Professor Scott Feller arrived at Wabash in 1998 as a teacher, a scientist, a researcher with million-dollar grants from the National Science Founda-tion, and the son of an Oregon farming family.
In July when Feller takes over as Dean of the College, he’ll have to leave classroom teaching behind for a while, but not the farm.
Like Mauri Ditzler ’75, the Dean of the College at Wabash when Feller was hired, the chemist sees a vital connection between his work at Wabash and his work on the land. Feller and his wife, Wendy, raise sheep, chickens, and vegetables that Wendy markets to people seeking locally sourced ingredients.
“I think there are several reasons that our farm is important to me,” Feller says. “It is a connection I have to my dad and my grandfather and to Wendy’s family history as well. But it is also about living a balanced life. I don’t enjoy going to the gym for exercise, and the work of the farm gives me an opportunity for physical work. It’s often an effective way to restore emotional health as well.
“It is interesting that Mauri Ditzler and I have in common this unusual combination of chemist/farmer/dean. I suppose that a farmer and a dean both have to simultaneously be solving the problems of today and thinking ahead to next year. A really good farmer is always working on a five-year plan, but never at the expense of the work that needs to be done today. I am going into the Dean’s office with a goal of bringing that approach to our academic program.”
Feller was an innovator the moment he reached Wabash, involving students in his research and co-founding with Professor Charlie Blaich the College’s Celebration of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work, now in its 14th year. His innovative work in “flipping the classroom” began a decade before the technique was in vogue.
“I think we will continue to find additional ways to engage students in immersive activities,” he says. “In the sciences, it was natural for us to bring students in as research collaborators, just as it was natural for our colleagues in the performing arts to engage students in the intensive work of the creative process. From the work of Charlie and others we now know that there are numerous high-impact practices and we see these activities blossoming across campus.
He cites as examples the recent civic engagement work of the rhetoric department and the global health initiative in biology, “two programs that include a service learning aspect.”
A winner of the McLain-McTurnan-Arnold Excellence in Teaching Award, Feller is passionate about the breadth of a Wabash education.
“As an advocate for the liberal arts, I want to confront the false notion that students need to choose either a liberal arts education or career preparation,” he says. “I want to tell the story of how Wabash graduates find success in their fields and in their lives and how those successes relate to their work with our faculty and staff.”
The farm has its role there, too. Scott and Wendy frequently host gatherings that are a welcome change of pace for professors and students alike.
“I hope students will see that there are lots of ways to make your life interesting,” Feller says. “When I look around at my colleagues, I see artists, travelers, community volunteers, beer brewers—the list is long and always growing. I guess I am just trying to include farmer on it.”