We awoke on Tuesday morning to see that yet again we were staying on a very beautiful campus. Wabash college is in a small town in Crawfordsville, Indiana. It is one of only three remaining all-male colleges in the US, and is fairly small with around 800 students.
After breakfast with some students, we had a tour of the campus. Wabash has a very good endowment, and as a result has excellent facilities, especially given its small size. It is also a college full of traditions; with a bell that rings new students in and rings out graduates, a bench you can't sit on but must paint under the cover of dark, and an arch you can't go under.
It was also interesting to hear about the dominance of 'greek life' on campus - about 60% of Wabash students are members of fraternity. Unlike most Universities, students at Wabash 'rush' (the process of choosing and being intiated into a fraternity) before the start as a Freshman, and most live in Fraternities throughout their time in College. We got to learn more about the frat system when we went for lunch with Tommy, one of the debate team students, at his fraternity 'Sigma Chi'. It was great to meet some more students and to experience a meal in a frat - like most frats, Sigma Chi has chefs who cook thier meals in the week, and they all eat together in the dining room. There is a definite sense of community around the greek system, that Wabash students are very proud of.
After an afternoon nap (the sign of a good day), we got ready for the debate and headed to dinner with a couple of faculty staff and the students who we'd be debating. It was a great meal (good Mexican food is definitely something the UK is lacking in compared to the States..). We then headed back to campus for the debate; the motion for the evening was 'This House Believes the US has a duty to spread democracy by any means neccessary'. It was a great debate, in particular because the audience were great and really engaged in the debate, which made it much more fun and entertaining. You can watch the debate on youtube in the link below!
After the debate, some of the students very kindly invited us over to their fraternity, TKE. We continued what is now a tradition (of two years..) of British Debate teams visiting TKE at Wabash, and enjoyed visiting their house, continuing to foster Anglo-American relations. We again had such a great welcome, and as always it was interesting to talk to some of the frat brothers and compare cultural differences (questions included "Do you all do cheese rolling?"). Another good day on tour.
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