envious of the Wabash Club of Chicago. Last Friday, from the Friendly Confines they got to see my Cubbies come back from an 9-1 deficit. Thrilling late-game homers brought the Cubs back to win 10-9. I only wish Harry Carey were still alive so that I could watch him try to slur his way through rookie outfielder Kosuke Fukudome's name. (That's KOH-skay foo-koo-DOUGH-may. Anything else gets you in Dutch with the FCC.) Oh, did I mention the Cubs currently have the best record in baseball? (Yeah, it makes me really nervous, too.)

From golf outings, to recruiting future Wabash students, to this fall's Wabash Day, the regionals allow far-flung alumni to connect with their alma mater from afar. Find the one in your area here.

Writing in his Scottish brogue, the poet Robert Burns probably said it worst: "The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley" (go often awry).

So it was with the visit of General Earl Johnson '38 to the Phi Delt house.

As I mentioned at the end of my Chapel Talk, this was the first time that the former air force pilot and veteran of three wars had been up to Crawfordsville to see the new fraternity house.

During Commencement, which had to be held in Chadwick, the College bestowed on Gen. Johnson the honrary degree Doctor of Laws. Afterward, I found him in an athletic classroom in the Allen Center being tended to by Alumni Director and fellow Air Force vet Tom Runge. The General is about 92 now, and he was sitting in a wheelchair, but had used a cane during the ceremony. I introduced myself, and while he hadn't seen the house yet, he made sure to mention to me he knew it wasn't painted white.

His cousin and daughter were preparing to take him over to the new house, so I told him I'd meet him there. They drove and I walked back across campus, but when I entered the new front door, all hell was breaking loose.

The lights were off and the fire alarm was blaring. Turns out winds had downed a tree or limb into a power line and knocked out power to all or most of Crawfordsville! I'm still not sure why a power outage would trigger the fire alarm, but they couldn't get it shut off. Everyone was filing out, including Gen. Johnson and his namesake, the big St. Bernard named General.

  Amid all the chaos the soldier and the dog were the most calm.

We stood there by the entrance as the wind picked up. The weather much better resembling an early fall overcast and gusty football Saturday than Mother's Day. One by one, the new graduates came up to him, introduced themselves and congratulated him. And pictures were taken before Gen. Johnson was escorted to his car.

I'm sure none of use will forget that day anytime soon.

P.S. Gen. Johnson e-mailed me this morning saying, in part, "My visit to the Phi Delt house was superb. I couldn't believe that I saw The General. And the people that must keep him were so very nice. ...It was too bad all the lights went out and I couldn't see the rest of the house but I will come back some day and make the tour."

David Stone offers "a nice piece from a professor at William and Mary that makes a good defense of liberal arts colleges, appropriate for Wabash." It's from the Newport News (Va. ) Daily Press. Feel free to discuss...

W & M remains true to mission

April 10, 2008

When I think of the College of William and Mary, a phrase comes to mind. It is taken from the King James Version of the Bible, and it reads "Be not like unto the Nations." The phrase is appropriate, for in the years when William and Mary was a church school, its students and faculty attended daily prayers in the chapel. And for readings from Scripture, they used the King James Version of the Bible.

But the magnificent KJV contained mistranslations. And so where the Hebrew Bible warns steadily against emulating the Gentiles, the KJV translated the word Gentiles as "the Nations."

"Be not like unto the Nations" — in the KJV, that's the overriding warning. It's a warning to Israelites to shun not only the worship but also the morals of the Nations surrounding them. Those pagan gods of the Nations: Marduk, Dagon, Mot, Anat, Ashtoreth, Molech, Beelzebub, Baal — if you were an Israelite, you did not follow their ways. Because to do so didn't keep the True Faith.

And we at William and Mary, I think, have somewhat of a parallel mandate. Against all odds — the loss of British endowment, the loss of state support, the moving of the capital, a malarial environment, wartime destruction, closure during Reconstruction, revival as a teachers' college, consistent low funding, and a Canaanite host of other problems — William and Mary has risen to become one of the leading small universities in the nation.

