This school offers challenges and opportunities like no other institution. Over four years here, you can do such things as: study abroad in a foreign country; conduct graduate-level research; get any number of internships/funding for internships; form a club/lead an initiative; run for office; manage the largest student government budget in Indiana; come under the individual tutelage of a faculty member; go on immersion trips; etc…. Wabash offers to you the entirety of its resources, both tangible and intangible, to assist you in your educational journey and to help you have the best time of your life!

Yet this place is also a difficult one, presenting you with some very unique challenges that are not always so enjoyable. There are no girls; there are no easy courses; there is no detail-oriented, mile-long list of “do’s and don’ts.” Instead, with the Gentleman’s Rule as your guide, you are given the keys to your education and are entrusted with the responsibility of being a gentlemen and a responsible citizen. That is an awesome task – both in that it is an “awesome” (excellent) opportunity to make your own decisions, and that it is an “awesome” (weighty) responsibility that you now must bear.

As you are by now finding out, it is both a privilege and a challenge to be a student at Wabash. But, these opportunities and challenges are meant to shape you so that you might reach your full potential as a man, so that you might know what you believe and why you believe it, and so that you might learn how to conduct yourself and to lead others with integrity and honor – in short, so that you can become a Wabash Man. Are you ready to begin?!

You have just been rung in and are preparing for a semester of studying, of going to football games, of pledging/getting used to life on your own, and of acclimating to college life all around. It is an exciting time! But, it is also a crucial time. The decisions you make now will impact you for the rest of your years here and, more broadly, for the rest of your life. A poor decision now with regard to academics, alcohol or other substances, sleep, or study habits (among other things), will have unintended consequences that will haunt you far longer than any intended benefits you might have received from them, and will, if you are not careful, develop into a bad habit that will cause you even more sorrow. Whether these will only restrict your options for the future or will cost you the opportunity to “ring out” of this hallowed place, the decisions you make and the habits that you develop now will determine your coming years. To put it bluntly, freshman year is a make or break year.

With this in mind, I hope that you will take to heart five words of wisdom gleaned by three years here at Dear Old Wabash – wisdom gained by trial and by error on my part, and by observation of fellow classmates gone before. I give you these not as pompous admonitions of a Senior, but as your brother in Wabash concerned that you take advantage of the opportunities you are provided here, and avoid the pitfalls that are the challenges of this place – that you might become a Wabash Man.

Be Humble: First things first, no one can learn if he is not willing to do so. You have heard the saying, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.” So too you can come to Wabash and be led by professors in your studies, by administrators and coaches in your activities, and by upperclassmen in campus life, to all of the good things that this college has to offer; but, if you do not learn from what they say, you will not benefit from it. Scripture says that “Humility comes before honor” – i.e. that admitting ignorance, struggles (whether academic or personal), or failure is the first step to respect and integrity, and that approaching situations or disagreements with a humble attitude is the first step in the right direction. On the other hand, it also says that “Pride comes before destruction” – it is the first step down the road of unrest, disrespect, and if not failure, than a diminution of the good you can accomplish and the capacity you have to learn. So, bearing this in mind, be humble, be teachable, and be able to learn from your mistakes.

Be Thoughtful: If you could ask every student (and professor, no doubt) what one word of advice they could give you, it would most likely be this: THINK! Wabash is designed to help you think – to examine the world around you and question why it is the way it is, what makes it tick, and why you are who you are. By all means, do think critically, question why you believe what you believe, or why something is said to be true or untrue. But, that is not the only use for thinking. A Scripture that my mother always advised me with is this: “Be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to become angry” – in other words, think before you speak, write, or do anything! Think before you post that picture on Facebook, before you say that insult, before you take that drink, before you react to that email. As professors will be sure to mention: think about what you are going to write before the day it is due! Plan ahead for test, papers, and assignments. As you learn how to think more critically, apply that to your study habits, to your academics, to your campus life.

