Podcast

The senior bench at Wabash College is a tradition where only seniors can sit on the bench and anyone else will be punished. Fraternities have taken over the guarding of the bench, but there is confusion about the purpose and history of this tradition. Interviews reveal that fraternity members guard the bench because they are told to, not because they understand the reasoning behind it. This goes against the college's mission of critical thinking and responsible leadership. Guarding the bench often leads to physical altercations and students missing class. The tradition is questioned in relation to the college's mission and the effectiveness of bonding with fraternity brothers. The history and purpose of the tradition are unclear, leading to the question of whether it is simply continued because it has always been done. The connection is made to books about leadership and critical thinking, highlighting the need to question and rethink traditions. Overall, guarding the bench is seen as I'm Gavin Tindall. I'm John Nabors. And today we are going to talk about the senior bench, but more specifically the guarding of the senior bench and how it goes against the Wabash mission statement of educating men to think critically, act responsibly, lead effectively, and lead humanely. John and I are both independents, so we have not gotten to experience the event firsthand but have witnessed the aftermath of it countless times. We also interviewed fraternity members and their experience with guarding the bench and the reasoning behind it, and the response has shocked me. So first off, we want to go over a little bit of the history behind the senior bench. Yeah, so the senior bench is a limestone bench behind Center Hall. It actually was first named Thompson Bench as a memorial dedicated on June 13th, 1905 to the Thompson family and all they had done for the college. It was soon taken property of the senior class. Seniors are the only ones that can sit on it, and if a student were to sit on the bench that was not a senior, they will be sent to trial and punished by the senior council. But most of the history on the bench is a mystery to most students. The bench started out not being painted, but that quickly changed and is now painted several times each year. There is no official beginning to the bench being painted. The students at Wabash find many reasons to paint the bench though, whether that's for good luck, fraternities, painting the bench. It's also not uncommon for the bench to serve as a memorial to a lost member of the Wabash community. There are other times when the bench is painted simply as an expression of something that happened on campus. The example given in this article was the bench being painted as a loaf of wonder bred to signify Elmore Day. So then it kind of got taken over by fraternities back in the 70s. Phi Delta Theta painted the bench fire engine red the night before home games, and Fiji members would challenge the Delts and attempt to paint the bench white for control over the bench, which then many fraternities have followed suit since then. A famous quote regarding the bench by Beth Swift says, it is a lightning rod for student interaction, and it is a blank canvas awaiting the next message delivered in paint. Now although this statement by Ms. Swift may be true when regarding the expression, it has strayed away from the history in recent years and has seemed to become exclusive to fraternities in their duty of guarding the bench. Yeah, I mean a huge aspect of this in terms of the Wabash mission statement, like how can we argue against this? And like a huge thing that we discovered throughout our interviews of other people, we actually interviewed people in our tutorial class who are members of Fiji, the fraternity, Nick, Silas, and Kyle, and when we asked them kind of like a history to the background of guarding the bench, they didn't quite understand why they guarded the bench in the first place, and really all they had to say about is that it sucks, which they say it's just like tradition, you know, it's history, that we just have to do it. Like to me, that's not thinking critically at all. Like you're only doing something as a means to do it just because you're told to do something. Like none of this guarding the bench to me is seen as, you know, effective reasoning as to accomplish a goal or anything. It's all about, oh, it's uphold tradition, but you ask people, you know, what's this tradition, and they don't really know what the tradition is in the first place. So that kind of just threw me off guard a little bit and was surprising to me from especially members of a fraternity. Yeah, so I mean, going off what he said, whenever I'm looking at it, we also interviewed Josh Judge, who is a sophomore at Phi Delta, and when I interviewed him, the interview was very awkward to say the least, especially as an independent talking to a fraternity member, would you not agree? Oh yeah. He was, John was sitting right next to me as we, as I was talking, and whenever I asked him about guarding the bench, he said it's a tradition at Wabash that's respected, meaningful, due to history. But it was just really weird when asking, it was kind of interesting when you see Nick, Silas, and Kyle, what their opinions were on it as well, because like, they, the only benefit that they got out of it supposedly was time to bond with brothers, but I feel like there's