President Patrick White has a lot his plate. The list of challenges and possibilities facing Wabash College under his leadership are vast. The completion of the 10- year fraternity revitalization project is on the horizon. He must address lingering questions about campus-wide security, changes in Independent residential and student life buildings, as well as campus cohesion issues stemming from the forum on the status of the Gentleman’s Rule at the end of last semester.
Even so, with an outline provided from the Strategic and Master Plans, a summer campus wide security audit and a continuation of the Great Conversation, White hopes to address all of the concerns over the next school year.
With the rash of theft and break-ins throughout last year and the summer, building security became a top priority. The security audit, done by an outside consulting firm, provided the President and his staff an idea of how to better secure campus properties.
“We’re already moving forward on a card access system that will change how to manage many of the buildings around here,” White said. He also noted that all residential halls and possibly fraternities will have the “swipe card” system.
White left open the possibility for a law-enforcement-trained campus security guard. He noted, however, it would be more likely the College would attempt to develop a closer relationship with Crawfordsville police. Even with likely security changes, White said they would all be analyzed in the context of the Gentleman’s Rule.
“The report, I think, says we have an understanding of what we can provide,” he said. What we want to provide is security enforcement and balanced against the characteristic independence of Wabash life, the Gentlemen’s Rule. I think that’s going to be very important for us going forward.”
Equally important to security is the ongoing Wabash construction. The completion of Kappa Sigma house next year will mark the end of the 10-year effort to revitalize fraternity housing. With those complete, the question becomes centered on residence halls.
White has a plan. In his latest version of the Strategic Plan, he notes three construction projects – new athletic fields, revitalization of Sparks or construction of a new student center, and major changes in Independent Residential lives.
White made it clear that athletic fields will come first, before changes in either Sparks or dormitories. “We already know we are going to do the athletic fields,” he said. “That’s already in the pipeline.”
He noted with the completion of the fraternity revitalization project, there is now great interest in addressing the strategic needs of Independent living.
“Very early on everybody – I think board, administration – was aware we were wisely and rightly investing some significant amount of attention as well as college funds in fraternity houses,” White said. “That was important, it needed to be done and we’re glad that process is moving toward completion. And the clear understanding is now what do we do to accommodate the needs of students who choose to be Independent and live in residence halls.”
White said the scope and design of the residential halls has yet to be determined. He noted the decision of what to do with Sparks Center will shape the decision of how Independent living problems will be addressed.
“If we were designing a student center where there’s more gathering space, common space, meet your friends space, then we might do something different with Morris and Wolcott (Halls),” he said.
With almost $35 million spent on fraternity housing over the past 10 years and $2.4 million spent on changing an old fraternity house to a dorm, many Independent students have concerns about their housing. Although the College has purchased off-campus houses for roughly 70 Independent men in the immediate vicinity, many wonder about the future of Independent housing. White said there will be a great discussion this fall about how to address those concerns.
“I would say to Independent students that we’re attentive and we’re concerned,” he said, “not because we don’t have enough beds, not because we don’t have enough space. We do. But we want to make sure the (new residential) space is contributing to the kind of life we want at Wabash.”
Many of the issues White has analyzed and acted upon – including security concerns and strategic campus construction – only come after many conversations with students, trustees, alumni, faculty and staff. That skill – the art of discourse – was something strongly promoted by White and Dean of the College Gary Phillips two years ago in back to back Chapel talks, both calling for a “Grand Conversation.” White believes the campus has answered his call.
“I think we’ve done a really good job,” he said. “There were great conversations going on before, but I think we’ve pointed that out and raised that to another level.”
Even with the increase in campus discourse, White said there were times throughout the year that he considered calling a mandatory Chapel talk. When a hateful racial slur was carved into the dorm room door last year, White considered a calling an obligatory campus-wide meeting.
“I think that might have been a good idea at that moment,” he said. “In part, there are times when we need to come together, whether it’s mandatory, or strongly encouraged, led by the President or some other person. There are times when we probably need to come together to understand that whatever’s happening at that moment is not happening to just a group of us or just a part of us, its happening to all of Wabash.”
Even so, White said the spring student discussion on the Gentleman’s Rule was the epitome of a Grand Conversation.
“The student initiated conversations about trust and interactions on campus in the spring with other students on campus about not being respectful under the rubric of the Gentlemen’s rule,” he said, “that was not dictated on high – that was students saying this was the kind of conversation we need to have.”