Be Connected: It will not take you long to notice the caliber of men you are in the company of at Wabash. The students of Wabash College are what, in many ways, make it the respected institution that it is – these are men with the potential to do great things, to be great leaders, and to be great mentors and friends. Likewise, the men and women of the Faculty and Administration are invaluable to the educational experience Wabash offers, and will willingly share the next four years of their lives with you to build you more into the man you are to be. Seek these resources out! Hang around these quality men and women of the faculty, administration and students. Learn from them, and pay attention to them. Let them guide you and help you in your studies, in your personal matters, and in everyday life. “In the abundance of counselors,” the scripture says, “there is great reward.” Surround yourself with men and women of character, and they will be a great asset to you not just in your years here at Wabash but in the many to come. Be willing to do that yourself when it is your turn!

Be Involved: Given the size of this school, you would not expect there to be as much activity as there is. There are so many clubs, organizations, homecoming events and more to participate in that it is hard to keep track of all of them, much less decide which to be a part of or to not! But, by all means, do be a part! One of the greatest ways to learn how to be responsible is by taking on the responsibility of leadership and commitment. Academics must come first, but you will miss out greatly if you do not take advantage of the myriad opportunities this place provides to you to lead and be involved, whether in student government, in sports, in the Sphinx Club, or in recreational clubs. Likewise, be involved in class and travel opportunities. The liberal arts and the immersion trips offered by this school can add tools to your educational toolbox that can inform your worldview immensely. Take advantage of these opportunities to experience the world and the subjects that you never thought would interest you, and do not miss out on the chance to broaden the scope of your knowledge.

Be Zealous: Finally, take the advice of one of the most humble and caring men at this College – former Dean of Students and current Director of Athletics, Thomas Bambrey: “Care about what you do”. Put your whole heart into everything you do here, be it your studies, your fraternity, your club, Chapel Sing, or day-to-day life – care about what you do.

Godspeed, Class of 2014!

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Wabash Conservative Union: When you were Dean of Students, what was your approach to the office?

Public Affairs Photo

Thomas Bambrey: I always thought when I was in the Dean’s Office that my primary job was to be an educator. Then the question of course comes to mind, “How do you best achieve that?” I would say that tone has a lot to do with it, that demeanor has a lot to do with it, that trying to understand from a perspective that is removed by some years from the student perspective has a lot to do with it. My chief role, as I perceived it, was to protect the welfare of the College. “How do you protect the welfare and reputation of the College?”—I thought about that a lot. So my tone probably varied as a Dean, but I tried never to treat students as though they were not important and as though I did not care about what they thought.
My task always was, “What does the Gentleman’s Rule mean? How do we enforce it?”—and I was in a position where, for the most part, I was the judge of that. The hard part about being the Dean here is that the Dean has an ultimate authority, and that is not to be trifled with. Students know that, and the Dean knows it too. So how do you navigate your way through that in terms of the Gentleman’s Rule with all of its ambiguities? Really, that was the toughest part about being the Dean: the hard decisions, or the decisions where there was more gray than there was black and white. I was always aware that the Dean here has the power to decide, and sometimes those decisions would have the potential to change a student’s life—sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. With power comes responsibility. It is not whether everybody agreed with my decision; more important to me was that, if I made a decision, I took responsibility for it, thought it was the right thing to do, and stuck by it. I did not want to abuse that power.

WCU: What is your perspective on the Gentleman’s Rule, especially given the events of the past couple of years?
TB: The Gentleman’s Rule is unique to Wabash. It is something that works here far more than it fails; it is way more complicated than the language of the sentence would lead most people to think it is. I have been Dean on two other campuses and they had books of rules. The Gentleman’s Rule and their many rules probably work about equally well—that is to say, a lot of students here, at one extreme, take the rule very seriously, and at the other extreme, take any set of rules as a nuisance. And then, there is the vast majority of students in the middle who know about it, and they take it seriously; they may differ from the Dean, from a faculty member, from the President, or from other students in how they interpret it. In a way, the ambiguity of the interpretation is part of the beauty of the Gentleman’s Rule because you have to think about it! My idea was that as long as students were thinking about it, taking it seriously, then it continued to be a good thing, because that is the way life is: you think about the things that are important. I think the rule sets a tone. The rule, after all, says the student is “expected to”—there is an expectation that the student will conduct himself as a gentleman. It does not say, “Don’t do this, and don’t do that” in any specific way; it says “you are expected to conduct yourself as a gentleman.” I always think that it is a little bit like the Golden Rule: treat others as you expect to be treated.
With regard to the last couple of years: I was a Dean of Students for a total of about eighteen years, and I dealt with tragedy during those years. Over the last couple of years, Wabash has unfortunately had to deal with some of those tragedies. In my mind, that does not change the essence of the rule at all. People say, “Well, the Gentleman’s Rule does not work because a tragedy happened.” I disagree with that.