many more opportunities, like you live together, there's many more opportunities you can reach that without spending all day, and when I asked them how long you guard the bench, they said it's from 8 a.m. one day to 8 a.m. the next 24 hours, and your whole goal is to just not let anybody mess with the bench, or like an example that was given to me by Josh Judge was paint or throwing liquids onto the bench to mess up what you could already painted, and a situation that happened last year was it was very physical, very physical altercation that we will get to later on, but it led to people going to the hospital, and another issue that we've had, especially just going against the Wabash mission, is acting responsibly. Whenever we see this, like, we almost kind of laugh at this idea of guarding a bench for 24 hours, and then the fraternities making an emphasis that you're not allowed to miss class, but with John and I's experience of 8 a.m. classes, we're sitting in our 8 a.m.'s, and members of Fiji or Faisal, they're all just sleeping in their chairs, unable to stay awake, told to wake up several times, there's just nothing they can do because they were up all night, and as a pledge, like he said, upperclassmen expect to watch the bench, and the only reason they can give me is it's tradition. They don't even know what tradition it is, other than the fact that they were told to do it, and that it's something that everybody's done before them, so again, that's not really thinking very critically, so. Right, I mean, yeah, and we'll touch base more on this, you know, this thing that happened last year, this person being injured from guarding the bench, which is a pretty big deal, we'll touch more on that in a little bit, but yeah, I mean, it's just quite ironic, and obviously we have somewhat of a biased view, being independent, you know, like, we don't have to guard the bench, we're not told to, but it's just quite ironic to me that, you know, all these fraternities preach on, you know, we do all these things, our tradition, but, you know, you ask them, and they, like, can't really give a sole reason as to why they do it, other than saying it's just history, right? And, you know, more people you talk to about it, it's a common theme that we've seen through our various interviews, is that, like, they don't really have a true reason of why they're doing it, and they're, honestly, to me, just doing it because, you know, their pledge leaders, or whatever, whoever, are telling them just to do it, because they have to. And, I mean, back to your point earlier, like, it's, they think it's a reasoning as to, like, bond with your brothers, like, to me, there's so many more effective ways to do that than, you know, hurting other people in other fraternities, and staying out all nighters, and then missing class the next day. Like, it's taking so much more away than what you're gaining out of it. Do you think, really, the history, at this point, is just that, well, I had to do it, so you can continue to do it, and that's what it's ended up turning into, really, instead of just history? I mean, yeah, that's a great question to ask. Like, to me, it seems that way, because it's, like, you just keep getting these responses, and, honestly, like, again, it's ironic. But, I mean, that also, like, makes the question all of, you know, pledgeship. Like, a lot of the hazing, or, I mean, even smaller things that a lot of the pledges have to do, and they talk about, I'm just like, why do you do that? And they answer, they're like, oh, well, we have to, because it happened, like, in the past. Like, other people did it, so we have to do it now. It's just like, all right, well, don't really see the importance of that, but I get it, you know? So, I mean, that's a good question. I mean, obviously, we can't answer it, but, I mean, that's interesting to think about, for sure. Yeah, so, you know, we also kind of related to this topic of the books that we've read in tutorial class, and we actually were able to find a lot of connections between the two of just overarching themes. We, you know, we give a few quotes later on as well, but we're going to jump into that aspect of it right now. First book that came to mind as thinking about this topic of, you know, the Wabash mission versus guarding the bench, first book was Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. Just overall, guarding the bench, to me, promotes poor leadership, especially in the leaders of the fraternities, you know, because it has happened to where dangerous events take place and, you know, those repercussions following based off the guarding the bench, like the fraternity leaders are allowing this to happen to an extent, and they can be put at fault for most of the things that are happening. So, you know, especially when it comes to being hurt, there is something to be said, however, about the tradition and what good things can come about a community from traditions, but traditions are often rarely rethought. So that also connects me to Adam Grant's Think Again book, but also, like, you must not view this idea of guarding the bench, like, guarding the bench tradition through a prosecutor, preacher, or politician mode. You know, various ways of doing that would be, like, preaching of his goodness and guarding the bench, or advocating for his history and tradition, or not allowing change, but like, Adam Grant specifically, he