Information AboutWabash College |
Wabash College is a small private Liberal Arts College for men, located in Crawfordsville, Indiana . Wabash, along with Hampden-Sydney College , Deep Springs College , and Morehouse College , are the only four remaining all- Men's Liberal Arts Colleges in the United States. In contrast, there are many more all-female liberal arts colleges. HISTORY Wabash College was founded in 1832 by a number of men including several Dartmouth College graduates. Caleb Mills , the first instructor would later come to be known as the father of the Indiana public education system and would work throughout his life to improve education in the Mississippi Valley area. Patterning it after the liberal arts colleges of New England , they resolved "that the institution be at first a classical and English high school, rising into a college as soon as the wants of the country demand." After declaring the site at which they were standing would be the location of the new school, they knelt in the snow and conducted a dedication service. Although Mills, like many of the founders, was a Presbyterian minister, they were committed that Wabash should be Independent and Non-sectarian . Over its nearly two hundred years of history, Wabash faculty has included such influential intellectuals as poet Ezra Pound . Colonel Henry B. Carrington was professor of military science from 1870 to 1878. ACADEMICS AND MISSION Founded in 1832, Wabash College is an independent and selective liberal arts college for men with an enrollment of 850 students. Its mission is excellence in teaching and learning within a community built on close and caring relationships among students, faculty, and staff. This mission manifests itself in the College's motto - "Wabash College educates men to think critically, act responsibly, lead effectively, and live humanely." Wabash offers qualified young men a superior education, fostering, in particular, independent intellectual inquiry, critical thought, and clear written and oral expression. The College educates its students broadly in the traditional curriculum of the liberal arts while also requiring them to pursue concentrated study in one or more disciplines. Wabash emphasizes our manifold but shared cultural heritage. Our students come from diverse economic, social, and cultural backgrounds; the College helps these students engage these differences and live humanely with them. Wabash also challenges its students to appreciate the changing nature of the global society and prepares them for the responsibilities of leadership and service in it. The College carries out its mission in a residential setting in which students take personal and group responsibility for their actions. Wabash provides for its students an unusually informal, egalitarian, and participatory environment which encourages young men to adopt a life of intellectual and creative growth, self-awareness, and physical activity. The College seeks to cultivate qualities of character and leadership in students by developing not only their analytical skills, but also sensitivity to values, and judgment and compassion required of citizens living in a difficult and uncertain world. We expect a Wabash education to bring joy in the life of the mind, to reveal the pleasures in the details of common experience, and to affirm the necessity for and rewards in helping others. Endowment A substantial endowment places Wabash amongst the top 120 colleges and universities in the nation, and on a per-student basis, amongst the top 25. This endowment drives a generous scholarship program. The benefactors that have funded this endowment include the Pharmaceutical Industrialist Eli Lilly , the company he founded, and his heirs. The school's library is named after Lilly. ATHLETICS The school's sports teams are called the Little Giants. They participate in the NCAA 's Division III and in the North Coast Athletic Conference , where they are the current (2005) NCAC football champions. Every year since 1911 , Wabash College plays rival DePauw University in the Monon Bell Classic. Wabash College is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association . The rallying cheer of Wabash College athletics is "Wabash always fights." DISTINCTIONS The 2002 National Survey of Student Engagement ranked Wabash #1 in the following categories: Level of Academic Challenge, Active and Collaborative Learning, Student Interactions with Faculty, Enriching Educational Experiences, and Supportive Campus Environment. Three-fourths of graduates go on to graduate or professional school within five years. Thirteen percent of alumni have Ph.D.s; twelve percent hold the title "president" or "chairman." Only two Ivy League schools have a higher percentage of alumni in '' Who's Who ''. Wabash is continually ranked in the top-tier of national liberal arts colleges by US News & World Report magazine. In US News, it is the highest ranked of all the remaining all-male colleges in America. Additionally, Wabash is ranked as one of the top national schools by the annual Princeton Review. ALUMNI Notable alumni include professional football player Pete Metzelaars, author Dan Simmons (who dedicated his novel Ilium to the college), the twenty-eighth Vice President of the United States Thomas Riley Marshall (under Woodrow Wilson ), Author and Statesman Major General Lew Wallace , President Clinton's attorney David Kendall , Illinois governor and Capone prosecutor Dwight Green , Postmaster General and Morality Czar Will Hays , Nissan International general manager Mitsuya Goto, former AT&T CEO Robert Allen (after whom the fieldhouse is named), cartoonist Allen Saunders , and the inventor of the Happy Meal . FRATERNITIES The Greek system is a major factor at Wabash; between 65-70% of students are members of one of the ten Fraternities present. Unlike virtually all other schools, all fraternity members--including pledges--live in the fraternity houses by default. While most fraternities allow juniors and seniors to live outside the house if they so opt, the vast majority of Greek students live in their respective house all four years. This has led to the odd circumstance of a campus with less than 1000 students being dotted with Greek houses large enough to fit in at campuses ten times Wabash's size. Furthermore, Fraternity Rush at Wabash begins before the academic year. During March, students accepted for the coming year are invited to the campus for Honor Scholar Weekend, during which they take a battery of exams and compete to earn Scholarship money. The students are distributed among the ten fraternities, with whom they stay during their visit. In the evenings following the day's testing, the fraternites (and the Independent Men's Association) host a wide variety of parties and events open to all comers. Fraternites are allowed to offer bids to pledges starting that weekend, and rush runs through summer until its conclusion one week after school begins. Upon accepting a bid, the pledge is then housed in the corresponding fraternity house. As a large number of pledges accept over the summer, it is entirely possible for a Freshman to never see the inside of a dorm room. WABASH IN FICTION Owing perhaps to its prominence in the Midwest, Wabash College has, despite its small size, been referenced a number of times in fiction originating from or set in the area. Playwright George Ade 's 1927 comedy "The College Widow" (adapted into the movie ''Maybe It's Love'' in 1930) was set at Wabash. A scene in the sports movie '' Hoosiers '' finds the star player's guardian Myra Fleener ( Barbara Hershey ) telling coach Norman Dale ( Gene Hackman ) to stay away from Jimmy Chitwood, the star basketball player and under her care, saying "He's a real special kid, and I have high hopes for him... I think if he works really hard, he can get an academic scholarship to Wabash College and can get out of this place." Some of the characters in the aforementioned Dan Simmons' novels are based on people he knew at Wabash, and he has attributed the quality of his work to what he learned at the college. Additionally, Kurt Vonnegut made an oblique reference to Wabash and used a college alum as the basis for Dwayne Hoover in '' Breakfast Of Champions ''. The college's student radio station, WNDY, loaned its call letters to the fictional Chicago radio station featured in the 1992 Dolly Parton movie "Straight Talk." During one brief scene, a studio engineer wears a Wabash sweatshirt. In yet another example, Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises", one finds Wabash mentioned amongst other top-tier American schools as an institution fit to be attended by students similar to the young characters in the work. Supposedly Hemingway heard of Wabash from his friend Ezra Pound who worked at Wabash for a brief period of time. Wabash is also mentioned in The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth , when the protagonist's family is shown around Washington DC by a guide who was a history lecturer at the college until losing his job in the Great Depression . ON WABASH
- Byron K. Trippet '30, Ninth President of Wabash College EXTERNAL LINKS |
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