This led me to ask more questions about leadership programs at Wabash. Over the past year I have spoken with faculty, staff, administration officials, students, and members of the community to discover why Wabash does not have a leadership development program. The answers I received are troubling, but also encouraging in a number of ways. One theme has been common in the many conversations I have had with people on campus is that Wabash College needs to work harder to develop leadership. However, there seems to be little consensus on how best to do that. The most disturbing aspect of the College’s failure to address this critical aspect of preparing young men for life after Wabash is that the College is blatantly disregarding a key component of the mission statement—“Wabash College educates men to think critically, act responsibly, lead effectively, and live humanely.” Wabash College does not do enough to educate men to lead effectively. We could be doing so much more.

Dr. Sax shows the important characteristics that define the two genders and emphasizes that it is folly to ignore them, and he provides ample evidence that pretending that these differences don’t exist only hurts the children and does little to erase the gender gap. He sees these strong and weak traits of boys and girls and inherent and not as social constructs and places much of the fault for the continuing emphasis on total equality on the feminist movement and its aftereffects. Dr. Sax does not try to place one gender as superior to the other, but rather sees them as different and also equal.

Wabash College has recently been host to numerous debates on its inherent qualities and culture. From criticism of the all male educational system, to the demeaning of some long standing College traditions, no topic has been safe from the vicious conflicts of the recent past. In the wake of these debates the campus now finds itself in a relatively peaceful and solid position on some of its most historically controversial issues. In this calm one would expect to find solidarity amongst the College’s highest levels, mainly the administration and faculty, and in some instances this consistency of mission is the case; many members of the faculty and administration share a purpose or understanding in the College’s quest for excellence in education and the continual attempts to evolve and reform the curriculum to suit the ever changing students. However, there is still lingering dissent on some of Wabash’s core issues, especially in its position as an all male educational system. Dr. Humberto Barreto of the Economics Department says this dissent is “a good thing, it lets students see there are differing views.” In some ways this is true but at the same time this dissent, if presented in a destructive manner, can be detrimental to other areas of the college when involving core issues.

Over the next few months, we should be seeing and hearing a lot about the planning process and how it is shaping up. Take interest in this process, learn about it and get involved, because this will not only affect you, but the future of Wabash. So take a simple survey or participate in an interview, because students wanted to have input, and it’s important not to let the opportunity slip away.

In the first edition of The Phoenix, in Spring 2007, Josh Bellis ’08 wrote an article about the problem created by the construction of the Malcolm X Institute. He suggested that if the College wanted a diversity center, they should have created something for all minority groups. In an apparent effort to prove him right, this fall a handful of minority student groups, with the aid of the Multicultural Concerns Committee, have been promoting the idea of a Minority Student Center. They have attempted to get in the long line of those petitioning to use the recently vacated Kendall House or the soon to be vacated Hovey Cottage.