The “Content of Your Character”
If you had told me 10 years ago that I would be spending time on campus, I would not have believed you.
I spend so much time at the table outside of Wabash Fellowship Advisor Susan Albrecht’s office that I tell people I’m her assistant. When I am on campus, I do my IBM work so I am visible to and available for students if they want to come and talk about school, careers, travel, or just life.
If you had told me 10 years ago that I would be spending time on campus, I would not have believed you. Wabash’s inclusion of gay people has not always been as good as it is now (and even today there remains room for improvement, no matter how “right” we get it).
In the past, our college would address letters to “Mr. and Mrs.” if they wanted to be inclusive of a wife. Today, same- and opposite-gender partners are considered when mailings are created. When alumni surveys came out, we had the choices of “single, married, widowed, or divorced” (the same choices that cost my credit union my business; Wells Fargo was much better equipped to handle families that may not look like everyone else’s). There are more options now. Wabash is increasingly getting the basics right—not by accident, but by intention, and through the realization that we have many LGBT+ (yes, all of those) alumni and alumnae.
Every one of us belongs.
Those few alumni who have separated themselves from Wabash over our College’s embracing of the values of diversity and inclusion also belong equally in our ranks, and I hope those few know that we, as an institution (and as LGBT+ alumni) welcome them and their differing views, just as we expect to be welcomed and valued and included.
there was a material change on our campus when friend, Lambda Chi Alpha brother, then-NAWM President-now-Trustee Greg Castanias ’87 gave a Chapel talk on October 27, 2011. Concerning gay alumni, he said: “You have the College’s—and its alumni association’s —commitment to openness, inclusion, and participation by all. We are men (and women) of good faith with a commitment to blowing the doors of Wabash wide open so that everyone is a full participant. Please give us your support and give it a chance to work.’
It was a heartfelt invitation that I took to heart. I re-engaged with Wabash College after many years of being away. Conversations opened some old wounds for folks and have helped them heal. These developments have facilitated frank discussions and provided opportunities for our College to take visible steps to publicly stand up for what is right.
Greg’s speech was the catalyst for me to be a member, and now president, of your alumni association. It has made a tremendous, positive difference in my life to be involved here.
people ask me why it matters to me to be visible; I haven’t always been. I have navigated those waters through IBM (my employer that does not just “tolerate” diversity but rather encourages us to bring our whole selves to work), through family, and with the help of countless friends and allies. When I speak at the Ringing In ceremony and tell incoming students and their families that they may be seated in the room with a physician or clergy member who will care for them, their parents, their wife, or their husband,” I want everyone in that room to know they are welcome, they are included, and they are neither alone nor invisible.
Visibility matters because if I, who have been given so much in life, who have a 30-plus-year career with IBM and have been elected to president of Wabash’s alumni board, cannot be visible about who I am (a Christian, gay, Texan, fiscally conservative and somewhat socially liberal Second Amendment supporter who thinks that our great nation needs to welcome the “huddled masses,” get our budget in order, and enforce our drug laws), then an 18-year-old trying to navigate these same topics might think, Hmmm. What does Rob know that I don’t? Why can’t he be open about every part of his identity? Look at all he has going for him, and here I am, ‘ just a freshman’... maybe this place isn’t safe to be myself.
My point is this: Gay, straight, bi—whoever you are— conservative, liberal, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, agnostic, whatever—you are welcome and valued here and will be judged on the merits of your work. The “content of your character,” if you will. For me to expect to be welcomed and valued for the diversity I bring, I need to welcome and value the diversity that others bring.
Professor Bill Placher ’70 said this: “Understanding one another does not necessarily lead to agreement, and respect for each other does not depend upon agreement.”
All are welcome here. Join us in the ongoing journey of making our College even more welcoming. We, and those who come after us, will benefit.
— ROB SHOOK ’83 President, National Association of Wabash Men rshook@gmail.com