Members of the Wabash community are still reeling and reacting to Sunday’s death of freshman Johnny Smith. While the campus awaits what might happen next, President Patrick White said late yesterday he was calling a mandatory Chapel meeting for 11:15 a.m., Tuesday. White said the Tuesday session is to “understand what has happened here.”
He wants the Wabash community “to learn from this horrible tragedy” and “to do more than prevent this from happening again but to make sure lives are protected and lived more fully on campus.”
The news of Smith’s death has shocked friends and relatives from Crawfordsville to Smith’s hometown of Tucson, Arizona. The freshman Delta Tau Delta pledge passed away in the fraternity house early Sunday morning.
The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear. News outlets all over the country have linked Smith’s death to alcohol. No autopsy or toxic screenings have been released. Administration officials, fraternity officers, and students will neither confirm nor deny news reports citing alcohol-use as a factor.
Although Dean of Students Michael Raters said consoling the family and fraternity members is the first priority, the administration is also trying to get more information about what exactly happened.
“So, we are focused on the consoling part first, and as we think through that, focusing more and more on getting to the bottom of it,” Raters said. “We have begun that process, are in the midst of that process, and continuing that process.”
President White said three simultaneous investigations are ongoing: one by the local police, one by Delta Tau Delta, and one by the college, headed by Raters. White said the college officials are “cooperating fully” with the outside investigations.
Neither White nor Raters would discuss how alcohol may relate to Smith’s death, but they do admit that future actions can and will be taken.
“We do not yet know how he died,” White said. “And we may not know the cause of death for a while but we are proceeding in the investigation to see about the involvement of alcohol. Depending on what we discover, there is a whole range of sanctions and disciplinary procedures that could happen.”
Raters echoed the President’s words. “Any time there is a student behavior question, the possibilities range up to suspension or expulsion. I’m in the midst of figuring that out, figuring out what exactly happened. I don’t know exactly what happened yet.”
White was notified of the death early Sunday morning, around 9:20 a.m. He went to the Delt house, where he joined Deans Rick Warner, Joe Emmick, Gary Phillips, Director of Public Affairs Jim Amidon, and Delt alums. That group joined the coroner and police.
Delta Tau Delta Executive Vice President Jim Russell said his first priority was to console Smith’s family and fraternity brothers. Russell, Raters, and White have spoken to Smith’s family, whom they all described as “devastated.”
Russell declined to offer what outcomes might result for the Delt house after his international office’s investigation.
“We are focused on Johnny Smith and his family and his Wabash family,” he said. “That’s what we’re focused on. It’s a time of mourning, making sure that we’re there and Wabash is there for Wabash Delts.”
The Delt brothers have remained largely silent, but one freshman pledge spoke out. “It’s tough so far,” Mathew Summers said. “I’m sorry for my pledge brothers who had to lose a lifetime friend so early. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to know him better and that he had to go so early.”
When freshman Delt Andrew Pearcy was going through a tough time, Johnny Smith was there to help make things easier, Summers said. Pearcy was absent from their kitchen-cleaning shift one night, and as a result he would have to mop the entire kitchen floor on his own. Knowing Pearcy had other things on his mind, Smith did most of the work for him.
“About a half an hour later I went down to the kitchen, and it was almost completely mopped,” Summers said. “It was John who decided to grab a mop and cover for one of his brothers. I don’t even think he said anything to Pearcy about it. He was a pretty quiet person. But once you got to know him, he was a real good guy who cared about everybody, cared about the house. He was a Wabash guy all the way.”
Now the brothers and the College are struggling to put the events of Saturday night together, and answer the questions being posed about alcohol.
Raters referenced the Gentleman’s Rule when pressed on the alcohol question.
“Our policy is grounded in the Gentleman’s Rule,” he said. “That statement is not just directed to freshmen; it’s directed at everybody. There are laws that prohibit contributing to the delinquency of minors. No, we don’t have a specific policy like many places do. Many places also have lots and lots of rules and handbooks, and we don’t. Will we come under scrutiny? Absolutely.”
But White and Raters did signal that some added measures may be taken.
“I have enormous respect for the power of the Gentleman’s Rule,” White said. “And that said, how we understand the Gentleman’s Rule, how we as a community, as students especially, live that out, and how we together help each other live that out, that needs work. That needs hard work.”
“There are those who would say the Gentleman’s Rule doesn’t work. And I would say that a simple-minded interpretation of the Gentleman’s Rule doesn’t work, a one-way understanding of the Gentleman’s Rule doesn’t work. It enables us to only think about the freedom and not think about the responsibility and the citizenship that’s involved in it.”
The work we’ll have to do will be pretty hard. After break and after my talk on Tuesday, we will organize not only discussions but programming that will help us understand what we need to do and then we’ll move to do it.”
Whatever actions are taken, Raters said students will play a central role.
“We put a lot of responsibility in the hands of our students,” he said. “And therefore our students will be a major part of that moving forward with the leadership of the college guiding that.”
President White will have an important message for the Wabash community Tuesday, and he expects everyone to attend.
“We’re reeling and in shock as a community at Johnny Smith’s death, and the loss,” White said. “What I really want to say to the community and the students is come together on Tuesday with me and let me have a chance to share my feelings and thoughts with you in the kind of face to face encounter that we value.”
A memorial service for Johnny Smith will take place 11:15 a.m., Thursday during Chapel.