Wabash College - Class of 1991

Another new tradition that has emerged since our departure from the Wabash campus is the Celebrating Scholarship Luncheon that now takes place every spring. It’s an opportunity for many Wabash students–most of them on some sort of scholarship–to meet some of their benefactors. (story)

Our own Luke Messer polished his rhetorical skills as the luncheon’s keynote speakers. Here’s a synopsis of his speech by Jim Amidon:

This year, the keynote speakers provided great examples of how scholarships transformed their lives.

Luke Messer ’91 talked about coming from a single-parent home in Greensburg, Indiana, and how he could not have dreamed of a Wabash education had it not been for a big scholarship package. “Essentially, I came to Wabash for about $1,000 per year,” he said.

Messer was able to study overseas at Oxford University after receiving a Brian Bosler Overseas Memorial Scholarship. He graduated from Wabash summa cum laude, attended Vanderbilt Law School, and has been a legislator, political leader, and attorney in Indiana ever since.

Messer talked about how Wabash provides “a value-added educational experience” because of the close, personal relationships students have with faculty, and how the faculty pushes students harder than they ever imagined.

“I think something Wabash does better than other schools is to educate thoughtful leaders,” Messer said.

Kip and I get regular updates from the College on giving to the Annual Fund. The March 16 report indicated that we were five guys shy compared to the same time last year. Wabash as a whole is down about 400 donors.

The need even now is more crucial than ever.

The Honor Roll online is updated regularly. By this afternoon’s count, 55 guys from our class have given so far this year. Make sure your name is on that list so that we can help provide the same opportunity to a current Wabash student that someone gave us way back when.

The Alumni Office wanted me to pass along the following information to those of you who are Indiana residents. The process for obtaining or renewing your Wabash license plates is much easier.

Here’s how it works:

• Alumni, parents, students, and friends with vehicles registered in Indiana are eligible for Wabash license plates.
• When requesting your Wabash plate from the BMV (online, by mail, or at the license branch), indicate that you want to renew your existing plate or get a new Wabash plate.
• The BMV will now collect your $25 gift to Wabash and the $15 administrative fee for each plate purchased. You no longer need a validated form from Wabash!

• When requesting a Wabash plate from the BMV, be sure to indicate that you want the BMV to release your name and address for gift recognition purposes. By doing so, Wabash will issue a gift receipt for your $25 contribution and count you as an Annual Fund donor.
• The BMV will collect gifts of $25 for each plate you purchase. If you regularly support Wabash with gifts greater than $25, we would appreciate your continued generosity by making those gifts directly to Wabash by mail, phone, or online at www.wabash.edu/giving.

I was doing research last week on a cover story for Indianapolis Monthly on great families and their legacy to the city and state. A particular passage in Dr. James Madison’s biography of Eli Lilly was striking:

The pharmaceutical manufacturer was loyal to his alma mater, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, and made large contribution s to it, but he showed little interest in technical or professional schools. He thought professors should be “men who have had some practical experience and not simply one hundred percent theoreticians,” but he believed firmly in the values derived from a traditional liberal arts education, especially at “small liberal arts colleges like Wabash without too much government influence in them.”…

Wabash College was Lilly’s favorite. Founded by Presbyterian Yankees before the Civil War, it remained a men’s school with high standards and, under President Frank Sparks, aggressive leadership. Lilly became a trustee of the college in 1946 and seldom missed a meeting until his death [in 1977]. Over the years, he gave large sums of money to the institution. …Asked about this relationship in a 1973 interview, Lilly responded that he liked the men who served Wabash as trustees and presidents, especially Sparks, and then added, doubtless with a smile, that perhaps his large support was due also to the fact that Wabash was the first college to give him an honorary degree, which it did in 1938. Lilly also liked the school’s strong liberal arts curriculum and its graduates. Several Wabash alumni became associates in his activities. One, Eugene Beesley, was the first non-Lilly to become president of the company and later the president of the Lilly Endowment.

That great tradition continues with a new five-year $375,000 grant from the Lilly Endowment to Wabash to help fund the establishment of the Wabash College Business Leadership Program. You can find details of the program and the grant here.