would say, instead of doing that, we must view it from a scientific lens and truly question why this tradition exists and what has come out of it. And I think if we do that, we eliminate the bias this school and community holds to this tradition and take more into account of the bad things that has happened out of it and potential risks that will happen moving forward. You know, the entirety of this theme plays immensely into the account of thinking critically, as we would be selfish and stubborn to not view the repercussions and rely solely on the fact that, oh, it was tradition. So, I mean, especially in the case of, you know, Gavin has an SI leader. He's on a baseball team. They got hurt pretty badly. It was a pretty bad head injury last year, which we'll get into more a little bit as well, but, like, that has to be an account that we look into and think again on, hey, maybe guarding the bench isn't only bringing good out of it, but there's also a lot of bad things that, you know, wouldn't necessarily happen if we provided other means of bonding with your brothers or whatever they want to refer to as the reason that guarding the bench exists, you know? Yeah, and I mean, whenever you talk about it, we've talked about how it's been just something that's a bias towards the school and how we just kind of look at it in a certain way, but it's also interesting that I was talking to Logan, our writing fellow, or, well, we both were, and whenever he was in there, he was talking about how independents one time just, like, wanted to try and guard the bench, and instead of just, like, having it another normal night where a couple guys mess with you, they said that the entire fraternity all house is, like, ganged up on all these independents and just mess with them and probably did stuff that, well, that he didn't even want to say. Right, that's rough. And then he also, like, mentioned, but then he also mentioned that, like, La Lianza did it as well, and, like, stuff like that I feel like is that idea of, like, what you were kind of getting at earlier, just kind of moving in a better direction as, like, as far as groups doing it. Right, and that was a club, right, La Lianza? Yeah, yeah. So, but I also think it's important when you hear these kind of, like, bad stories, there's also good ones, but you don't really, you hear the bad stories just from word-of-mouth. Whenever doing research about it, especially over last year's incident, there's nothing over it in The Bachelor. The way I found out about it was just that my, the guy that it happened to just happened to be my SI instructor, and it just randomly got brought up in one of our, one of our classes. He was just like, yeah, I was the kid, and he was telling me how, what, it's just kind of, whenever you hear it from an outsider's perspective, it just sounds so ridiculous, and I think they realize that when they're telling it to people that have not experienced it, because he sat there and he told me, he goes, they would, they weren't even the ones guarding the bench that night, there was some other fraternity, and they had mattresses, like, basically, like, their own mattresses guarded, like, a circle around, like, to protect it from getting hit from paint, and they would have the other ones who aren't guarding it with mattresses, they would have them, like, tackling kids and chasing kids and, like, hitting him with mattresses, and they said that when he was throwing the paint and stuff, like, they were throwing it back at him, and obviously that's not smart, like, it's just, it's stupid, so then he said when they threw it, he threw a, like, paint can, and then it just, like, it's dark outside, you can't see it, and he said they threw it back at him, full of paint still, and it was red paint, so when it hit him, he, like, fell to the ground and felt dizzy, and then he gets up, and he feels that he, he thought it was paint initially on his face, and they had to take him into the bathroom, because they were, to make sure that it was, like, blood, and they, like, went in the bathroom, and he showed me a picture, and it was, it was gruesome, it was, it was nasty, but I think that if we brought up these truly, like, like, the bad parts of these traditions, like, it could lead to, like, us maybe rethinking it, and Brene Brown would argue the importance of the idea by saying giving people permission to talk about shame is liberating, so when referring to how to counteract shame, which can be used in, like, this example is hiding the bad news, and what it can, like, do to openly discuss it, allowing shame to be open also advocates for change, because it not only accepts the good, but acknowledges the bad, resulting in improvement, like I said earlier. It only makes me wonder that if Wabash maybe did address this, would Guarding the Bench have changed, or maybe, like, would the whole thing ended, because it seems like they did address it, but all they did was kind of, like, put a band-aid over, like, a deep wound, like, basically, like, instead of giving the kids stitches, they might as well just put a band-aid on it, like, that's how they've kind of treated the situation from an outsider's perspective, and is that, oh, it can't be physical, and it's just, like, then what are they doing other than just wasting their time out there for 24 hours with no one able to do anything to them? No, for sure, like, and to me, like, if you're, if