"This convergence of the MXI and the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts marks the start of a new chapter in the history of the College. I hope you will have an opportunity to visit both Trippet and the MXI."

Read more about the work of the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at www.liberalarts.wabash.edu

Read more about MXI at www.wabash.edu/orgs/mxi

Magazine
Summer/Fall 2002

From Center Hall

Andy Ford
Wabash College President
forda@wabash.edu

The theme for this issue of Wabash Magazine is “convergence.” Considering it, I was reminded of two projects coming together this fall. The first is Trippet Hall, where many strands of concern for the liberal arts come together in a facility and a set of programs. Trippet Hall houses the admissions and financial aid offices, as well as the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts. With this facility, the Center of Inquiry, which has existed largely in our minds and imagination, will now become a physical reality. We scheduled our first conference at the Center for this past August, and although the facility was not ready we went ahead anyway. That conference made it clear that the particular perspective that Wabash brings to its concern for the liberal arts gives us an important role to play. At that conference, my Wabash colleagues and I were struck by how little is known (except through personal testimony) about the value and effectiveness of the liberal arts—this judgment rendered by eight of the top dozen higher education researchers in the nation. They made it clear that if we are to summon support for the liberal arts, we truly have our work cut out for us.

On Homecoming Weekend, we shall have our first Center of Inquiry conference in Trippet. That gathering will be part of the Inquiry on Residential Life that focuses on off-campus experiences. It will be the first of such gatherings, and we shall report on all of them on the website that has been established by the College. Please check in once in a while to see what we are doing.

Several strands also come together in the new MXI building. The old building had become too small for the number of students using it, and it was not a structure that could be readily and safely expanded. We consequently built a new one, and we shall dedicate it on November 2. The symbolism of moving the MXI from the edge of campus to near the center (behind the Lilly Library and in front of the Allen Athletics and Recreation Center) and of moving from a clapboard house to a two-story brick structure is important. After years of serving our students, black and white, so well, the MXI is now positioned to do even more for the entire Wabash community. Later this year, the MXI will join with the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts to host a student conference on educating black males in liberal arts colleges.

This convergence of the MXI and the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts marks the start of a new chapter in the history of the College. I hope you will have an opportunity to visit both Trippet and the MXI. I thank not only Lilly Endowment Inc. and the late Ann Goodrich who have so handsomely supported Trippet Hall, but also all alumni who have come together in support of the MXI and the capital campaign. We have much to celebrate.

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