I chose Wabash College because I saw an opportunity to be developed and transformed as a leader on a deeper level, and I entered Wabash with a strong desire to make Wabash an even better place and a strong need to continue in my development as a leader. Unfortunately, I’ve been disappointed with the leadership opportunities at Wabash to date. In fact, I was unaware of any programs on campus geared toward leadership development other than Head Football Coach Chris Creighton’s “Leadership Series”, a program I applaud, but one concerned primarily with leadership specific to athletic teams. My disappointment led me to begin searching more feverishly for other leadership development programs on campus.

A simple search of the College’s website revealed very little about leadership programs at Wabash. All I found were hits for work by the Wabash Center, an advertisement for a fraternity on campus, and a couple hits talking about the Campaign for Leadership. However, I did a more in-depth search last year and found an article about a multi-million dollar grant the College had received from the Lilly Endowment in an issue of “Wabash Magazine” in 1996. This piqued my interest, and I began to talk with various people on campus about the grant and resulting program. Among other projects, the grant allowed Wabash to construct a ropes course for the purpose of “leadership development”. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent constructing a first-class ropes course that included both low and high-level challenges. The funding for the grant ended in 1998, and Dean Bambrey, who had recently been hired as Dean of Students, decided it was not in the “best interests of the College” to continue with upkeep on the ropes course. Sadly, the expensive project, which the College had spent over one hundred thousand dollars on, was dismantled and donated to the local chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

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.

I would estimate that I have spoken with forty-five members of the Wabash community about the need for a leadership development on campus and only Dean Bambrey, has expressly said that Wabash does not need to address the issue of leadership. Bambrey believes that the very “culture” of Wabash trains them to be effective leaders because they can both fail and succeed in leadership roles on campus. Though I respect this opinion, I don’t consider it valid, as it does not provide any sort of a program to help students hone their leadership skills, and it does nothing for students who do not feel equipped to serve as a campus leader. More positively, though, everyone else that I spoke with was in agreement that Wabash needs to address leadership development. They agreed that it is important for Wabash to remain true to its mission of training young men to lead effectively.

Near the end of last year, conversations I had been having about leadership finally began to bear fruits. President White admitted to me last May that Wabash needs to be doing more to develop leadership skills in students, and he expressed his desire for a leadership development program to be included in the new Strategic Plan. He and I brainstormed about what kind of leadership development program Wabash should offer. After an extended conversation, I left his office with the assignment of developing an “experimental” leadership development program that would provide the campus with five different examples of how leadership training could be presented. I worked throughout the summer and developed a program that included five different sessions during the fall 2007 semester that were rooted in Wabash tradition and culture. The program called for alumni presentations, as well as experiential, hands-on learning. The leadership development program I created under President White’s guidance was intended to be open to all members of the Wabash community, and the plan called for an evaluation at the end of the semester, at which point a determination would be made about the kind of leadership development program should be included in the Strategic Plan. However, and most unfortunately, this plan came to a screeching halt when I received one particular all-campus e-mail this summer.

After working for three months on a comprehensive leadership development program for Wabash College, I received the same, standard message as the rest of the campus. The L.E.A.D. program was proudly introducing the National Society of Leadership and Success. As I read the e-mail, I was extremely bothered by the content of the message. I felt as though I should be sending the e-mail to announce the new leadership development program I had developed. Yet as I kept reading, I discovered many differences between the program I had developed and the one described in the e-mail. The program proposed by the L.E.A.D. Committee offered satellite video conferences for seven different nationally-televised speakers. The committee touted Goldie Hawn as one of the speakers, and it also called for Wabash students creating a “leadership society”. In order to join the Wabash Leadership Society, students would be required to pay $65 to join the National Society of Leadership and Success. This membership came with a t-shirt, a pin, and a completion certificate. The fundamental problem with this type of program is that it is in no way specific to the culture of Wabash College. I could join the same group, hear the same speakers, and receive the same certificate at any other college in America. In e-mail exchanges with members of the L.E.A.D. committee, I encouraged them to not move forward with this idea. Furthermore, I asked them to work with me on creating a unique leadership development program—one rooted in the ideas and traditions of Wabash. Scott Crawford, Director of Career Services, rejected my offer saying, “We’re going ahead with our program, but best of luck with yours.”