Yet we still face the temptations and allures of the Nations. And in 2008 these "Nations" are not the Canaanites or the Romans or the Greeks with their licentious gods, but rather — as I would see it — the pattern established at the large universities of this Nation. State universities and large private universities — they who at one time educated undergraduates so well: in recent decades many — well, most — have become huge universities where research and work with graduate students is emphasized over classroom teaching and work with the school's undergraduates.

For me, at least, it is hard to name a genuinely good state university where undergraduates come first. I could propose one name: St. Mary's College in Maryland. I could propose another — the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

Surely there are others, but most seem to be niche schools established for specialized study of a field. The simple, the hard truth is that in most states if we want our children to be taught by professors, taught in small classes, graded by professors, guided by professors and known by professors during college and in later life, and if we want them to go to a school that isn't large, then we must send them to the expensive private liberal-arts colleges.

And I have never thought that was just. I think every state should have at least one public-supported school where undergraduates can receive an education equivalent to that offered at the Williamses, Davidsons and Pomonas of our nation — and not simply in the state schools' elite honors colleges, but rather across the board in their curriculum.

But the splendid thing is that at William and Mary, we've maintained that undergraduate liberal arts and sciences tradition. Our graduate and professional schools are important, but we continue to see our primary responsibility as undergraduate education. We've not, that is — at least not yet — become like unto the Nations. But it has not been easy. At all state institutions, the pressures to grow in size, and to gain a national reputation through size and through sheer mass, and through athletics, and through graduate programs, are relentless. There's a steady drumbeat calling campuses to join the Nations.

And at some point, William and Mary may do that or be obliged by external forces to do that. And if we do, that will mean embracing Marduk — the steady expansion of the undergraduate body. And Dagon — large classes. And Mot — anonymous classes. And Anat — classes graded by graduate students. And Ashtoreth — classes taught by graduate students. And Molech — the human sacrifice of undergraduates while at college. And Beelzebub — big-time, expensive athletics, with coaches paid four times as much as the university's president. And Baal — the whole thing put together. Boy, oh boy, I hope that never happens here in Williamsburg. ...

As for me, I came to this historic college many years ago. After military service as a draftee and after many years of graduate study, I was running on empty. Only a few people in this auditorium know how empty. But William and Mary took me in. It gave me self-respect, which graduate students can pretty well lose. It gave me paychecks every two weeks — remarkable. It gave me hard-working, earnest, intelligent students — year after year among the best in the nation. And it allowed me to call myself a William and Mary professor, which I've always been proud to do. So it's been a splendid 42 1/2 years. I've worked for a place I can believe in.

David Holmes is the Walter G. Mason Professor of Religious Studies at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. He gave this address on Charter Day on receiving the Thomas Jefferson Award for significant service to the college.

Copyright © 2008, Newport News, Va., Daily Press

Here's the tail end of my Chapel Talk, where I profile three Wabash alumni. Comments?

It Seems to Me That there’s no blueprint for being a successful alumnus.

To illustrate this, I’ll talk about three Wabash men from three different eras.

One of those seniors at that breakfast in 1963 where Dean Rogge spoke was John Strickland. Mr. Strickland—as I knew him—taught American Lit at Franklin Community High School, where I attended. He was a big, broad, bearded man—he reminded me of a walrus—who also served as the weight coach. He was quiet and soft-spoken, which made him intimidating until you got to know him. Then you found out that he had a wicked, dry sense of humor. Although I was a swimmer and weight training was not part of the regimen as it is now, I flocked to the weight room between seasons. If he caught you sitting and relaxing after a set, Mr. Strickland would chide, “Stand up! This isn’t a coffee shop.” When the school remodeled some of its athletic facilities, he would not permit mirrors in the new weight room. An architect asked, “Don’t they need the mirrors to check out their form while they lift.” He scoffed, “That’s what spotters are for. I don’t want them preening.”

In class, he was an outstanding teacher. As I found out later, John’s teaching method was influenced by his favorite Wabash teacher, Burt Stern. It wasn’t until I was in Dr. Stern’s office my freshman year that I discovered John Strickland went to Wabash. Here, he was a Delt who played football until suffering an injury. I would later discover that Mr. Strickland painted tremendous oils and played jazz. He is a true Renaissance man and exemplifies the broad level of interest that the liberal arts fosters.

