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Wabash College

Coordinates:40°2′17″N86°54′18″W/ 40.03806°N 86.90500°W/40.03806; -86.90500
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Wabash College
Latin:Collegii Wabashensis
Former names
The Wabash Teachers Seminary and Manual Labor College (1832–1851)
MottoScientiae et Virtuti(Latin)
Motto in English
For Knowledge and Virtue
TypePrivateliberal artsmen's college
EstablishedNovember 21, 1832;
191 years ago(1832-11-21)
Academic affiliations
Endowment$391.5 million (2024)[2]
PresidentScott E. Feller
Academic staff
96 full-time and 7 part-time[3]
Undergraduates835[4]
Location
Crawfordsville, Indiana
,
U.S.

40°2′17″N86°54′18″W/ 40.03806°N 86.90500°W/40.03806; -86.90500
CampusSuburban, 65 acres (26 ha)[5]
NewspaperThe Bachelor[6]
ColorsWabash Scarlet
NicknameLittle Giants
Sporting affiliations
NCAADivision III–NCAC
MascotWally Wabash
Websitewabash.edu

Wabash Collegeis aprivateliberal artsmen's collegeinCrawfordsville, Indiana.Founded in 1832 by severalDartmouth Collegegraduates and Midwestern leaders, it enrolls nearly 900 students. The college offers an undergraduate liberal arts curriculum in three academic divisions with 39 majors.[7]As of 2020, it is one of only three non-religious, all-male, four-year colleges in the United States.[8]

History

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The college was initially namedThe Wabash Teachers Seminary and Manual Labor College,a name shortened to its current form by 1851. Many of the founders werePresbyterianministers, yet nevertheless they believed that Wabash should beindependentandnon-sectarian.Patterning it after the liberal arts colleges ofNew England,they resolved "that the institution be at first aclassicaland English high school, rising into a college as soon as the wants of the country demand. "

Caleb Mills, founder and first faculty member of the college

Among these ministers wasCaleb Mills,who became Wabash College's first faculty member. He would come to be known as the father of the Indiana public education system.

Elihu W. Baldwin,the first president of the college, served from 1835 until 1840. He came from a church in New York City and accepted the presidency even though he knew that Wabash was at that time threatened with bankruptcy. After his death, he was succeeded by Charles White, a graduate ofDartmouth Collegeand the brother-in-law of Rev.Edmund Otis Hovey(1801–1877), a professor at the college.[9]Joseph F. Tuttle, who became president of Wabash College in 1862 and served for 30 years, worked with his administrators to improvetown-gownrelations in Crawfordsville.[10]Gronert described him "an eloquent preacher, a sound administrator, and an astute handler of public relations." He was the namesake of the former Tuttle Grade School in Crawfordsville (1906), the former Tuttle Junior High School, and the former Tuttle Middle School (1960). Scott E. Feller, Dean of the college from 2014 to 2020 and chemistry professor at Wabash since 1998, became the 17th President of Wabash College on July 1, 2020.

Presidents of Wabash College
Name Date of Inauguration
Elihu Baldwin July 13, 1836
Charles White July 19, 1841
Joseph F. Tuttle July 24, 1862
George S. Burroughs June 21, 1893
William P. Kane February 22, 1900
George L. Mackintosh June 12, 1907
Louis B. Hopkins December 3, 1926
Frank H. Sparks October 25, 1941
Byron K. Trippet October 13, 1956
Paul W. Cook December 3, 1966
Thaddeus Seymour October 10, 1969
Lewis S. Salter October 10, 1978
F. Sheldon Wettack December 3, 1989
Andrew T. Ford January 29, 1994
Patrick E. White January 27, 2007
Gregory D. Hess October 11, 2013
Scott E. Feller October 8, 2021

In the early 1900s, the college closed its "Preparatory School", which prepared incoming students from less-rigorous rural high schools that lacked the courses required for entrance to the college.[11]

DuringWorld War II,Wabash College was one of 131 colleges and universities[12]that offered students a path to a Navy commission as part of theV-12 Navy College Training Program.[13]

In 1996, under the direction of James Fisher, Wabash became the first college in America to stageTony Kushner'sAngels in America.[14]

Academics

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Rankings US Liberal Arts Colleges

Forbes = 47 (2024)[15]

US News & World Report = 55 (2025)[16]

The Wall Street Journal does not include Wabash College as it only ranks colleges with at least 1,000 students.