WCU: In your recent email and chapel talk, you talked about change happening naturally; and yet, while there are new needs, there is also a value in keeping the traditions that we have. What is your perspective on balancing today’s needs with our traditions?
TB: That is a really hard question for me to answer. People know that certain things should change or have to change. Knowing which things should change is important. Sometimes we make mistakes about that. I don’t know if C&T had run its course or not; I don’t think we will ever know. Some students, maybe lots of students, think it had not—they liked the course even when they didn’t like the course! My own experience in C&T was that I liked teaching it, I found it valuable for me because it took me back to some texts that I either had never read, or that I had not read in a long time, and I had the good fortune of having a fun group of guys! But curriculums change to meet changing times.
We are always going to have debate. Curriculum changes are always bloody. I have been around them for forty years, and they are always bloody, because you have the traditionalists and the modernists, right? I don’t know what this next course is going to be; nobody does, I suppose. I have a very high degree of trust in the faculty that something good will emerge from this. How will it compare to C&T? Will it be as good as C&T? Oh gosh, I don’t know! The next generation of students will think about it just the way I thought about CC (pre-C&T), and the way generations of students have thought about C&T. They will think that it is a precious, integral, central part of the liberal arts experience. The essential thing to me is that it is still a liberal arts curriculum, and this new course will give another chance, as C&T did and as the tutorial does, for students to sit in small groups around a table or in a classroom with a faculty member and discuss important thoughts and important texts. And to me, it does not even really matter what the texts are. Having a discussion group, early in this experience, tells students, “This is a good way to be educated.”

WCU: As we move forward, what is one thing that you feel Wabash would be remiss not to keep?
TB: I value the fact that we are a college for men, because we offer to a small number of students a chance to do education in the way we want to provide it and in the way some students want to achieve it, so being a college for men is part of our essence. If we are to someday go co-ed, it will be for reasons, I think, that are either philosophical or financial: philosophical because maybe we will decide that we no longer serve a function, and until and unless we decide that, we have a niche, we have a place; and financial because maybe we will not be able to educate students who are willing to come here because we do not have the financial means to do that. Then I think we would have to change. Now, there is no indication to me that either one of those right now is pertinent, although people would argue the philosophical side, as they have for a long time. But my issue on the philosophical side is that until we think we cannot educate men to go out into the world and do good things, in the way we do it—and that includes being all men, being liberal arts, being about eight or nine hundred students—why change? We offer a viable educational alternative in American higher education, and that is important. Other questions are subsumed in, you know, “How about a woman’s perspective,” and “How about…” all of these other things. Those are legitimate, and we have to think about those things, but I do not think they are reason enough to change.

WCU: What is one thing that you feel the College should change? What is an area of need that you see right now, that may be unique to this specific time or that may be a long-term problem that we have had here?
TB: In my view, and this is entirely personal to me, we need to help our students understand that times change. As much as we want to preserve the traditions that are valuable in student life—and those include traditions in the classroom as well as in social life and in fraternities, and in independent life—I think that if I had a chance to change something I would say to students, “You have to recognize that and help us consider our future while preserving the best of our past.” That would include everything from the curriculum, to our fraternities, to the way we interact with one another. It has to do with issues of race, class and gender. Because, as good as we are, and as valuable as I think we are as a college for men, we have some deficiencies and probably always will in some of those areas. But how do we understand them? We are always trying to get better at what we do. Standing still is lethal—it is like the dinosaurs in the La Brea tar-pits!
I have always been encouraged, though, by looking at what our students go out into the world to do. The vast majority of them go out and find something and make a difference. So what we are doing works. And maybe, if we did it differently, it would still work, but I do not think I am willing to take the chance!

