Wabash College

Wabash College's curriculum is divided into three: Division I, Division II, and Division III representing the natural sciences, humanities and arts, and social sciences respectively. Wabash offers 25 academic programs as majors and 32 accompanying minors.[17] Its most popular majors, by 2021 graduates, were:[18]

Rhetoric and Composition (21)

Economics (20)

History (18)

Religion/Religious Studies (15)

Experimental Psychology (14)

English Language and Literature (11)

Biology/Biological Sciences (10)

Seniors at Wabash College take a three-day comprehensive exam in their major subject area. There are two days of written exams and one day of oral exams. The two days of written exams differ by major, but the oral exams are relatively uniform. A senior meets with three professors, one from his major, another from his minor, and a third professor who represents an outside perspective, and can be from any discipline. Over the course of an hour a senior answers questions from the professors which can relate to anything during his studies at Wabash. A senior must pass the comprehensive examinations in order to be eligible for a degree.

Tradition begins early at Wabash College and continues throughout one's college career. On "Ringing In Saturday", incoming students are addressed by the dean of students, the dean of admissions, the president of the alumni association, and the college president and are "rung in" by the president, using the same bell that Caleb Mills used to call students to class. On Homecoming weekend, students are given the opportunity to show how well they know the college fight song (Old Wabash) during "Chapel Sing".

Rhyneship was a freshman orientation program that took first-semester freshmen, "rhynes" and acculturated them to Wabash. While some aspects of rhyneship were less visible, the most visible was the wearing of the "rhynie pot", a green hat with a red bill. When approaching a member of the faculty or Senior Council, the freshman would dip his pot as a sign of respect. This tradition is carried on by the pledges of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. Rhyneship is continued through the Sphinx Club, a secret society made up of campus leaders, which aims to unite the campus, honor traditions, and create an atmosphere of support and prestige. Sphinx Club members don white "pots" to distinguish themselves on campus.

The student government, referred to collectively as the Student Body of Wabash College, comprises executive and legislative branches.[19]

Student organizations at Wabash receive funding and recognition from the Student Senate. This funding in turn comes from a student activities fee, which every attendee of the college must pay each semester. The student paper of Wabash College is The Bachelor and has been published since the early 1900s.[20]

Rather than an explicit student code of conduct, Wabash has a single rule:

The student is expected to conduct himself at all times, both on and off campus, as a gentleman and a responsible citizen.[21]

The college says that this rule is its oldest tradition.

The first fraternity, Beta Theta Pi, appeared at Wabash in 1846 and has been on campus continuously since. It was quickly followed by Phi Delta Theta and others. Many of the traditions of the college were begun and are maintained by the fraternities, both individually and collectively. On average, 50–60% of students belong to one of the campus's ten national fraternities.[22] Unlike most other colleges and universities, Wabash fraternity members – including pledges and associate members – live in the fraternity houses by default. Most Greek students live in their respective houses all four years. This has led to the odd circumstance of a college with fewer than 1,000 students dotted with Greek houses of a size appropriate to campuses ten times Wabash's size. The fraternity chapters range in size from about 40 to 70 members each.

The college and the fraternity system have created a somewhat symbiotic relationship that differs from most other colleges and universities. The college believes that the system largely accomplishes the task of quickly involving new students in the life of the college while also providing leadership opportunities for a larger number of students. All fraternity houses on campus are owned by the college, though often largely built with funds from the fraternity alumni associations. In 2009, the college and the fraternities' alumni associations completed a 10-year effort to rebuild or renovate the chapter houses. At the same time, the college realized that fraternity life is not right for each student. The rebuilding project continued by building new dormitories and renovating others.

• Beta Theta Pi (ΒΘΠ)
• Delta Tau Delta (ΔΤΔ)
• Kappa Sigma (ΚΣ)
• Lambda Chi Alpha (ΛΧΑ)
• Phi Delta Theta (ΦΔΘ)
• Phi Gamma Delta (ΦΓΔ or FIJI)
• Phi Kappa Psi (ΦΚΨ)
• Sigma Chi (ΣΧ)
• Theta Delta Chi (ΘΔΧ)
• Tau Kappa Epsilon (ΤΚΕ)

The WDPD initiative advances the kinds of deliberation, discussion, debate, and advocacy that cultivate democracy. Its goals are to teach constructive practices of engagement and communication, stimulate productive public discourse on campus and in the community, develop civic leadership through participation in public life, and promote the free speech rights and responsibilities of every individual. Students in WDPD work with campus and community partners to design and facilitate public engagement events, such as community forums, dialogues, and public deliberations. Students involved with WDPD leave Wabash with advanced, applied skills in oral and written communication, leadership, public affairs, and civic awareness that will enable them to contribute more productively to their communities, their workplaces, and to their personal relationships.

The tradition of singing at Wabash College dates back to its earliest years; the Wabash College Glee Club and Mandolin Society were established in 1892 (as evidenced by a photograph and membership list in that year's Ouiatenon). Not much is known about the early years of the Glee Club; that changed when R. Robert Mitchum joined the faculty as Glee Club Director in 1947. Mitchum led the group until 1969. The Glee Club celebrated its 125th anniversary on September 30, 2017, with a dinner and concert.

The Monon Bell

Voted "Indiana's Best College Sports Rivalry" by viewers of ESPN in 2005, DePauw University and Wabash College play each November – in the last regular season football game of the year for both teams – for the right to keep or reclaim the Monon Bell. The two teams first met in 1890. In 1932, the Monon Railroad donated its approximately 300-pound locomotive bell to be offered as the prize to the winning team each year. The series is as close as a historic rivalry can be: Wabash leads the series 62–54–9. The game routinely sells out (up to 11,000 seats, depending upon the venue and seating arrangement) and has been televised by ABC, ESPN2, and HDNet. Each year, alumni from both schools gather at more than 50  locations around the United States for telecast parties, and a commemorative DVD (including historic clips known as "Monon Memories") is produced each year. The final score of the 2017 Monon Bell Classic was Wabash 22, DePauw 21. The Wabash Little Giants currently have won eight of the last nine contests.

In 1999, GQ listed the Monon Bell game as reason number three on its "50 Reasons Why College Football is Better Than Pro Football" list.