•••

About a year or so ago, I received an e-mail from Michele Tatar in the Alumni Office. I’m a class agent, and she was updating me on classmates the College has lost track of. “I don’t have any address or telephone number for David Ricke,” she reported. “Do you have an e-mail address?” I responded. She answered, “Yes.” “That’s all you need,” I said.

Dave Ricke, or “Tricky” as he came to be known, was the middle child of a lower middle class family in Muncie, Indiana. He played football for Muncie Northside, now a Middle School. Initially, he didn’t want to go to college—none of his family had. He didn’t want to join a fraternity. But he came to Wabash, pledged Phi Delt, and played football. Somewhere around our sophomore year, I saw a change in Dave. I think it was a philosophy class, and all of a sudden, I saw this light turn on. He started reading texts outside of class, he developed a true thirst for knowledge.

After graduation, we both went to Europe. After a few weeks, I returned to the States, but Dave continued to travel. Dave has been all over the world. He’s been to Antarctica three times, Greenland three times. I have prayer flags he brought to me from Tibet. I’ve visited him in Arizona, Washington State, and Hawaii. He got married and recently had a kid in Alaska. He’s read way more books than I have. And right now, I have no idea where he is. But he’s always an e-mail away.

•••

One of the first alumni I met as a newly green-potted Phi Delt pledge was Major General Earl “Punk” Johnson, class of 1938. It was the first home football game, and General Johnson was up on campus for the Class Agent Forum. We found him outside the house, petting the big dog he donated and told us the story of ol’ Ben, also a St. Bernard, that was in the house when he was in school. The brothers had named that dog General in honor of its donor, a man who flew B-29s for the Army Air Corps during WWII. He also served in the Air Force during the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

To illustrate how much this man exemplifies courage, wisdom, and quiet dignity, I can relate a story of one of the last trips to his hometown of Crawfordsville in November 2001. Unfortunately, it was to escort Peggy, his dear wife of many years, from Orlando to her final resting place. General Johnson recalls that during visiting hours at the funeral home, he ducked into the side room to watch snippets of the Monon Bell Game. He says that he popped in just in time to see Jake Knott hurl a prayer from his 48 yard line with 2.7 seconds left on the clock to Ryan Short on the 5 which was tipped backward into the waiting arms of Curt Casper in the end zone to win the Bell 27-21. Yeah, it was that game. The next morning, he walked into the Phi Delt house. Not a soul was awake, but there amid the debris of a massive celebration, on the raised living room, was the Monon Bell with General, the St. Bernard, curled up beside it. At the conclusion of the worst week of my life, he observed, I got to see something truly inspiring.

On Commencement Weekend next month, Wabash will bestow General Johnson an honorary degree. It will be the first time he will have seen the new Phi Delt house. I can’t wait to see him again.

•••

I’ll end with a sentiment that we tacked on the masthead of the Bachelor for one issue when I was co-editor. During an argument before the Supreme Court, Daniel Webster said of his alma mater Dartmouth. “It is, sir, as I have said, a small college. And yet there are those who love it.” It seems to me that there are multitudes of us who could say the same for our alma mater.

Thank you and Wabash Always Fights.

Here's the second part of my talk where I discuss the Co-ed Study and Chapel Sing.

It Seems to Me That an unexamined tradition is not worth following.

As someone who was a student here when we last considered “The Coed Question,” I have to say that I am very glad we did it. I’m extremely glad we did it. Of course, I wasn’t at the time. But I noticed that it forced this college to think critically about itself.

Regardless of the motivations of the Wettack administration, at the time I found the structure of the study to be quite sound. Thirteen subcommittees researched and reported on all aspects of Wabash and made recommendations based on how the college could improve itself on two tracks: as a single-sex and as a coeducational institution. To my recollection, tradition was not a criterion.

Now, I know my talking about coeducation is like stepping on the proverbial third-rail, but bear with me. The decision to remain all-male at that period was very “audacious” to say the least. We were portrayed by The New York Times as stubborn backward hicks stuck in the ’50s. The few years immediately after were hard for faculty especially and difficult for the campus. But, eventually, good things started to happen.

Classmates of mine recall that when we were high school students in the mid-80s, we received recruitment brochures from Wabash where the description of Wabash as a college for men was buried in the text. They remind me also that the photos misleadingly depicted women as well as men!