WCU: What word of advice would you give to Wabash men today?
TB: Care about what you do. Care about one another, care about learning, care about making friends, care about understanding, but care about what you do.

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This brings us to today, when we are faced with an economic crisis and subsequent financial difficulty that, save for the Great Depression, is without precedent in our history, and which has the distinct possibility of re-shaping the very foundations of this institution. Our endowment has diminished by nine-figures, and cuts have been made to our faculty, programs, and other facets of the College. In truth, these catastrophic happenings could change this institution as it has never changed before. However, no matter the difficulty, Wabash has always fought its way through, dedicating itself to the core element that has always made this College truly great: the betterment of the individual through the liberal arts. While this institution must respond to the challenges we currently face, in so doing we must remain true to this principle lest we fade into the sunset of mediocrity and lose the very essence of what makes Wabash College the renowned institution that it is.

As part of a recent class assignment, I was given a transcript of an address by one of Wabash’s great former-Presidents, Louis Hopkins – a speech that I found so relevant to today that I was rather taken aback. The address was given in the late 1920s/early 1930s, as part of a comparison of the curricula of five great universities across the nation. Among these institutions were such names as Columbia, Harvard, Swarthmore, the University of Chicago, and (last, but not least) Wabash College. While comparison to such schools as these seems, at first, to be a bit far-fetched, what President Hopkins went on to portray in his address illustrates quite plainly why such a comparison was merited, and why a Wabash education was one truly comparable to the elite universities in the country.

As he went on to discuss, in the late 1920s/early 1930s, though small, Wabash was not ineffective or poorly situated. At that time, the College had an “enrollment of 400 students,” a “faculty of 32 members,” and an endowment of “$2,200,000”. Translating these figures, this means that there was a student-teacher ratio of 12.5:1, and that the endowment, in today’s value (thanks to dollartimes.com), was upwards of $26,000,000. While numbers such as these might not have been impressive or uncommon, there was something else that made this tiny little school in the midst of the Hoosier Heartland so different from the other institutions across the nation, meriting its comparison with the Ivy Leagues and other highly-ranked schools. As President Hopkins put it best, what made this place special was Wabash’s focus on “…offer[ing] the opportunity for the highest possible development of the individual…” – most specifically, through the study of the liberal arts.

As President Hopkins stated, Wabash’s “curriculum…is designed with the purpose in mind of rendering the greatest possible service to each student.” The liberal arts, President Hopkins continued, was the best possible means of reaching this goal, since “[a] liberal arts education, is not so concerned with the discovery of knowledge as with the gaining of understanding,” and thus, the comprehensive betterment of the individual. As he reckoned, while “it may be that knowledge can be pumped out or pounded in by the clock, and measured in quarts or pounds…understanding comes as a process of growth in appreciation and experience, and is dependent both on the individual’s capacity and on his environment.”

Thus, the curriculum of Wabash during the 1920s and 30s sought to provide an environment that would not drill information into the heads of students, but would instead deepen their understanding of the world about them. Beginning with the Freshman Tutorial, students would be introduced to the liberal arts – to study a subject about which they might not otherwise learn, and to broaden their outlook upon life itself. Teaching each respective tutorial would be a faculty advisor, who would meet with and guide each student through his academic career. Following the Tutorial, there were then to be “certain definite requirements…that all must meet,” in order to provide a wide frame of knowledge for each student. Yet, these requirements were designed to allow for a certain amount of flexibility, since “…there [are] marked individual differences in the students who are admitted,” necessitating “…that the requirements [be] made as flexible as they are for individual cases.” Further, during the Sophomore and Junior years, each student would be required to meet individually with the Dean of Students and the President of the College, to discuss his desired area of concentration and his educational experience at Wabash.

In this manner, the Wabash College of the 1920s and 30s sought to provide a comprehensive education, focused on the development of each individual student, and the increasing of each one’s understanding through the liberal arts. While this curriculum sounds strikingly similar to that of today, we would be amiss to note one crucial fact: this was the College’s goal, and its method of reaching that goal, both before and during the Great Depression. During the greatest period of financial difficulty this country has ever seen, Wabash College remained committed to focusing on the development of each individual student, keeping the student-teacher ratio low, and emphasizing the connection between each student and both the faculty and the administration of the College. In spite of the financial difficulties the College faced, and in spite of the changes that were necessitated during this period, one could count on a Wabash education to prepare him to succeed.