Curriculum

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Wabash College's curriculum is divided into three: Division I, Division II, and Division III representing the natural sciences, humanities and arts, and social sciences respectively. Wabash offers 27 academic programs as majors and 31 accompanying minors.[17]Its most popular majors, by 2021 graduates, were:[18]

Rhetoric (21)
Economics (20)
History (18)
Religion/Religious Studies (15)
Experimental Psychology (14)
English Language and Literature (11)
Biology/Biological Sciences (10)

Comprehensive exams

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Seniors at Wabash College take a three-day comprehensive exam in their major subject area. There are two days of written exams and one day of oral exams. The two days of written exams differ by major, but the oral exams are relatively uniform. A senior meets with three professors, one from his major, another from his minor, and a third professor who represents an outside perspective, and can be from any discipline. Over the course of an hour a senior answers questions from the professors which can relate to anything during his studies at Wabash. A senior must pass the comprehensive examinations in order to be eligible for a degree.

Student life

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Student culture and traditions

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On "Ringing In Saturday", incoming students are addressed by the dean of students, the dean of admissions, the president of the alumni association, and the college president and are "rung in" by the president, using the same bell that Caleb Mills used to call students to class. On Homecoming weekend, students are given the opportunity to show how well they know the college fight song (Old Wabash) during "Chapel Sing".

Student government

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Thestudent government,referred to collectively as the Student Body of Wabash College, comprisesexecutive,legislative,andjudicialbranches.[19][20]

Student organizations

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Student organizations at Wabash receive funding and recognition from the Student Senate. This funding in turn comes from a student activities fee, which every attendee of the college must pay each semester. The student paper of Wabash College isThe Bachelorand has been published since the early 1900s.[21]

Gentleman's rule

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Rather than an explicit student code of conduct, Wabash has a single rule:

The student is expected to conduct himself at all times, both on and off campus, as a gentleman and a responsible citizen.[22]

The college says that this rule is its oldest tradition.

Fraternities

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The first fraternity,Beta Theta Pi,appeared at Wabash in 1846 and has been on campus continuously since. It was quickly followed byPhi Delta Theta,Phi Gamma Delta,Delta Tau Delta,Kappa Sigma,Sigma Chi,Tau Kappa Epsilon,Lambda Chi Alpha,Phi Kappa Psi,andTheta Delta Chi,all of which remain on campus today. Many of the traditions of the college were begun and are maintained by the fraternities, both individually and collectively. On average, 50–60% of students belong to one of the campus's ten nationalfraternities.[23]

Endowment

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As of August 1, 2021, the value of Wabash's endowment was approximately $400 million, which places Wabash among the richest colleges in the nation in per-student endowment. The endowment was created primarily over the past 70 years using major campaigns and estate planning with alumni. Major donors include thepharmaceuticalindustrialistEli Lilly,the company his grandfather founded, his heirs, and theLilly Endowment.The school's library is named after him as are a number of premier scholarships including the Lilly Award, the college's most prestigious scholarship established in 1974 to honor the Eli Lilly family and recognize young men of outstanding character, creativity, and academic accomplishment. During the most recent capital campaign, "Challenge of Excellence", between fall 2010 and 1 October 2012, the college raised $68 million, exceeding the original goal of $60 million.[24]

Athletics

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Main article:Wabash Little Giants

The school's sports teams are called the Little Giants. They participate in theNCAA's Division III and in theNorth Coast Athletic Conferencefor all but one of their 12 varsity sports. The only exception is volleyball, the school's newest varsity sport, which was added in advance of the 2021 season (2020–21 school year). Since the NCAC sponsors volleyball only for women, the Little Giants play that sport in the single-sportMidwest Collegiate Volleyball League.Every year since 1911, Wabash College has played rivalDePauw Universityin a football game called theMonon BellClassic. The rallying cheer of Wabash College athletics is "Wabash always fights". Wabash College competes in men's intercollegiate baseball, basketball, tennis, cross country, lacrosse, track and field, golf, football, soccer, swimming and diving, volleyball, and wrestling.

