Crawfordsville, Indiana | December 7, 2012 | Volume 105, Issue 12
Butler Ends Historic Wabash Career JACOB BURNETT ‘15 OPINION EDITOR
Only one professor can say that she was the first tenured faculty member at Wabash College. And only a few can say that they’ve taken students to the European Union where the police teargassed students. After years of dedication to Wabash College and its mission, Eugene N. and Marian C. Beesley Professor of Political Science Melissa Butler will retire at the end of this semester. Butler enjoyed many unique aspects of Wabash during her professorship and mentorship. “Well, I went to a small liberal arts college, and I like the small liberal arts college atmosphere. Wabash is academically strong. The strong faculty have a fair degree of ownership of the institution and had full participation in the institution. I was able to teach the things I wanted to teach and taught in areas that I wanted to teach in. I certainly enjoyed the student body and the close Wabash student relationships.” Butler has seen Wabash expand over her years in many aspects, including immersion learning. One of her first immersion experiences
at Wabash involved an unfortunate run-in with the European police. “The first time professor Widdows and I took an immersion trip abroad the students were teargassed when they went to see the European parliament,” Butler said. “Awkwardly enough, when it came time to evaluate the course the students reported that the coolest part of the trip was being teargassed.” Along with this experience, Butler has thoroughly enjoyed the travel opportunities at Wabash. “I came to Wabash never having really traveled much at all. Now, I end my career visiting 73 different countries, many of which on Wabash’s ticket. I had the opportunity of seeing the world while being at Wabash.” Butler went through a unique tenure process since she was the first tenured female professor. “When I came to Wabash, I came out expecting to stay for only two or three years; in fact, it wasn’t even a tenure track job at that point… When I was initially appointed, my job wasn’t necessarily tenurable,” Butler said. At this time, only 70 percent of faculty could be tenured, and every department that had three professors or more had to have one
person who was untenured. The Political Science department had three professors who were tenured. But there was another rule under that and it said that exceptions can be made. When Butler arrived at Wabash, not many of these exceptions to the tenure process actually occurred. After three years of teaching at Wabash, Butler left to teach in England for a year. “Right before I left, Vic Powell, the Dean who hired me, said a curious double negative statement to me,” Butler said. “He said, ‘When you go off to England, don’t assume that there is no place at Wabash in the long run for you.’ So, basically he was making a decision at that point that they [the Wabash tenure board] were giving me tenure reviews. After I was in England, I was tenurable and in some ways I didn’t give it a whole lot of thought. […] For me it was off the table, and in a sense that I was free to do what I wanted to do because it wasn’t part of the mix. So, when I came up and got tenure, the school had a process for tenure, but the review process that there is now wasn’t in the same form then.” But the possibility of the first female faculty member attaining tenure did not come without resistance.
CARTER ADAMS | WABASH ‘15
Butler has become one of Wabash’s legendary professors in her career.
“When I first came here, there were alumni who thought that women shouldn’t teach at Wabash,” Butler said. “Some alumni were
somewhat vocal and told my department chair that women shouldn’t be teaching at Wabash. When I first
See BUTLER, Page 3
Bird ’00 Plays Key Role in Obama Election Presidential DEREK ANDRE ‘16
STAFF WRITER Although Wabash is considered by many to have a conservative campus, the alumni base has a direct connection to the re-election campaign of President Obama. The connection comes by way of Jeremy Bird ‘00. The sixth floor of the Prudential Building in downtown Chicago was, for a moment, the center of the re-election effort for President Barack Obama. For a few months the simple office space was at the heart of the American political theater. At one point the simple floor employed 500 people, all of which were working with one single goal in mind, to re-elect the President. But that was before Nov. 6. Now, however, only a select few people remain. One of those who remains is Bird. Throughout the campaign, Bird served as the National Field
PHOTO COURTESY OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
This past election Bird served as the National Field Director for the Obama for America campaign. He has been part of both of President Obama’s elections.
Director for the Obama for America campaign. Prior to holding that post, Bird work as the Deputy Director of Organizing for America, which was formed after Mr. Obama’s victory in 2008. He has also held positions
in Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign as well as Howard Dean’s 2004 Presidential bid. For Bird, the majority of his work in this year’s campaign came down to coordinating the campaign’s efforts all across the nation.