Enter the modern era. Today, our curriculum remains much the same – and so does our focus on the betterment of the individual. Members of the faculty every year welcome a new class of freshmen to the College, with each taking a small group of freshman into their tutelage in their respective Freshman Tutorials, ranging from (to name a few) Dr. Hadley’s “Fly-fishing: the Liberal Art”, to Dr. Webb’s “Christianity and Popular Culture”, to Dr. Butler’s “Baseball, America, and the World” – none of which fit into their specific disciplines precisely, but which are instead geared toward exploring a topic of interest to both them and their students, using it as an opportunity to engage the topic through the lens of the liberal arts. Also, the Sophomore Interviews remain, connecting each student with the Dean of Students by providing for a one-on-one discussion of the student’s educational needs and desires. Further, the student-faculty ratio has narrowed impressively, to the benefit of the students, hovering around 10:1.

New features tailored to achieving this same goal have also been added since the days of President Hopkins, with the Sophomore favorite “Cultures and Traditions” course providing a chance for students to view ancient texts and cultures through the lens of different disciplines, in order to broaden each one’s understanding of various cultures. Study-abroad opportunities – whether on a short-term basis such as immersion-based courses, or on a long-term basis such as the Semester Abroad programs – have also been developed, that the student might have an opportunity to learn first-hand of cultures, traditions, and places that he might not otherwise have been able to know of, even further broadening his understanding of the world. Finally, at the end of one’s Wabash tenure, the Senior Comprehensive examinations – though a requirement for graduating in President Hopkins’ day – have been given an increased importance today, for it is in these that each student must not only explain his knowledge of his chosen major and minor, but also demonstrate the breadth of his understanding to the faculty through the interview portion of the examinations. Thus, Wabash remains focused on providing an education centered on the growth of the individual student and his understanding.

In spite of this noble commitment, however, with the recent financial crisis Wabash College has undergone and will necessarily be undergoing quite a few significant changes. With multiple professors and staff members either being let-go or forced into retirement, the curriculum will be changing. Certain courses might no longer be offered, the number of courses might decrease, and even the student-teacher ratio might increase past the 10:1 ratio of which the school is so proud. Similarly, study-abroad opportunities will change, as funding for immersion trips and semester-abroad programs will decrease in reflection of the school’s overall decreasing financial means. In truth, the way in which this College responds to this crisis will determine its make-up and character for years to come.

Yet, change need not be considered a bad thing, but an opportunity for improving on what we already do well. Regardless of the necessary re-shaping that this College will soon undergo, if we retain our focus on bettering the individual and increasing each student’s understanding, Wabash College will endure as it has endured times of testing far worse than this. I have the fullest confidence that our current administration and faculty have this idea at the forefront of their minds; yet, we would all be wise to step back and consider once more what truly is the essence of Wabash. In the words of President Hopkins, may the goal, purpose, and practice of this institution be forevermore that, “Wabash College will continue, therefore, to offer a liberal arts education designed to lead to an understanding of contemporary life, and…encourage each student enrolled in our courses to strive to the limit of his capacity to perfect himself according to the abilities that God has given him.”

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The honors won by each loyal son,
In highest rank shall instate her.
Forever more as in days of yore
Their deeds be noble and grand.
~ “Old Wabash”

As we reverently remember in the strains of our dear fight song, this tiny and secluded liberal arts college has produced quite a number of honorable men that have gone on to greatly impact the world. Even a quick glance through the yearbooks of this school will yield an impressive number of such noble men who both have and will continue to demonstrate the great ideals that Wabash holds so dearly: the values of thinking critically, acting responsibly, leading effectively, and living humanely.

Of the many men who have carried the scarlet W both in their hearts and on their diplomas, there is one recent graduate in particular that deserves select mentioning for his “noble and grand” deeds. That man would be the Honorable Matthew G. Hanson of the Class of 1991 who, though presiding over the Morgan Circuit Court in Martinsville, Indiana, recently returned from nearly eighteen months leave of absence serving as a Captain in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in Baghdad, Iraq.