This troubled me, and I returned to campus in August with a re-ignited passion for bringing the very best leadership development program to the Wabash community. During more conversations with those involved in bringing the National Society of Leadership and Success to campus, I became even more convinced that Wabash must be doing more to develop a unique, creative leadership program that is personal and meaningful for Wabash students. President White and I had yet another conversation about leadership at Wabash. Even though he knew little about the National Society, he agreed with me that the best form of a leadership development program at Wabash would be one created specifically with Wabash students in mind. He encouraged me, though, to give the other program a chance and to critique the format they used. President White’s biggest challenge for me, however, was to see myself as a “Lobbyist for Leadership”. He referred to this role as an unofficial position of the Strategic Planning Committee. He called on me to work with members of the committee to raise the importance and need for a strong leadership development program on campus. This task is one I do not take lightly.

It is essential that Wabash College create a leadership development program that is unique, creative, and firmly rooted in a Wabash way of life. This program should involve guest alumni speakers who are currently applying critical leadership skills. The program should be open to all students regardless of GPA, class rank, major, or living unity. A successful leadership program is multi-faceted and is taught through hands-on learning and theory based ideas. Leadership development at Wabash should involve the inclusion of important questions like: What does it mean to be a man and a leader? How can a Wabash education be applied in situations that call for leadership? How does the Gentlemen’s Rule relate to leadership? These are all questions that a successful Wabash Leadership program should ask. The program should also include a certificate of completion, allowing students to show future employers that they have received leadership training in a unique program that will help them compete in a working environment. In order to run a successful program, Wabash should employ a director of Leadership Development. Creating a program like this is too critical to be left as a side project for a college staff member with no understanding of leadership. Finally, leadership development at Wabash must be about Wabash and the struggles and challenges that Wabash students are facing.

Though Wabash has failed to provide resourceful leadership development training for their students, the school has the opportunity to take advantage of the Strategic Plan and create a program that will truly benefit students. In the end, this college will not be known for the architecturally stunning buildings, the sweeping, colorful landscape, or the fleet of college cars. Wabash College will not be known for the petty faculty arguments, the wireless connectivity, or the dinners and events—in the end, Wabash College will be known for the students it fostered and for the difference they made. Let’s work together to create a leadership development program to make sure that Wabash is living up to its mission of educating men to lead effectively and is equipping them with the necessary tools to make a difference.

Related posts:

1. Bit by Bit, Piece by Piece: A Look at How the Strategic Plan Has Progressed
2. ‘Bash’s Big Give

His best-known work, Why Gender Matters, is an exposé on the biological and psychological differences between boys and girls and aims to examine the best methods for raising and educating children of each sex. Dr. Sax argues that there are distinct disciplinary and teaching techniques that work better with one gender. For instance, he describes certain auditory differences between girls and boys. He notes that girls generally hear much better than boys do, which raises a number of important issues concerning the classroom. He states that girls tend to sit in the middle to front rows when picking seats, which can have an adverse effect when a male teacher speaks. The teacher may think that he is using a normal voice, but the girls in the front rows interpret his normal volume level as overly harsh or even yelling. Meanwhile, the boys in the back rows are distracted because their less sensitive hearing makes it difficult for them to hear and concentrate on what the teacher is saying. Herein lies a serious problem in co-educational learning environments, as many teachers are unaware of or choose to deny this basic genetic difference between the children in their classroom. Dr. Sax presents a multitude of these examples of subtle variations in how the brains of the different genders are wired and offers plausible solutions to many of the problems posed by these differences. He bases his observations on proven biological facts and attempts to solve them by playing to the strengths of the different genders.

Leonard Sax

Another example that he cites regarding differences between girls and boys relates to levels of stress that they feel and how they cope with that stress. Dr. Sax claims that boys are inherently better performers when under stress, but that high levels of stress inhibit the abilities of girls. He goes on to list examples in education where these differences can be used to the advantage of the students. One such example of this is a story about how a class of all boys was motivated to do their best by having to answer questions in a group in a short span of time. He says that the boys were under duress because only a few seconds were given to the answer the questions and they were competing for pride against their peers. The boys loved the exercise and were able to learn the material better through the creative way that it was presented. On the other hand, he relates an example from an all-girls school where the girls were never given time limits on their tests. The teacher let them stay and take exams for as long as they pleased. The girls loved it because they were able to think fully through every question and work out the best answer.

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.