“My job was to manage the regional pods,” Bird said, “and make sure that the region’s people were managing the state directors who were managing their field directors all the way down to the volunteers. [I had to] make sure we were professional, had a culture of excellence and were running in the right way and that we’re were hitting our goals.” As it sits now, the Obama for America Headquarters is a shell for its former self. Where 500 people once walked its halls, now there are at most 50, and that number shrinks by the day. Unused computer monitors, keyboards, and speakers line the rows of desks waiting to be transferred to their next destination. Posters lie strewn about the main room, serving as a reminder of the former purpose of the office. The few people who still remain are serving to clean up the
See BIRD, Page 2
Faculty Members Recognize Benefits of Exercise Routines PATRICK BRYANT ‘16 STAFF WRITER
Many Americans will resolve to stay active this New Year’s Day, but some faculty and staff members at Wabash already have their fitness priorities in place. For English Department Chair Marc Hudson, the discipline is swimming, and he’s been doing it his entire life. The reason, according to Hudson, isn’t weight loss or some sort of quantitative goal; rather it’s the energy and renewed focus that comes from time spent in the pool. “Pure and simple, it’s endorphins,” Hudson said. “I’m hooked on them. I feel a lot better after I swim, and I think it’s those endorphins that help me achieve that – that feeling of vivacity, energy, and focus, all of which help me in my teaching, and in my public and private career as a writer.” A lack of focus and a loss of energy, especially near the end of a semester, is very prevalent among students. According to Hudson, it’s “essential” that students achieve greater focus through exercise. “Bottom line, I feel every single
human being on this planet would profit from some sort of exercise regimen, especially someone engaged in studies and a lot of mental labor,” Hudson said. “We need to achieve balance in this life.” The average workout for Hudson is 38 lengths of the pool, or about 2/3 of a mile, and he does this about four times per week. Aside from that regimen, Hudson said he has also been a vegetarian since the mid-1990s. BKT Assistant Professor of Chemistry Laura Wysocki said she’s like Hudson in the fact that her working out for the past three to four years comes not as a way to lose weight, but rather to gain a fresh sense of focus and to keep stress down. “I don’t exercise for weight loss or training for any kind of event, but I do it to maintain my health,” Wysocki said. Utilizing the Allen Center as a resource, Wysocki said she alternates her hour-long workouts each day between using the elliptical and participating in a Zumba class. “I spent years without working out, for various reasons, and
FRANCISCO HUERTA | WABASH ‘14
Hudson is one of the College’s faculty who acknowledge the all-around benefits that can be attained from staying active. He swims about four times a week.
cult to carve out the time in my day at first, but when it became a routine, it was something that I now depend on and use as much as I can,” Wysocki said. “I look forward to it.” Encouraging physical fitness among the employees of a company is something that Marketing and Communications Specialist Kim Johnson did before she came to Wabash. Holding a master’s degree in health educa-
Johnson said that she spent years doing things like speaking at employee meetings and doing outreach for companies in the Crawfordsville area to find ways for companies to promote good health, incentivize physical fitness, and set up corporate partnerships with local fitness agencies in town. Coming to a place like Wabash, one advantage for the employees, faculty, and staff of the College, See FIT, Page 3
Search Continues TYLER HARDCASTLE ‘15 STAFF WRITER
The search for the 16th president of Wabash College will progress significantly as the Search Committee narrows the list of candidates. According to Kevin Clifford ‘77, chairman of the Presidential Search Committee, the committee met last Wednesday, November 28th to select a list of candidates for further interview. Candidates will be confidentially interviewed throughout the month of December. In past years this larger group has been narrowed down to three or four candidates who have come to the school to meet with students and faculty, and interview further. “We would expect to have the candidates on campus mid-January,” Clifford said. “We are working on the details of theses visits and will do our best to ensure all campus constituencies have the opportunity to meet with the candidates in a variety of forums.” Students can only speculate as to the candidates at this point. Yesterday, student members of the Parliamentary Union debated the question of if the next president should view Wabash as a school or a business. Details of the candidates are necessarily private at this point to protect the candidates. Wabash can go a variety of different directions with this presidential selection. Historically, many colleges such as Wabash have chosen presidents who have an academic background. However recently, universities have gone a different direction. This year Purdue University hired Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels as its next president in a more business-oriented approach. Clifford plans to release information to the students as it becomes available. Watch for coverage of the candidates in The Bachelor in the weeks after Christmas break.