A quick visit to his office reveals quite plainly that Judge Hanson is a Wally through and through. Pictures of Monon Bell games and other Wabash mementos decorate his office in the Morgan County Courthouse. And yet, perhaps what is most telling about Hanson – who, when not serving in his official capacity, tells everyone to just call him “Matt” – are the things that do not bear the bright red W, things like Hanson’s humble and caring spirit, and his tales from service abroad.

A native of the Buckeye State, Hanson came to Wabash as a member of the Class of ’91, and quickly became involved on campus, joining the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity, majoring in History with a minor in both English and Religion, and eventually joining the Sphinx Club. Upon graduating, Hanson says that a career in law “seemed like the next step”, and thus, he went on to attend the University of Toledo Law School, graduating in 1994. From there, Hanson returned to Indiana to open up his own private practice in Indianapolis, while also working as a lobbyist at the Statehouse. These were good experiences, he reminisces, yet were not quite what the self-described “politician by trade” had in mind. Consequently, Hanson decided to apply for a job in government himself: that of Deputy Prosecutor in Martinsville. After serving in that capacity for a few years, the local Circuit Court Judge position became available and, “on a dare” from another candidate for the position, Hanson decided to run for the office as well, and went on to win.

Since his election and official appointment in 2001, Judge Hanson has presided over cases of all types. Per Indiana law, the Circuit Court is responsible over trials ranging from small claims to adoption to murder. No matter the case at hand, however, Hanson shows a great deal of responsibility, making his decisions as efficiently as possible (generally, within two weeks of the trial), and reporting all of his outside contact regarding each case. When he is approached by someone wishing to discuss a certain case, Hanson dutifully declines and reports that contact in the court’s record – something that he does not have to do – so as to avoid any sort of corruption or bending of the law for special instances.

Outside of his official capacity, Hanson does not try to demand people’s respect; instead, he tries to earn it by his humility. To him it is the office, and not the man, that demands respect. The person holding an office should be held in high regard as one vested with authority, but that authority should never give an officeholder license to lord it over others. “The man makes the position what it is,” Hanson says, “But,” noting that at the end of the day the position lives on, he adds, “You have to leave it as how you got it.” And that’s exactly what Hanson is doing, both as a Judge and also as the self-appointed (though unofficial) historian of the Morgan Circuit Court. In his spare time, Hanson has researched and produced biographical displays of each judge that has held the office that he now occupies, which are now exhibited prominently in his courtroom – proving that you can put a degree in History to good use!

Though Hanson is quite content serving his country in such a position, he also serves in another capacity: Captain in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the Indiana National Guard. Members of the JAG Corps serve as the legal arm of the US armed forces, litigating cases and advising the military in matters of the law, and, just like their other G.I. counterparts, are deployed around the globe wherever they are needed. So why would Hanson leave a nice, safe job in Martinsville for the battlefield? As he explains it, his decision was ultimately based on the 9/11 attacks, which occurred just two days before the birth of his first child. Hanson never forgot the anger he felt from those unjust attacks, and after seeing local soldiers going to and from Afghanistan and Iraq, most of whom were still “kids” in his eyes, he decided, “I can do something. I can help.” Thus, Hanson joined the JAG Corps in 2004, and after months of training and preparation, deployed along with his comrades in the 193rd Brigade Liaison Detachment to Baghdad, Iraq, in the summer of 2007.

As captain in his unit of twelve fellow soldiers (JAG members, MP’s, and others), Hanson had expected to run some of the prisons and Theater Internment Facilities (TIF’s) in Iraq, but upon arriving in Baghdad found that he was to be used in other manners. Based out of Camp Victory, the differing specialists in his unit were put to work doing a number of things, while he was put to work as “a wheel in the cog of release,” as he describes it, helping determine which Iraqi prisoners should be freed and which should be retained. Primarily, Hanson says, his work was restricted to the Iraqi people and to the Mojahedin-e-Kalq peoples (MEK’s), who are basically refugees from Iran residing in Iraq. In his spare time, which he says he had a lot of, Hanson either tackled other issues for the Army, or sat down to write his book, Ghosts of Baghdad, a novel based on the aftermath of the 1991 Iraq war.

