Obvious Choice
In August 1979, 12-year-old Scott Feller sat in the Valley River Inn playing in a bridge tournament with his 42-year-old partner, Dennis Ryan. In an article in the Eugene Register-Guard, Ryan said of his partner, “As he sits at the table and plays, he evidences no stress or tension at all. I wish adults could play the way he does… When things go wrong, they get upset.” Feller has brought that same cool, measured approach to his new role as the 17th President of Wabash College.
Scott Feller was the obvious choice to serve as Acting President when the Board of Trustees learned Greg Hess planned to leave the College at the end of June. He joined the faculty in the chemistry department in 1998, served as department chair and division chair before serving as Dean of the College for six years under President Hess. He has been a part of the hiring, review, and promotion of roughly 80 percent of the current Wabash faculty; co-founded Wabash’s Celebration of Student Research, Scholarship, and Creative Work; and authored a number of institutional grants that helped the College set records for retention and graduation rates.
In the months between the announcement of Feller as Acting President and the Board of Trustees meeting in May, Board Chair Jay Allen ’79 and his colleagues conducted a thorough review of Dr. Feller’s credentials—engaging every member of the Board, a range of faculty and administrators, and groups of alumni, parents, and friends of the College. At the May meeting, Allen recommended that the Trustees remove “acting” from his title and elect Dr. Feller to be the 17th President of Wabash College. The vote was resounding and unanimous.
“We could have done a lengthy, national search for our next president, but we would not have found someone as qualified as Scott Feller,” Allen says.
Feller grew up on a farm in Oregon raising sheep and growing strawberries. He now raises sheep on his own farm near Crawfordsville with his wife, Wendy. He has spent most of the past 25 years as a research scientist.
“I certainly never expected to be your president when I arrived at Wabash 22 years ago,” Feller says. “I never even considered it until a few months ago. But being the president of Wabash College is not just ‘checking off a box’ on my list of professional goals. It is a deeply felt calling to give back to an institution that has given so much to my family and me.”
Having a research scientist-turned-administrator as president was timely (and smart) given the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic. President Feller earned his PhD from UC-Davis and worked with the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration before joining the faculty at Wabash. His research has been cited more than 10,000 times.
“Any research scientist will tell you, you’ve got to have an appreciation for what you don’t know, and we like to say that a liberal arts education prepares one to deal with ambiguity,” Feller says, “but I will admit that this virus is testing our limits. There are no easy solutions to the problems we face, and as has been the case since the pandemic began, our environment is constantly changing.”
Allen adds, “Scott’s approach to returning students to campus for residential teaching and learning was guided by science and data, which is why Wabash has been so successful.”
While COVID-19 planning and response has dominated Feller’s agenda, he has a vision for Wabash to be a national model of a financially sustainable liberal arts college that reflects its values and traditions. The road to reaching that goal by Wabash’s bicentennial in 2032 will be bumpy—even after the threat of COVID-19 is gone. Changing demographics in Indiana and across the country will test the College’s time-honored, egalitarian culture.
“We need to respond to the changing demography by redoubling our work in inclusivity,” Feller says. “Students who come to Wabash will be from the new majority—students of color, first-generation students, and Pell Grant-eligible—and that means we must strengthen our enrollment position.
To achieve his vision, Feller has frequently said that Wabash “must be a well-loved college and a well-run college.”
“Sometimes these things bump into one another,” he says. “Our alumni and friends need to be aware that to be well run will require making difficult decisions that benefit us in the long term.”
Feller is awed by the loyalty of the College’s alumni, as demonstrated by Wabash’s ranking in the top 10 nationally for alumni giving rate and the progress on the Giant Steps Campaign.
“We know we will be successful only if we are well loved; philanthropy always has and will continue to drive Wabash’s success.”
Feller explains that many colleges use the “dumbbell model.” “Schools fill up their freshman class with a lot of students who will pay a very high sticker price on one end, and students who have very high need on the other end.
“However, Wabash has never been a place that chased the wealthiest students in our society, which means we have to make up the revenue some place. Our history and culture of philanthropy takes over at that point.”
Wabash’s tight-knit community, built on enduring relationships and coupled with the Gentleman’s Rule, makes it a remarkable place. Never has that been more evident to President Feller than in the past few months during the pandemic.
“We’ve put in place guidelines for how we can live and learn together on our campus, but the Gentleman’s Rule and our trust in one another have guided us to this point,” he says. “We’ve always known that applying and enrolling at Wabash is a big step for students, but this fall has taught us a great deal about the strength of that connection and how much our students want to be together.”
Even with his stellar background as a teacher, researcher, and administrator, Feller knows he’s got a lot to learn, and he plans to do that by surrounding himself with good people. It’s a mindset he’s had since he was a 12-year-old bridge player.
“You have to be able to listen a lot,” he said back then. “When you’re playing and you’ve made a mistake, people tell you about it—and you remember what they tell you.”