First Impressions: A Conversation with Dean Will Oprisko
Dean Will Oprisko
Over the summer, as Dean Will Oprisko was settling in to his new job as the Associate Dean of Students, he graciously accepted the invitation to be interviewed by The Phoenix.
Q: Could you please tell me about your personal background.
A: I grew up in Terre Haute, IN. I went to Taylor University in Fort Wayne. I went there for my undergraduate degree. I entered as a pastoral ministries major. I then decided to look into a crosscultural studies major, so for a while I was a double major, but then I dropped it, just because I was no longer planning on being a missionary…. It was during my fifth year that I decided to pursue student affairs administration…. I got into the position, and I loved working with the men on my floor. I loved being apart of the community and helping to acclimate new students, help build community with the new freshmen, sophomores, and even the juniors and seniors on the floor and trying turn ourselves into a family. They did an amazing job, and taught me just as much if not more about myself as I hopefully taught them about anything. During those interactions I realized that my pastoral and psychology studies and who I am as a person fit well with working with those students. I talked with my hall director at the time and he said that you could do this as a career, that there are degrees in this area…. I decided to go to graduate school in 2003. I graduated in 2005, and then decided to go to John Carroll, which is a Jesuit Catholic institution on the east side of Cleveland. I started dating my now wife in 2003 and we got married in 2006, had our first child (a daughter) in 2007, and a son in 2008. I started looking at options, and one of those that popped out was this great one at Wabash. I applied and felt that it would be a good fit, and it’d be nice to return to Indiana – I still have family in Indiana (Lafayette, West Lafayette, Indianapolis, and Terre Haute). I had a friend to attended here back in 1997/1998, and he spoke kindly of the College.
Q: So what particularly attracted you to Wabash as opposed to other schools?
A: It’s in Indiana. I love Indiana. My wife could tell you how much I love Indiana, because I usually say that at the expense of Ohio. Being close to my family is very important to me. The main thing for me at Wabash is that I went to a small school. We had 250-300 people on campus. Going to college at a very small institution, [we were like] a very close family…. The close knit community allowed for the opportunity to get to know people. I think that, because it was small, there was an attitude that not only do I want to get to know the students and the professors but also the staff, the administrators, the President and Vice-President. All of those people were part of the community. And from my knowledge of Wabash at the time it’s a smaller institution – that’s what the feeling is. The students do want to have interaction, they do want to have relationship that’s not so formal…there’s that personal connection. It’s intriguing to me that we still have an all-male school, and this is a reputable all-men’s institution, liberal arts, highly emphasizing and focused upon academics. And I feel that those are really great things, and I would like to be a part of it and see how this works. How can I get into the sphere in which I am interacting meaningfully with students? I didn’t get into the profession to focus on emails, to focus on paperwork and policy, but to focus on people. I thought that Wabash would be a great opportunity to do that, which, I’ve found out so far, it is.
Q: So do you think about the all-male atmosphere here? Is it really a big factor or difference?
A: It’ll be easier to tell when I get into the school year. I can tell you that it’s certainly going to be different from John Carroll. A lot of the students at John Carroll are very individualistic, almost isolated at times. Because they’re isolated, there’s a lack of community – at least it’s not the same quality of community that I’ve seen so far here. My understanding here is that in independent housing or fraternity housing doors are left open and people are pretty accessible and so there’s a lot of coming and going and conversation at this place. I get the sense that the men here at Wabash want to become men. They are men, and they want to own it, explore it, understand it, and live it. I think that that’s a unique quality of an all-men campus. I think that there are some conversations that could be difficult at a coed institution, mainly because sometimes when you have people around you – and this isn’t to put women down – but there are conversations that men can have together that they can’t necessarily have in mixed company, and vice versa. And those conversations can take place, they flourish, and they can be developed upon.
Q: Have you already gotten a sense of the role that tradition plays at the College?
A: Yes, I already have. I really appreciate it because the tradition here at Wabash seems to be part of the heart and soul of the College and also of the people who attend the College. Here at Wabash, you almost can’t ignore it – you’d have to really try. I think that it’s a good thing.
Q: So what do you think that the Gentleman’s Rule means?