Though most of his duties had to do with military proceedings, Hanson had several eye-opening experiences in dealing with the Iraqi people. “It is a totally different culture over there,” Hanson explains, one in which fear was a normality, and hardships were abundant, thanks to Saddam’s regime. Evidence of such hardship could be found in just looking at the scenery. As Hanson described it, Baghdad is a beautiful city, with trees, palaces and picturesque lakes all over (thanks to Saddam’s lavish habits); yet, outside the city, living conditions and even the scenery are quite dismal. Moreover, Hanson noticed that in the Iraqi culture, thievery is seen not as a bad thing, but instead as a means necessary to survival. “If you gave some Iraqis five minutes in my office,” Hanson relates, “they would not only take everything off of the walls, but they would also take the trim pieces from around the doors and everything else they could get their hands on.” While we in the United States would consider such actions as petty thievery, Hanson says that the Iraqis view things much differently. “They don’t consider it a bad thing,” he states; “they are just used to doing whatever they have to do in order to get by.”

Though such a difference was at least somewhat understandable, Hanson said that there were others that were just “completely bizarre.” At one point, he witnessed a heated argument between some Iraqis at the gate to the US base, but when a certain Iraqi woman walked past them, they all fell silent as the grave, waiting until she was out of sight before resuming their dispute. Through a translator he and his colleagues learned that the woman had been carrying a handgun, which under Saddam’s regime, was a sign that she had special permission to shoot anyone she wanted without fear of reprisal! Needless to say, Captain Hanson found the people quite fascinating.

After having been deployed for roughly five months, Hanson’s tour of duty came to a sudden end when a disc that had been bothering him in his back finally ruptured, sending him to Germany and ultimately back to the US for treatment. Hardly able to walk, Hanson departed for Germany on December 22, 2007, a day which had seen what Hanson recalls as one of the worst suicide bomb attacks on US troops during his time there. The blast alone had killed around twenty soldiers, injuring many more who, along with Hanson, were being evacuated for treatment. He vividly recollects the scene as one that made him weep over the flight’s duration: to his side, a man who had just returned after seeing his second daughter born, spared from death only by his friend standing between him and the blast; in front of him, another man with “machines stacked four feet high around him on all sides.” Back in the States, and after experiencing some difficulties in his recovery process (mostly red tape), Hanson has now made nearly a full recovery, and has turned what was not the most pleasant of processes into a tool to help other injured soldiers get the appropriate treatment they need, using his misfortune as a way to help others. In October of this past year, Hanson again resumed his regular duties as Circuit Court Judge back home in Martinsville, and has staid hard at work ever since.

With his journey since Wabash carrying him far from the Midwest, even to the Middle East and back, Matt Hanson has displayed to people all over the world all the qualities of a true Wabash man. Whether doing his utmost to be a responsible and effective judge, serving his country miles from home, or simply helping explain the “system” to wounded troops, he has proven to be a man well worth honoring and emulating. May we all learn from his example!

“…Their deeds be noble and grand.”

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Responsibility, in its truest sense, is not limited to the dictionary definition of “being accountable or to blame for something”. No, it is much, much more than that. It is a moral duty, a practicable “obligation” to ourselves, our families, and our communities, to be people of character and good judgment. But this is a duty that we all tend to neglect in some fashion or another. “Boys will be boys,” as we say, and “that’s what college is for,” state the best of us following a major gaffe – and it truly would be foolish of us to not expect ourselves to fall prey to the natural human tendency towards, well… stupidity. But the tragedies of the past have made a point very clear, one that is both completely obvious and, at the same time, largely neglected: the actions of but a few have a far-reaching impact upon an untold many, either for good or for harm.

By no means do I intend to accuse or point a hypocritical finger in blame, but one cannot help but wonder what the state of this College would now be had other decisions been made in the months of October 2007 and October 2008. Two broken families, a divided College, a displaced fraternity, nationwide scorn, ridicule, and scrutiny: all of these because of poor, fateful decisions– ones we all have the opportunity to make, but must swear to never again allow. These demonstrate with shocking clarity that choices made in the privacy of our most secluded settings can result in the most public of outcomes.