But you don’t have to be a drug company magnate to help fund such programs or initiatives. When you give any amount to the Annual Fund, you help provide such initiatives like the first Wabamazoo Case Study Competition recently held on campus. As importantly, you can give your time—yeah, I know you all are super busy—to be a resource for programs like this.

In the wake of the shakeups on campus this semester, alumni availability and guidance to our students has become more crucial. I’ll have more posts on this topic, rest assured.

In 1947, Eli Lilly established four scholarships for Wabash students. And that initial gift keeps on giving.

…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!

OK, as of this morning, here are the latest tallies:

Living Unit	%	Rank
Phi Delt	63%	1st
FIJI	55%	2nd
Beta	39%	3rd
Kappa Sig	32%	4th
Lambda Chi	32%	4th
Sigma Chi	32%	4th
TEKE/Theta Delt	28%	7th
Delt	27%	8th
Phi Psi	24%	9th
Independent	24%	9th

And, no I’m not giving an update just because the Phi Delts are winning. FIJIs need just two more donors to surpass us! For an updated list of who’s given so far this year, check the Honor Roll online. It’s updated regularly.

Obviously, the real reason to give is for the sake of current Wabash students. We pay it forward for their benefit. I’m constantly gratified to see great examples of Wabash students doing great things. Like this week, where a group of students went down to Martinsville to help residents clean up after the devastating floods that have plagued southern Indiana. Nobody asked them to do this; they chose to and organized the effort.

Photo from the Reporter-Times (Martinsville)

As the College’s fiscal year comes to a close, we’ve made various appeals to you to stress the importance of giving to Wabash: first and foremost for our students, for Class of ‘91 pride, or just showing up the damn Dannies. Well, we have one more trick up our sleeve:

Intramurals

It’s hard to forget how heated the living unit rivalries became during IMs, especially during football, basketball, or softball games. I still pity those of you who had to officiate some of those games. And yes, it seemed that Phi Psi always geared their rush toward prospectives who could round out their IM prowess. “Oh, you’ve won national competitions in badminton and tiddley winks? Hey, you have to meet our rush chairman!” (Skippy and Shep, you know I’m kidding, right?)

So we’re appealing to your long festering sense of living unit rivalry. Given the numbers from yesterday, June 11, here’s how you rank by percentages of each house.
 

Living Unit	%	Rank
Phi Delt	50%	1st
FIJI	50%	1st
Beta	35%	3rd
Kappa Sig	32%	4th
Delt	27%	5th
Sigma Chi	27%	5th
Lambda Chi	26%	7th
Phi Psi	24%	8th
Teke/Theta Delt	22%	9th
Independent	20%	10th

So, OK, its probably not fair on the Tekes and Theta Delts who probably aren’t happy being lumped together. Nor is it very fair on the independents, but we don’t have easy data on which of you want to be affliliated with which dorm. And we don’t have any award or prize concocted, unless any of you has any good ideas…

But there it is, FIJIs and Phi Delts tied for first. The Betas need just three more guys to give to pull ahead of the field, Kappa Sigs need four, Phi Psis and Sigma Chis need six, Lambda Chis need five, and Delts need seven.

Just who’s given so far, you ask? Check the continually updated Honor Roll here. You can give…

• By phone: 877-743-4545
• On the Web: www.wabash.edu/alumni/egift
• By mail: Wabash Annual Fund/PO Box 352/Crawfordsville, IN 47933 (checks payable to Wabash College)

You have two weeks left to support Wabash and do your part to win the Class of ‘91 IM Giving Trophy for 2008.

Last month, I felt a little like Paul Revere decrying the Dannies’ feeble attempt to challenge us at annual giving. A new visit to their giving Web site reveals that they have excised their rallying cry to “Beat to Wabash.”

Typical.

But all this school rivalry distracts from the fact that the College’s fiscal year is coming to an end. And we need your help.

The real incentive is what it always has been. Not class pride, not beating the cursed Tiggers, but helping our students.