you're hiding this, like, you know, you can't just cover the good of an event, like, in this Guarding the Bench, like, yeah, there's definitely been good from, like, the memorials we mentioned earlier, and gathering people together, but if you're only covering the good of something, then, like, that's not the true thing itself, you know, like, you have to cover the bad to give it a perspective, and only when you cover the bad can we actually determine if something is good or bad or not, like, you know, based off how much good it has versus how much bad it has, and it's as simple as that, I think. Yeah, and I mean, just the idea of leadership, like, going back to Brene Brown, that we've talked about multiple times throughout this, is that it challenged others, and, like, yourself to do what is right, and, like you said, that's just kind of speaking out on it, like, if we continue allowing this to happen, like, are we really, like, is that, like, a good, like, that's not, obviously not a good thing, so I think that, really, it's not a decision for us independents, really, to, we really don't have any say in this opinion, but I think leaders of fraternities and faculty kind of got a question, like, whether or not this is really worth, like, wasting, like, does the risk, like, kind of, like, outweigh the reward, or the reward outweigh the risk, and I think they really need to just sit back and maybe, maybe they should have read our book and kind of look back at it. Right, yeah, poor leadership for sure there. You know, when I was going through the books also, like, I thought, like, my first instinct would be, like, I wanted to incorporate Mark Manson's book into this somehow, because I just loved this book first of all, but, like, at first, my, I first thought, like, no way that the subtle art could have anything to say about this idea, right, but then I dug in some more, and it was actually interesting what I found, like, the whole idea that Mark Manson talks about, and I forget which chapter it was, but it was a big part of his book, he talks about responsibility, right, and he talks about how, yes, we can't control the circumstances that we're given, but leaders must take responsibility of the situations, right, and, I mean, in this conversation, I think it specifically pertains to, like, when bad things have been an outcome from nights of student-pulling all-nighters, or if people showing up to class exhausted, or not showing up at all, or students getting hurt, like the one we just talked about, or maybe, like, fraternities hazing other fraternities. Other examples, like, students being, you know, disengaged from it, not allowed, like how independents at one time got completely hazed from it, like, just all those bad things that have happened from it, like, leaders, like, must take responsibility for these events happening, you know, whether that's fraternity leaders, you know, campus-wide leaders, people in power, like Dean of Students Office, like, they must look at this and talk about not only the good, but the bad as well. That's crucial, right, and yes, the leaders may not have control over, you know, what specific guys in the fraternities do, or, I mean, a good example is, like, you know, people that pledge class, like, they didn't know that that one kid that you were talking about would get hurt that night, and obviously, like, it probably isn't even their fault, but they have to take responsibility for that because they're the ones that are, like, setting up this night to go and guard the bench. So, I mean, although, like, everything isn't in their control necessarily, in terms of how people act, like, what is in their control is how they respond, though, and throughout history of guarding the bench, not much has really changed if we look at the history of it. Even after those bad things happening, like, the bench, the guarding of the bench still is consistently happening, you know, and bad things and good things also are a result from this. So, I just think it's interesting that, you know, the leadership and that and responsibility, as Mark Manson would say, is really interesting in that aspect. And, I mean, I've got just a few questions that I'm just kind of, like, whenever we're talking about this, like, that have arisen, like, or those arose, and, like, it's just, like, it's something that's fun, like, and it's obviously, that's the whole purpose of it is to be, like, well, I'd assume that that's the reason. Is it fun? Like, it's also, in, like, my eyes, I could see it being fun for the other fraternities who aren't guarding the bench to kind of just mess with other guys, and, like, but, like, obviously, that can all be taken in a very bad way, just like it did last year. But, like, do you think there's anything they can, like, as a faculty do without being just, like, completely frowned upon, and, like, just, because I feel like no matter what they do to try and change it, like, these people who don't even know the tradition, or, like, in fraternities, don't ever call them frats. I accidentally did that with Josh Judge, and he, he quickly reminded me that it's a fraternity. But, yeah, he was not. But, do you think there's really any resolve here that would make both parties happy? Because, I mean, I've thought of one, but I just kind of wanted to hear your insight. