The Simple Gifts of the Liberal Arts (Edited from the Inaugural Address)
’Tis the gift to be loved and that love to return,
’Tis the gift to be taught and a richer gift to learn
—from a Shaker dance song by Elder Joseph Brackett
Thank you.
Those are the first words that come to mind when I reflect on the warm and generous welcome that Lora and
I and our daughters, Abigail and Meredith, have received since joining the Wabash family in July. We have visited with alumni, parents, and friends of the College from Los Angeles to Fort Wayne, Cincinnati to the District of Columbia, from Center Hall to South Bend.
In every visit, we have been pleased to hear how important Wabash College has been in providing opportunity and gateways to young men for further success in academia, business, and the professions. Wabash College is, indeed, a College that transforms young men and changes their lives for the good.
Higher education is living in changing times, too. The old Three R’s that focused liberal arts institutions on reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic have given way to our dedicating, by necessity, too much of our time on the new Three R’s—recruitment of students, resources to provide the highest quality education, and demonstrating the relevance of the liberal arts.
These new Three R’s—recruitment, resources and relevance—are not going away. The academic world has changed, permanently so, and the results of this change have yet to be fully realized. So while we in higher education work through our administrative strategies, we are wise to remember, as John Lennon wrote in a song to his son: “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”
The true academic life of the College—those deeper, stiller waters—continues throughout these complicated shifts in higher education. Our true academic mission—to liberally educate each and every student—is a timeless reminder of the lives we change here at Wabash College.
For while the problems facing higher education and the world are complex, the solutions need not be. Amidst the jostle and the fray and the haranguing static and noise that often surround our academic endeavor stands our foundation: the simple gifts of the liberal arts.
These profound gifts—the ability to act, to see, and to speak—are the bedrock that underpins teaching and learning at Wabash College. They are the reason I borrowed the theme for my inauguration from the Shaker tune Simple Gifts.
For ours is a College, as Wabash President William Kane said in his inaugural address more than 110 years ago, whose work is “not simply to educate the intellect nor to train the hand or the eye or any fractional part, but to educate the man himself. Not to make specialists, but to make men.”
We give our students the ability to act—to take action—by building their skills in writing, language development, and scientific calculation, and by enhancing their abilities in critical reading and communication. Wabash men are not bystanders; they are empowered by the skills and confidence developed here to act upon the challenges facing them, their families, and communities. Wabash men—as students and throughout their lives—are guided in their actions by the equally simple and even more elegant Gentleman’s Rule.
Yet the fundamental gift of a liberal arts education is not only learning to act, but also learning to see—to perceive. Seeing things better—perceiving things better—helps Wabash men to do things better. Seeing more clearly and with a wider field of vision frees them to use their skills more wisely, more comprehensively, more insightfully and, ultimately, more decisively.
Each academic discipline provides the Wabash student with a prism through which to observe and re-observe angles that reflect and magnify questions and solutions they have never considered. These profound glimpses may come from economics, literature, philosophy, art, chemistry, or some other academic prism. They are cross-fertilized by the interdisciplinary inquiries that have so strongly defined a Wabash liberal arts education. As Wabash biologist, poet, and teacher Robert Petty observed in 1982:
“All of us can and do learn much at the far margins of our own disciplines, at the frayed borders between our own understanding and the unique knowledge of others.”
Those disciplines converge in that “aha moment” that happens here daily at Wabash, as each student sees the world differently and uses their newfound skills in ways they had never imagined they could.
Learning to take action and to see are great gifts, but they do not form the complete basis of a liberal arts education. The final simple gift that a liberal arts education provides students is the ability “to speak”—to have a story of their own, but also to see themselves as part of a broader narrative and undertaking.
Our story at Wabash College is distinctive, purposeful, and centered on the whole formation of young men. This narrative is based on our mission to educate young men to think critically, act responsibly, lead effectively, and live humanely. These elements of our mission help to guide and educate men and inform their actions and perspectives toward higher purposes that reside outside themselves. This simple gift inscribes upon each student an expectation and an imprimatur as a gentleman and a responsible citizen. It imbues them with a story like no other in higher education.
Professor Bill Placher ’70 spoke beautifully about Wabash’s core purpose and the difference a small but powerful institution can make:
“We live, for sure, in a world that needs saving. Bureau-cratic jargon disguises moral issues and human pain. Experts retreat to the role of skilled technicians, unwilling to make judgments about values, and leave the championing of public morality to bigots and extremists. Never have we needed more people of common sense and integrity, people who ought to be products of a College like this one.
“A few such people can make a difference. It only takes one lawyer in a small town to help an unpopular defendant get a fair trial. It takes only one doctor, one scientist in a research team, to raise awkward questions about human values. It takes only one business executive, one union leader, one social worker, to bring imagination to bear and find a new way of solving a problem; only one journalist or public official to expose the public’s business to full public scrutiny; only one poet or artist to help us see the world around us all anew. It only takes a few truly educated people to make a difference.”
These simple gifts—to act, to see, to speak—make the liberal arts more relevant, more necessary, than they have ever been. Wabash College’s simple gifts—the tradition we inherit—will continue to change lives, even in the face of these changing times.
When I was a candidate for president of Wabash last winter, I told those on campus something I’d like to share with the entire Wabash community now: I know that Wabash means a lot to people. I know that this College means a lot to its hometown, and that the fate of Wabash College and Crawfordsville, Indiana are inextricably linked.
There is a story here that spans lives and generations, and I won’t ever forget that fact, or the sacrifices and generosity of those who have made this College great. I will be a steward of the love and the joy that you hold for this great institution, and I will, by my efforts, be worthy of the trust that you place in me.
I will be there as you are rung into this College on your first day in Chapel and as you are rung out on the last day when you graduate. I won’t sit on the Senior Bench or step on the W in the Athletic Center. Lora and I will be on the sidelines cheering you on, whether you win or lose. And we will be at your performances, in the audience, being your biggest fans.
I will work collaboratively and openly with each and every one of you. If there is something we need to do, something we need to fix, some conversation we need to have, something we need to aspire to, we will do it.
Together.
At this time in its history, Wabash College has the unique opportunity to leverage its standing and to help shape the course for the importance of liberal arts education for men. I am honored—thrilled, in fact—to lead the College in this endeavor.
I believe in Wabash.
I believe in the mission of this great College.
I believe, as Bill Placher did, that uncommon good can come from a few good men willing to think critically, act responsibly, lead effectively, and live humanely.
These are the simple gifts of a Wabash liberal arts education. And these are the gifts I pledge to safeguard and proclaim “from the Hills of Maine to the Western plains” and “to the light of the southern seas.”
Contact President Hess: hessg@wabash.edu