Trustee Tom Hays ‘55 issued a $1.1 million challenge to up our alumni giving. If we meet this challenge, his gift will boost the scholarship endowment. I’m here to tell you that some of our students need this much more than we’d like to think.

Wabash will tell you that their retention rate is really good. And it is. What’s hidden in the numbers are those students who have to drop out because of financial reasons. I’ve seen it happen too often.

These aren’t kids who refuse to take out student loans. They aren’t guys who feel they are entitled to the world like the stereotype of so many in their generation. They’re not spoiled rich kids (like those that still go to DePauw).

They’re good, decent, bright kids who believe in the strong work ethic that Wabash fosters.

Unlike our class, Wabash doesn’t award percentage scholarships anymore. So when tuition increases, even moderately, these kids have to pay more out of pocket each year. I’m not entirely sure why Wabash switched away from percentage scholarships; maybe it’s because of large classes like ours. (Remember hearing that rubbish that we were “the best class that money could buy”?)

As you might suspect, I’m a good alumnus of Wabash when it comes to giving. I donate each year to the annual fund, not because of some need to show leadership as your Class Agent.

I want to.

On the flip side, I’m really a horrible alumus of my grad school, Northwestern University. When they call me, I blow them off. Cold.

What’s the difference? Is it because I had a nice 80% Presidential Scholarship to go to Wabash and Northwestern forced me to pay full tuition? (Is it because I really hate wearing the color purple?) Not really. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great experience at Northwestern. Medill is a top-notch school of journalism, and I really learned a lot there.

But Wabash taught me more. Just as it does our students today.

We can never pay the College back for what we received during our time at Wabash, but we can, as they say, “pay it forward” and help ensure that the experience of current students is every bit as meaningful as ours was 15 or so years ago.

That’s why I give.

I hope you feel the same as I do about Wabash.

The fiscal year ends June 30. We want to see your name on the list. And, yeah, we wanna beat those damned Dannies!

As you’d expect, Wabash’s Development Office is really good at running numbers for us. They just sent Kip and me a spreadsheet. It shows that 51 of our classmates have given at times over the past four years, but have not given so far this year. Simple math shows that if you add all 51 of you to the 67 who have given as of this posting, we’ll reach a total of 118 donors, or 45%!

For comparison, last year 85 of you gave, or 32.46%.

Those are heartening numbers given that we have a harder job of soliciting funds from the largest class Wabash has produced.

It also points up that we have a good cadre of donors from our class and some of you guys who give one year and not the next. That’s natural. It was clear that when we contacted some of you last June, many of you had simply just forgotten. It happens. It also means that it’s incumbent on us to remind you.

So if you’re on that list of 51, expect a little reminder in the coming week.

On the macro level, if each of the 2,407 alumni who have made a gift in the last four years made a gift by June 30, the College’s alumni participation rate would be 51%.  Getting a little over half of the 2,407 to give by June 30 will increase the alumni participation rate to 40%.  There are less than 60 days between now and June 30 to make a gift. 

Here’s how you can give:

 

• By phone: 877-743-4545
• On the Web: www.wabash.edu/alumni/egift
• By mail: Wabash Annual Fund/PO Box 352/Crawfordsville, IN 47933 (checks payable to Wabash College)

For questions about making gifts of stock, please call 877-743-4545

Last week, Tom Runge posted an interesting item on the Alumni Affairs blog. Seems those Dannies who “really don’t get into the rivalry that much” are doing just that! Check out their alumni giving page!

We can beat Wabash, but not without you.

Annual giving rates tell the score of alumni loyalty to their colleges. Last year, DePauw and Wabash tied with 37 percent alumni participation in the Annual Fund.

Your gift, regardless of the amount, will help DePauw break the tie. Just like a Blackstock Stadium sign inquires of DePauw athletes, “What have you done to beat Wabash today?”

We can beat Wabash (again), but not without you. Participate in the DePauw Annual Fund today with a gift of any amount.

Repugnant!

They even had the gall to put the video of that last-second kick that won last year’s Bell game.