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. It puts, it definitely puts, like, faculty in a tough spot, because whatever decision they make, there's always going to be a group of people who think it's wrong, whether it is if they continue to, like, not change anything at all. There'll be people like us talking about how it is bad right now, or if they do change at all, like, the fraternities especially will probably go crazy about it, because, oh, it's tradition, right? And fraternities and tradition are, like, the same exact thing, so they will be really mad about it. So, I mean, it puts them in a tough spot, but I think it starts with the leaders of the fraternities, right? Whether it's, like, the boards, or, like, maybe funders of it, like, just people that have power within the fraternities, like, you know, like what Adam Graham would say, rethinking and being, like, hey, there's been some injuries from this, there's been these things, you know, guys are falling asleep in class, like, how can we, maybe not get rid of it, but how can we change it to where these things aren't happening? Like, let's make it more safe, let's make it fun, and yes, let's have, you know, brothers bonding over this, like, let's make it something campus-wide that's fun, but, like, how can we include more people, how can we make it more safe, you know, things along those lines. Like, what do you, what do you think about that? I mean, what I've thought is that it doesn't even really need to come from funders, necessarily, or, like, people super high up. I mean, it could literally come from the seniors or the people who are in charge of the pledge class, like, all it takes is just one year to everybody stop doing it, and then it, then no one would ever remember it, because then within three years, no one had ever done it, and it's something that, that's how easy it is to kind of get rid of these traditions, which is good and bad, but I think there is, like, a little bit of a middle ground. You could do a, one thing that I kind of just thought of while we're talking here is that you could go from 8 a.m. like they do, and then maybe go till 1 or 2 at night, which I'd say 1 at the latest, because if those kids who have those 8 a.m.s, if they're, let's say it goes till 1, then they're at best asleep at, like, 132, so then they get one night where they're only getting six hours, but still plenty of, or about five and a half, six hours, that's still plenty to function on, at least for two one-hour classes, and then they can take a nap throughout the day. That would, I feel like, and it also prevents kids, like, especially, I, when we talked to Nick and Kyle and Silas, they said they had to do it on homecoming week, but it was, like, the first cold time of the year where they're just freezing, and I don't know, I think that was a little crazy, so, but I also think that whenever you talked about people getting hurt during it, I think that it is the senior, or whoever's in charge of it, I think it is their, they should take responsibility, because in all reality, I don't think there's many freshmen that are wanting to wait till 1 a.m. at night to then go out and attack these people. Like, it may sound fun, like, they're like, alright, yeah, it's easier to say that than to guard it, but, like, I'm sure, like, you and I, I don't think either of us would be chomping at the bit to stay up all night to go run and, like, hide behind trees, like, you can't do anything to them other than just kind of mess with them, like, right, yeah, so. Yeah, it's definitely interesting to think about, which, I mean, I think this also ties into our next topic, just real quick, like, we're not just gonna sit here and bash guarding the bench, because, like, that'd be kind of stupid to do, like, there's obviously good examples of the bench being used, like some examples I found in research for, like, brothers from Teak painting the bench with, you know, specific colors after the loss of one of their brothers back in 2006. That was from a Bachelor article back in 06. There's more examples, like, when just members of the Wabash community sadly pass and the bench is used as a memorial, which we spoke about earlier, you know, it's great, and I think this is what it should be about, like, you know, bringing people together, bringing the community together, and just, like, using the bench as something in the light of good, but, I mean, I just don't think guarding the bench does that, like, I think it almost brings down the good that the bench can be used for, and it acts against that reverence and communal presence it does have, and instead becomes, like, a hostage in a fraternity war to me, which I think this is why I stand against the mission of Wabash, because it's taking what could be good, and, you know, it's turning in something that has caused wrongdoings, and of which are, like, they're typically hidden, too, which makes it even worse. So Wabash should not entirely remove this idea of, like, guarding the bench, I don't think, but it just needs to be used for good, like the examples earlier, when it does bring people together and not pull them apart, you know. Yeah, I mean, I think that pretty much summarizes our ideas here, you know, just that it does go against the Wabash mission statement again, just, like, you know, guarding the bench has to be revised, and I think that's crucial to the Wabash community and the students here on campus. That's about it for our podcast, so thank you for listening.