While consequences such as these are thankfully uncommon, it is only by Providence that more of the decisions that you and I make do not end in such horrible finality. Yet regardless of the severity of our worst errors, each of our actions will always bring with it some sort of consequence. Even the things which we do not often consider to be of concern – things like self-centeredness, poorly chosen words, spiteful conduct, a lack of concern for others– the fulfilling or neglecting of our obligation toward responsibility will impact those around us. Family members, fraternity brothers, dorm residents, and classmates are most often the recipients of these sorts of behaviors, and can be greatly harmed by our errors in judgment. Furthermore, our actions may influence them to make irresponsible and destructive decisions of their own. Thus, when any one of us disregards our obligation, we are not only at risk of harm personally, but we will always drag others into the fray as well.

Men of Wabash, the choice, as well as the duty, belongs to each of us. We may fulfill our obligation, and in so doing reap the reward. We may disregard that obligation, and thus reap a different reward. But we would be fools to say that nothing will come of our actions. We have been through far too much to believe that.

When the sun rises this late August morn’ and we all return to our studies, let us not forget that responsibility is more than just an idea. Rather, let us remember that it is a character, an identity, and a solemn duty that we must henceforth live out.

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As the Preamble to the “Constitution of the Student Body of Wabash College” states, the student government is responsible for the regulation of any “…matters delegated by the College to student control,” which today have come to be a myriad of duties. Chief among these, however, are these: first, the dispersion of finances; second, the promotion of campus unity; and third, the representation of the Student Body en masse to the Administration of the College.

Probably the most publicly visible and most often criticized duty of the student government at Wabash is the dispersal of the vast sums of money allocated from the students each semester via the “Activities Fee”, which, over the course of the year generally adds up to around a half-million dollars. These funds are allocated to the more than fifty clubs recognized by the Student Senate through its Audit and Finance Committee, which must prepare the budget spreadsheets, handle all rela-tive affairs with the Business Office of the College, and operate under the policy guidelines set by the Senate as a whole.

While that duty may often prove to be a divisive one (to which this semester’s budget disputes speak), the student government is also charged with doing its utmost to bolster the unity of the student body. Given the oft uneasy state of relations between Greeks and Independents – which is thankfully becoming one of less prevalence these days – maintaining a cordial and interactive student body can prove to be a challenging affair. Nonetheless, this duty is one entrusted to the student government to deal with appropriately.

Though both of these duties are of importance, the most consequential role played by the student government at Wabash is ultimately the representation of and mediation between the “…members of the Student Body, and the faculty and administration of the College.” In the Student Senate, every Wally is represented by at least a half-dozen members – four Class Representatives, one or more Living-Unit Senators, and the Vice-President – and in the Senior Council, each one is also represented by at least two members – the President of the Student Body, and the President of either the Independent Men’s Association or the Inter-Fraternity Council, respectively. These, as well as the other members of each particular governing body, serve as the direct voice of the students to the authorities of the College, and are permitted to have a say in the selection of curricula and other affairs that concern every Wabash man.

So what is so important about these duties, and how do they provide those involved with a more well-rounded educational experience? Well, quite unlike Vegas, what happens in the Senate and the Senior Council does not stay there. The duties delegated to each member of the student government require the development and refinement of many of the practical skills that we men of Wabash will need upon graduation. Indeed, what better training grounds could there be for dealing with potentially divisive financial matters than the AFC of the Student Senate? – or for maintaining the unity of a company, state, or family, than by maintaining unity amongst the members of the Student Body? – or for mediating between parties in a legal dispute than by making sure the Student Body and the Administration of our dear Alma Mater are in harmony? These are most certainly not inane or useless abilities, but rather embody the essence of our mission statement, causing participants to “think critically”, “act responsibly”, “lead effectively”, and “live humanely”.

Therefore, while it remains true enough that the effectiveness of some of the methods of student governance at Wabash by right ought to be a subject of debate, there can be no denying the inherent value of letting the students of this great school learn by experience the skills necessary to life in this increasingly-complex world. Perhaps if every Wabash man took a chance to try his hand in student government, we could all learn more quickly and effectively what it means to be a more gentlemanly and responsible citizen.

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