I had to ask whether the Dannies were comparing apples to apples. I mean, leave it to the Dannies to split hairs by bragging about “winning the Bell” more times. True, they have won the actual bell since it was introduced as the series trophy in 1932 by a tally of 36-34-6. But in fact, Wabash leads the all-time series by just one game 53-52-9!

Our Annual Giving Office tells me that “DePauw follows the same gift counting and donor counting best practices that Wabash follows. So their 37% should include the same groups ours includes (alumni, non-grads, widows, and honorary). Last year DePauw had 26,743 active alumni, and last year Wabash had 10,614 active (solicitable) alumni.”

They also tell me, “In comparison to their challenge, as of last Friday (4/4), Wabash needs 1,448 alumni donors to reach 40% alumni participation. You will notice on DePauw’s website they need 3,567 alumni to reach 39% alumni participation.”

As for the Class of 1991, 58 of 263 classmates have given $20,110 for this fiscal year (as of March 31). You can find the most up-to-date list here.

So in the great wisdom of Bugs Bunny (and Groucho Marx), “Of course, you know this means war.”

Periodically, we give you great reasons to give to Wabash, most of them involving the direct benefits to our students. But this time, we’d like to give you an added incentive: to spite the Dannies! Unlike the Bell Game, you’re not a mere spectator. You have a roll in beating the Dannies. Each and every gift counts toward this moral victory over those Cosmopolitan-with-a-straw-and-umbrella-sipping elitist preppy snobs.

So how ’bout that Wabash Always Fights spirit?

You can make a gift to Wabash in one of three easy ways:

• By phone: 877-743-4545

• On the web: www.wabash.edu/alumni/egift

• By mail: Wabash Annual Fund, PO Box 352, Crawfordsville, IN 47933 (Checks payable to Wabash College.)

Time was that if Wabash students wanted to experience off-campus learning, they would go overseas or to NYC or Philly for a semester their junior year. They used Fall Break to rage at Fall Bash (or as freshmen they would catch up on some much-needed sleep in their beds at home). And during Spring Break, they would migrate down to South Padre to do keg stands on the beach trying to impress women from Amherst or UT or IU. They used summers to get well-paying construction jobs or lifeguard at the local pool.

But an increasing number of our students are participating in immersion learning trips. They provide real-world support to classroom or book studies and many times provide a more intense and rich experience than a semester abroad.

For example. Junior Andy Chelton took pictures and video of his trip to Ecuador last summer as part of an immersion learning trip. It’s fast becoming one of the more popular immersion trips, and still gives our guys enough of the summer to intern or earn some money. Check it out.

Wabash College Immersion Trips 2007-2008

Dates	Course	Location	Prof. or leader
Oct 10-13	Career Services: New York Networking Trip	New York, NY	Scott Crawford
Feb 29-Mar 8	PoliSci: Politics of the Middle East	Tel Aviv, Israel	Phillip Mikesell
Feb 29-Mar 8	Div1 277; Hist. 350; Hum. 277; Spa 277: Astronomy and the Mayan World View	Villahermosa, Mexico	Dan Rogers
Mar 1-8	Spanish 477-1. Master Novelists of the Hispanic World: Don Quixote and Garcia Marquez	Madrid, Spain	Gilberto Gomez
Mar 1-8	PoliSci 311: Congress and the Presidency	Washington, DC	David Hadley
Mar 1-9	German 202: German Language and Culture	Berlin, Germany	Brian Tucker
May 5-16	Classics 212- Crete, Mycenae, and the Eruption of Santorini	Athens, Greece	Leslie Day
Summer 08	IS 270- Evolution Ecology Module/Teacher Education	Quito, Ecuador	Dan Rogers

You can check out some of the places and experiences our Wabash men have traveled here.

Your generous annual contributions to Wabash make spectacular experiences of concentrated learning like this possible.

It’s just one of the many things that your gifts to Wabash help enrich for our students.

You can make a gift to Wabash in one of three easy ways:

• By phone: 877-743-4545

• On the web: www.wabash.edu/alumni/egift

• By mail: Wabash Annual Fund, PO Box 352, Crawfordsville, IN 47933 (Checks payable to Wabash College.)