What comes after Giant Steps?
First, we remain steadfast in our commitment to our time-honored mission, the liberal arts, and the charge of our first president, Elihu Baldwin, who said, “Our purpose is never to rest while Wabash College shall lack any advantages for the student, which are offered by the highest class of American colleges.”
Giant Steps was conceived as the first of two fundraising campaigns leading to Wabash’s bicentennial in 2032. While the exact priorities of the second fundraising campaign will be further developed in the coming months and years, there are some things we know hold true to Baldwin’s vision.
There will always be a need for a robust Wabash endowment to support our people and strengthen our programs.
Scholarship funds that make a Wabash education possible for so many young men will continue to be critically important to future generations of enrolling students. Additional endowed scholarship dollars will also allow the College to work toward a longer-term goal of reducing or eliminating debt for our graduates.
Similarly, the track record of success of our alumni across the decades and the changing global landscape give us the confidence to double down on our commitment to our liberal arts curriculum.
A Wabash education will set up men for purposeful lives where they will make a difference in our ever-changing and often difficult world. It continues to be rooted in deep relationships and rigorous classroom preparation and discussion; balanced with co-curricular opportunities, athletics, clubs, fraternities, and the arts; and grounded in the trust and responsibility embedded in the Gentleman’s Rule.
Whatever priorities arise to strengthen our liberal arts living and learning experience—and all we hope to do to innovate in our traditional framework—will come with a significant price tag.
An important lesson reaffirmed from operating in a pandemic is that our model of liberal arts teaching and learning best happens in a residential environment. For this to always be our focus, the need will arise in the coming years to enhance our residential campus. For example, we know there is a need for a new campus center to serve as a campus living room and to create a stronger sense of belonging for the entire community.
Lead gift fundraising for a campus center to replace the Sparks Center started during Giant Steps and will continue for the next few years through its completion. Major buildings only come along every 50 years or so and are truly once-in-a-generation projects that require significant philanthropic support.
What can you do to help Wabash? To add to the momentum? What role can you play in moving Wabash forward to 2032 and beyond?
Relationships have always been at the center of the Wabash experience—student to professor, student to student, and student to coach or staff mentor. One of the primary things you can do is remain connected or reconnect to Wabash and to one another. You can also meet or reacquaint yourself with alumni in your area through one of the many Wabash Clubs across the country.
Introduce a high school student to the College and refer any young man of promise to our Enrollment Office. Enrollment staff will pick up the relationship and work with the prospective student to help determine whether Wabash is a good fit.
Offer internship opportunities for Wabash students in your geographic area or industry, and if that isn’t possible, you can link the College’s professional development team to potential student experiences in your professional networks.
Our operating model depends on the loyalty of alumni, parents, friends, family, students, faculty, and staff supporting our mission with annual gifts. You can do your part by increasing your annual support and setting a goal to be part of the 1832 Society with gifts of $1,000 or more. An annual gift of $1,000 is the equivalent of the return $20,000 invested in the endowment generates each year.
There is a need for bold philanthropy if Wabash is to thrive in its third century. It is special for an institution to be the worthy beneficiary of a $40 million unrestricted gift like that made by Paul ’75 and Betty O’Shaughnessy Woolls. All gifts start with a conversation about the transformational impact you might like to have with your philanthropic support. For example, gifts of $50,000 or $100,000 or more to projects like the campus center will help enrich our campus footprint and provide spaces where relationships will flourish.
Furthermore, new endowed funds or additions to existing funds are central to the College sustaining and strengthening what we do. A gift of $100,000 or more will establish a new endowed fund, such as a named scholarship or academic department or program fund. Gifts of $1 million or more will establish professorships that support our ability to recruit and retain excellent teacher-scholars.
For many alumni and friends of the College, their most influential gift will come to Wabash as part of their estate plans. If Wabash is fortunate to have a place in your plans, we invite you to have a conversation with the College about what you would like this gift to support in perpetuity. The Advancement team is well-versed in the many different planned giving vehicles you can use to leave a legacy at Wabash.
If every alumnus, parent, friend, and fan who loves the College takes these steps, the momentum to carry Wabash forward to 2032 and beyond will be unquestionable.
President Scott Feller has challenged all of us to build on this incredible energy, saying, “For nearly 200 years, Wabash has graduated men with vision and guts. They’re bold because they balance knowledge with determination. Strong because they listen and understand before acting. We are—and always will be—committed to investing in each one of them. Because we know that Wabash is good for men, and Wabash men are good for the world.”