The last year has been filled with enormous financial challenges for our College, the country, and the world. With the collapse of financial market values Wabash faced a new economic reality. We may not have received the attention of the national press the way Harvard, Princeton, and Yale did (which is probably a good thing). Yet our dependence on endowment income for over half of our operating budget is more similar to these Ivy League institutions than the issues faced by smaller tuition-driven institutions.

 

Our strong endowment has long been one of the distinctive strengths of Wabash College. The value of our much-reduced endowment, which stood at the end of June at around $250 million, remains the envy of many small liberal arts colleges. But our loss of revenue from the over $125 million decline in our endowment posed extraordinary challenges for all who care about Wabash.

 

In this atmosphere, we worried what would be the result of our Annual Fund. We knew that many of our most committed donors were facing financial challenges in their personal lives. Some of you have faced job losses or realignments. Others of you have escaped that, but have faced increasing familial obligations from the loss of jobs among sons and daughters or other relatives. For even the most fortunate among you there was clear nervousness about what the future might bring.

 

At just the moment when we most needed a strong Annual Fund performance, all were worried that you — our most loyal donors, the core of our efforts every year — would not be able to help, no matter how deep your love of the College. 

 

How pleased, proud, and encouraged we were by your response. While some of you were forced to scale back your gifts, you did not stop giving to Wabash. Others of you stepped up to new levels, and we welcome many new names to the Honor Roll this year. 

 

In the end, the Wabash Annual Fund reached over $3 million for the second year in a row, exceeding not our expectations, but the amount for which we had budgeted. This extraordinary generosity from all who gave to the Annual Fund had an enormous impact on what we were able to do at Wabash. 

 

Let me mention just one very concrete example. With unprecedented financial pressures on state government here in Indiana and on the families of our students, because of your generosity we were able to respond rapidly when the state support of our students through the SSACI grants was cut by over half a million dollars just a month before Freshman Saturday. Had we not had an extraordinarily successful Annual Fund year, we might not have been able to respond to this sudden need with the ability to make whole the losses so many of our students suffered. The consequences for our entering class and returning students might have been drastic as some students might have been forced to abandon their dreams of a Wabash education.

 

I could not be more grateful to all of you whose generosity of spirit and commitment to the College have earned you a place in this Honor Roll of Donors and Volunteers for 2008-2009. I am pleased to extend to you my deep gratitude and the thanks of all of the students, faculty, and staff who live and learn at Wabash.

 

I thank you also for all that you do to represent Wabash in the larger world. As you reach out to prospective students at your local high schools, churches, Boy Scout troops, and community agencies, you carry Wabash with you. Indeed you are Wabash to the world.

 

You attend “W Nights” with representatives from our Admissions Office to help potential students and their families fully realize the value of a Wabash education. Hundreds of you give your time to work in your local communities during WABASH Day weekends. And you provide students internships and career networking opportunities that extend and enrich a Wabash education. In these and many other ways, whether friend, alumni, spouse, or parent, when you represent the College in your community, as you do every day, others will say, “There goes Wabash.” You have earned this high compliment.

 

The Honor Roll of Donors and Volunteers recognizes the people who make the remarkable Wabash liberal arts experience possible for our young men. Without your help our students could not achieve that great accomplishment — a Wabash education. Indeed, whether through your support of internships, your conversations with students about their career or life choices, your example of service and leadership, or the glowing model of your philanthropy, you are the teachers our students need. You help them see how they might be gentlemen and citizens, leaders and loyal sons in the larger world beyond Wabash.

 

All of you are examples of our mission played out in the lives of thousands of loyal and dedicated alumni and friends. For that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 

Sincerely,

 

Patrick E. White

President