Inter-collegiatefootballat Wabash dates back to 1884, when student-coachEdwin R. Taberassembled a team and defeatedButler Universityby a score of 4–0 in the first intercollegiate football game in the history of the state ofIndiana.[25]

Notable people

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Main article:List of Wabash College people
See also:Category:Wabash College alumni

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Member Center – Wabash College".National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
  2. ^"National Association of College and University Business Officers".
  3. ^"College Navigator - Wabash College".
  4. ^"College Navigator - Wabash College".
  5. ^"About Wabash - Facts and Figures".Wabash College.Retrieved6 July2019.
  6. ^"Our Student Newspaper, the Bachelor".
  7. ^"Academics".Wabash College.Retrieved10 February2019.
  8. ^Muniz, Hannah."Are There Any All-Male Colleges Left?".blog.prepscholar.com.Retrieved15 November2023.
  9. ^Gronert: pp. 66–67.
  10. ^Gronert: pp. 205–06.
  11. ^Gronert: pp. 30–31, 107.
  12. ^Henry C. Herge (1996).Navy V-12, Vol. 12.Turner Publishing Co., 1996.ISBN9781563111891.Retrieved22 September2011.
  13. ^"V12 Reunion Brings Back Unique Alumni Group".Crawfordsville, Indiana:Wabash College. 2011.Retrieved8 November2011.
  14. ^"Wabash College, One of a Dying Breed".1999. Archived fromthe originalon 11 February 2008.Retrieved22 February2013.
  15. ^https://www.forbes.com/colleges/wabash-college
  16. ^https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/wabash-college-1844
  17. ^"Academic Programs A-Z < Wabash College".bulletin.wabash.edu.Retrieved29 February2024.
  18. ^"Wabash College".nces.ed.gov.U.S. Dept of Education.Retrieved23 January2023.
  19. ^"Constitution of the Student Body of Wabash College"(PDF).Wabash College Student Senate Blog.Retrieved7 February2020.
  20. ^Bullock '23, Benjamin (14 April 2023)."Wabash Student Supreme Court issues first major ruling".The Bachelor.Retrieved29 February2024.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  21. ^Depalma, Anthony (22 April 1992)."Picture a Men's College Circa '56; That's Wabash".The New York Times.Retrieved31 August2021.
  22. ^"The Gentleman's Rule".Wabash College.Retrieved31 August2021.
  23. ^"Most Students in Fraternities | Rankings | US News".Colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com.Retrieved8 November2012.
  24. ^"The Challenge of Excellence".Wabash College.Retrieved28 February2013.
  25. ^Ancestry.comEdwin R. Taber

Further reading

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  • Aaron, Robert W. "Wabash College: Her Square Dances with Coeducation."Journal of the Student Personnel Association at Indiana University(2006): 25-38.online
  • Boyd, Ernest L. "Ezra Pound at Wabash College."Journal of Modern Literature4.1 (1974): 43-54. The poet was fired as an instructor in 1908.online
  • Burns, David G. "William Norwood Brigance and Wabash College."Communication Quarterly34.4 (1986): 349-356. An eminent speech scholar.online
  • Fraker, Anne T., and Ann T. Fraker. "Caleb Mills: Schools, Christianity, and Civilization in the West."American Presbyterians70.3 (1992): 151-162.
  • Gronert, Theodore G. (1958).Sugar Creek Saga: A History and Development of Montgomery County.Wabash College.
  • Harvey, Robert S., ed. (1982).These Fleeting Years: Wabash College 1832–1982.Crawfordsville: R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co.
  • Lind, L. R. "Early Literary Societies at Wabash College."Indiana Magazine of History(1946): 173-176.online
  • Osborne, James Insley, and Theodore Gregory Gronert.Wabash College: The First Hundred Years, 1832-1932(1932).

Primary sources

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  • Mills, Frank Moody.Early Days in a College Town: And Wabash College in Early Days and Now, with Autobiographical Reminiscences(1924).online
  • Trippet, Byron K. "The role of a faculty in college administration."AAUP Bulletin43.3 (1957): 484-491; by the Dean.online
  • Wabash College.Catalogue of Wabash College 1893-94(1894).online
  • Wabash College: The Annual Catalogue 1916(1916).online
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