Naturally, Dr. Sax is a big proponent for single-sex education. He sees the unique ways that boys and girls are both getting let down and underserved by our current methods of education. Moreover, he is a strong supporter of the segregation of children into schools by their gender because he feels that their strengths can be better emphasized and their weaknesses more improved because of the homogeneous nature of the student body. The ability of teachers to relate to their students’ needs is greatly increased in such environments because they are able to use techniques that work in favor of all of the students in the class, rather than appealing to only half of them and possibly alienating the others.

Obviously, Dr. Sax’s ideas about single-sex education have relevance to the students and faculty at Wabash. As one of the last few bastions of all-male higher education in America, we, as members of the Wabash community, are in a unique position in regard to being able to apply his theories to single-sex college life.

In one of his articles, he examines the growing divide between the numbers of motivated young men and women who have a sense of purpose and direction in their life through their twenties. According to the article, “What’s Happening to Boys?” one in three men between the age of 22 and 34 live at home with their parents, while only about half as many women are in the same situation. The most disheartening theme that runs through the article is that these young men don’t even see a problem with having no future prospects and no path towards even leaving the shelter and comfort of their childhood homes. There is a deep problem in the way boys are being raised and educated today when such enormous numbers of men don’t even feel the drive to succeed and accomplish feats that have never been attempted in the past.

This problem of instilling the need for excellence and growth is something that even our beloved Wabash must face as we look to the future. Part of the solution may lie inside our walls, as we believe strongly in the idea that students at an all-male college are receiving an education that extends far beyond the classroom and guides young men towards happy, successful lives. In addition to our always important focus on challenging and insightful academics, the Wabash mentality has always been to prepare its students for life outside of the four years of the undergraduate experience. We pride ourselves on the fact that Wabash men can use what they have learned from the classics of Aristotle or the structure of an organic compound and be able to solve problems in all assets of life with the lessons they’ve learned. However, we can always improve upon the base that we have set up here at Wabash, and I believe that Dr. Sax will have further insights into the learning environments that men thrive in and the keys to gaining a positive outlook and drive to be successful in an ever-more competitive world. With that, I would like to welcome Dr. Sax to Wabash and hope that the men of our college will attend what is sure to be a memorable speech on gender studies.

Related posts:

1. Being a Gentleman: A Critique of Sax’s Words on Wabash
2. Intellectual Conservatism on Campus: Has Campus Conservatism Lost its Way?
3. How Many Women Should Teach at Wabash?

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.

The way men are educated at the college is extremely dependent on the professors. “The role of a professor at Wabash exists at two levels. The first is as a teacher; the second is as a guiding force for the student to student learning and teaching. Both are equally important,” said Assistant Professor of History Dr. Richard Warner. With this role in both teaching their respective subjects and guiding the interactions and learning of their students on campus, it is very important that the professors share an understanding at the core levels of the Wabash education.

It would prove almost impossible to educate young men to lead effectively without a good example of leadership within the College itself. Without the ability of all professors to at least understand some of the most fundamental points of the Wabash education, like the all male element, it is impossible to fully accomplish the main goals of educating men who “think critically, act responsibly, lead effectively and live humanely.” Although it is important for a sense of uniform understanding amongst the faculty and administration, it is not an absolute necessity for any of them to personally believe in all male education. Quite the contrary, they can personally oppose the idea of single sex education without attempting to alter or attack it. If they at least understand it, accept that there is some value to it, and do not try to pit themselves against it in a destructive way, there is still the ability to accomplish the goals of the institution despite personal beliefs.

Ultimately there is no room at the college for someone who wants and actively seeks a selfish personal goal of destroying the all male institution that Wabash College is. At some level all people need to understand what Wabash College is as an institution. “Wabash College is a great school that just happens to be educating men,” as Dr. Warner described it. It is as simple as that. The College itself is a place that prepares a group of society to become some of the most successful members within their career fields. Nothing shows the success of this institution better than the alumni it has developed and as former president Andy Ford said, “It works.” Wabash College is dependent on the belief of not just the students, who personally experience all male education at work, but on the belief or understanding of the professors and administrators who are entrusted to carry Wabash College into the future.