A: I think that the Gentleman’s Rule in its essence really is reminding people to make mature, good decisions. I think that another part of it is that it recognizes that even if we would create a list of rules with everything you weren’t supposed to do, it wouldn’t prevent people from breaking them or finding loopholes, as we can see in the world around us. I think that it’s trying to cover why we have rules, why we have regulations, and try to create a community where we’re able to live it out, to explore, you know, what does it mean to be a responsible citizen, what does it mean to be a gentleman at all times, because the reality is that we all come from different experiences, even across the nation, different regions have different traditions – small “t” or capital “T” – exemplified, and then we have different nationalities represented with our international students. So we have different interactions in history and education. I think that the hope of the Gentleman’s Rule is that there is an underlying core and principle that trickles out and touches on all of those things. It expects for men to come to the Wabash campus – not boys, but men – and to find and develop themselves; not just as men of 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, but to ask what is this going to be for me, as a man, graduating from Wabash College, interacting with…society, or within whatever vocation I choose? What does that look like? Those, I think are good questions. My concern, I think, would be if the Gentleman’s Rule was defined any more than what it is, it might stifle those conversations.
Q: How does the Gentleman’s Rule apply to underage drinking?
A: I think that, at its heart, if a person wants to find out if he’s abiding by the Gentleman’s Rule, they would follow the laws of the state and the laws of the country. Now, is that the only way to find out if you’re being a gentleman? No. I think that underage drinking is a tricky situation, especially if you look at the history behind it. I’d say that if a freshman decides to drink under the age of 21, they probably need to understand why. I don’t think that it should be for the social pressure. I don’t think that it should be an act of rebellion. I don’t think that it should be for the sake of living out what mass media says what the college experience is. I think that it needs to be for reasons that represent who they are as a person, and then, at the same time, if those reasons aren’t good enough to deal with the consequences and accountability as they come forth then they probably shouldn’t drink, because even if it’s decided that somehow that the Gentleman’s Rule was upheld in some sense, that doesn’t mean that the government is going to see it that way. The accountability on campus might be different than the accountability in the city, and so everyone needs to make a good decision hopefully based upon their own freedom. I would hate for someone under the age of 21 to decide to drink or whatever because that’s what everyone around them is doing, because they feel like to get the most out of the college experience that’s what they need to do. It’d be a more mature decision to do it because there’s something that resonates more with who they are as a person than doing it to get drunk or just to do it to do it.
Q: What rights do students have here at the College?
A: I think that students have a right to be treated fairly. They have the right to be treated with respect and dignity. They have the right, as men, to be held accountable when they don’t act as men and be held responsible for their decisions. Rights, in the one sense, equal freedom, but on the other hand they equal obligation and accountability.
Q: What should be expected of students as members of the Wabash community?
A: My hope is that they will become active members of the community. I hope that they can find something wonderful about the heart and soul of Wabash that resonates with them – even if it’s not everything – just something that they can grab hold of and say that this is why [they’re] a Wabash man. My hope is that they really think about their first year and that they use it as a tool to really set the tone for their entire experience. I think that students have the tendency with new freedom and experience to not make best decisions, whether that’s socially or academically. From personal experience, my first year at college I got a 2.7 GPA, and that was lower than my high school GPA, and that took a lot of work to haul that back up to a 3.4. My hope is that the students, when they arrive, understand why they’re here. It is for academics, it is for social life, but both of those things need to be in balance, in moderation. They’re not doing themselves any credit when their grades suffer at the expense of hanging out or participating in social gatherings, because not only are they losing money, which in this economy is such a huge commodity, and putting a huge burden upon themselves or their families, but it’s also a waste of time. It doesn’t make sense to me to fail at learning your first semester when this is a unique opportunity that most people in the world don’t have, especially because it seems to be decreasing for people in the United States because of the economic crisis, especially because of the level of education that you can get here at Wabash. My hope too is that they have fun, that they challenge each other, challenge the community, think about things in new ways, [and] bring freshness of life and tradition to the campus.
Q: Do you have any practical advice for the incoming class?
A: Try to make your first semester count academically and socially, but don’t forget your academics because 1) it sets the tone for how you will succeed or not succeed for the remainder of your time, and 2) how you do your first semester determines how hard you have to work your subsequent semesters to make up for it. On top of that, choosing a major is a difficult thing. I realize that the major itself is not the most important thing, but the learning that takes place within the major. I think that’s why Wabash has a liberal arts core curriculum, so that you can get a sense of the vast wealth of knowledge in multiple disciplines and learning how to apply that in certain circumstances. I would hate for a student to feel like if they pick the wrong major they will be somehow limited for the rest of their life and their career and vocation is forever tainted and one-directional, and I know that’s not true from personal experience. At the same time, I hope that they will be able to socialize and have fun and engage in meaningful, thoughtful conversation, to learn how to debate but also how to listen, to learn how to stand on their own two feet but also how to pick themselves up and other people as well. And I feel that even though we may disagree there’s no reason to be hateful or spiteful or disrespectful. I think that some of the best discussions are based upon mutual respect, and the ability to come to a table or room and talk heatedly about something and then walk away realizing that it’s OK [to disagree].
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