After the decision, Wabash’s admissions literature suddenly got assertive “Guts Brain Spirit Strength Wabash” was emblazoned on its cover and the slogan “It won’t be easy. It will be worth it” challenged those boys willing to try something different. Applications grew steadily.

During the mid-’90s, the college started harnessing the power of its alumni. While alumni have long referred prospectives to Wabash, the notion of organized and active alumni recruiting really took root at this time. Regional alumni clubs started to take hold. There are some 44 or so such clubs in 20 states, the District of Columbia, and Europe currently.

WABASH Day, a national day of service, was created to encourage alumni to give back to their communities. Monon Bell Telecast parties exploded. Last November, there were about 60 of them all across the country. The College consolidated its reunions into the Big Bash and began holding them in June, bringing record numbers of alumni to campus.

I argue that much of what’s going right with Wabash now has a lot to do with this institution finding and asserting its identity. But this search can never be complete. Wabash, like us, will continue to have to adjust to the times.

You know the expression: “If you do something at Wabash more than once, they call it a tradition.” I like to add an adjunct to that, “But traditions are often like the children’s party entertainment, The Telephone Game” where you sit in a circle and whisper a message to the person next to you. Like the message, the tradition can often mutate, in some cases becoming unrecognizable from its original meaning. If we steadfastly stick to the parameters of the medium, we often lose the message.

OK, a story. For alumni, this Chapel is almost sacred. Mostly because, unlike every other building on campus, it doesn’t change. The only new additions from my days here are the portraits of three Wabash presidents that now look down upon us. The Chapel evokes memories, for me, of being the last class President Lew Salter rang in, of watching bebop great Dizzy Gillespie perform roughly a year before his death. I’ve seen two weddings here and three presidential inaugurations. I’ve seen Jon Pactor ’71 speak at each of your ringing in ceremonies. Last year, I was humbled to be inducted as an honorary member of Sphinx Club on this very stage.

But most of all, for me, the Chapel evokes memories of Chapel Sing. My freshman year, Chapel Sing was deep in the stages of its devolution. It better resembled the old greased pole fight than the “Sing” that generations of alumni had performed. Here we were, my fraternity brothers and I, joined in a phalanx of interlocked elbows. Yelling as loud as we could, we lost our voices in about two minutes all the while fighting the other scrums of fraternity pledges. While this was going on Sphinx Club members tried to force crackers coated with Tabasco in our mouths.

Now, I’m tall, I swam varsity for Wabash, and I’m no wilting flower. Still the proximity and the constant exhalation took its toll after 45 minutes or so of screaming. After a while, someone came over and told us that we were done. At that moment when our tight-knit group started to separate, my eyes rolled into the back of my head, my knees buckled, and I hit the pavement. There I was splayed out on the Chapel steps, unable to open my eyes and unable to move. After a time, I felt this slapping against my cheek. My eyes fluttered and slowly opened. There, standing above me, was an upperclassman’s face telling me, “Hugh, STOP SINGING THE SCHOOL SONG!”

Now, this is when you find out how small a campus this is. Everyone, knew I had passed out at Chapel Sing. When I trudged on deck for practice that afternoon, I was still a little dazed from the experience. I fully expected to do some light deck work or fill water bottles for the team, but Coach Pebworth made me swim the whole practice. I now know how to swim with my eyes closed.

Now that makes an excellent story. And I know that I risk being considered a hypocrite for saying this, but I would not wish my experience on any single current Wabash student. Going to the hospital with stitches or a broken arm or shredded vocal chords or passing out may be a rite of passage for a Navy Seal exercise, but, sorry, we ain’t the Navy Seals. The point of Chapel Sing is for every freshman to learn the school song. We’ve gotten away from the value of the tradition. The details of how its passed on don’t matter. What matters is that every freshman learn the school song. Yes, it’s just that simple. But many times, stubbornness supersedes sense.

You may not know this, but over the course of this decade, new traditions have sprouted: The Celebration of Student Research, The Mission Statement—its fairly new, and I’m amazed how quickly everyone in the Wabash community has embraced it--Immersion Learning and Externships, singing Old Wabash to the crowd at the conclusion of our sporting events. I think every team does it now. We didn’t use to, and it’s great.