Related posts:

1. Co-ed Never: Reflections on the Core of Wabash Traditions
2. Where Friendship May Flourish
3. A Healthy Wabash: A Democrat Critiques Current Trends at the College

Although the plan lined out by President White was not detailed at the time, the details are being worked on within the individual committees. These committees were formed to create a plan based on the answers to the four questions that President White proposed: “Who will be the men of Wabash in the future?”; “What will be the character of Wabash as a liberal arts college for men?”; “What will be the character of Wabash as a community of men and women teaching and learning together, living as a community?”; and, “What will be the role of Wabash College and Wabash men in the larger world?” Each question is being approached by a different committee of members, each one spearheaded by a member of the President’s Staff. Among these chairpersons are: Dean Klein, Dean Phillips, Dean Bambrey, Dean Emmick. These chairpersons have been working within their various committees over the last month to gather the information necessary to present to the trustees at their meeting in May 2008.

In e-mail questionnaires with each of the committee chairs, the response seemed to be unanimous in that each committee was going very smoothly and even though it will take a lot of hard work, everyone is committed to getting the plan out as soon as possible and involving the community and students in the process.

Dean Emmick, chair of the “Role of Wabash and Wabash men in the larger world” committee said, “Our committee is in what I call the discovery stage—what do we know about our alumni now? What more do we want to know? What have we accomplished from past strategic plans that might inform our work? What is the gap between where we are now and where we want to go?”

This kind of work awaits each committee is to take a broad subject and narrow it down to how it will best apply to the Strategic Plan. There is a bit of apprehension, however, about trying to complete such monumental tasks in such a short period of time.

“The timetable is going to press us. We’re going to be tested,” according to Dean Phillips. This timetable is approximately nine months from the time it was announced in August to the May 2008 Trustee meeting. Nine months may seem like a long time, but when you are dealing with something as big as the future plans of the College, it’s nothing to be taken lightly. President White noted this in his Chapel Talk in August: “This [timetable] is somewhat ambitious, but all advise as doable…I have seen strategic planning processes languish over several years without much impact or satisfaction. Better to have the work concentrated, get to an articulation of a plan, and move it to fulfillment.”

As President White pointed out in the Chapel Talk, Wabash is stronger than ever. The number of applicants and enrolled students and endowment are very high.

Dean Phillips said the process is “Always about getting stronger and doing it better. Be brave enough to admit we aren’t getting it right. Not being afraid to look at our weaknesses.” And at a college that boasts an endowment that makes other schools jealous and whose applications and enrollment are at record highs, it is hard to be critical of how things are going. But the future is what is at stake here, and the future is not guaranteed in any sense.

Involvement of students in the planning seems to be one of the biggest themes that is touched on whenever the plan is brought up. Currently, none of the committees have met with students directly, but each chairperson made it clear that student input is going to be vital. In the first wide-ranging engagement of students in the process, Dean Klein, chairperson of the “Who will be the men of Wabash of the future?” committee recently sent out a survey to students through e-mail asking for their input on qualities of Wabash men.

It should also be noted that currently, the President’s Student Advisory Council is working directly with President White, and the individual committees are charged with including the Wabash community in their discussions as they progress.

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.

Related posts:

1. Strategic Plan Process: Who’s in Charge?
2. Lobbyist for Leadership

Multicultural Center

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.

Flag Update

A little over a week after the previous issue of The Phoenix hit campus, we received word that the College would be installing a light of their own on the flag pole. We are glad that the College is taking responsibility and look forward to the resolution of this issue.

Overdue Praise

We have leveled criticism at a number of organizations on campus for ungentlemanly behavior, lack of integration in the campus community, and generally not living up to their mission. One such group was the MXI, who we have publicly criticized as not working hard enough to advertise their events. The group has come a long way and has done a much better job recently of advertising their events and getting the campus involved with the organization. Although some of our more substantive concerns still linger, they deserve praise for the impressive effort they have made.

Blame The Phoenix?

In conversations with faculty while researching the article about the quality of life survey, one faculty member suggested that this magazine may bear some responsibility for the level of hysterics found in parts of the survey. After all, this person pointed out, one of the articles contained a student’s controversial musings about the role of women at the College. This seems odd since The Bachelor, another student publication recently published an opinion articles by a student which decried the “bleating drivel of Christian sheep”. Considering this example didn’t seem to be objectionable to many, this staff thinks we could make do without the posturing.

Related posts:

1. November 2007 Back Page Cover
2. Around Wabash – December 2007
3. Wabash, Tear Down This Wall: Wabash’s Botched Attempt to Diversify

Related posts:

1. Around Wabash – November 2007
2. March 2009 – Front Page Cover
3. December 2007 Back Page