As the editorial board, we wanted to welcome you to TDP and the larger DePauw community. As a small campus, DePauw may feel quite different from Wash U; however, we hope the intimate campus environment and charming quaintness of Greencastle is a refreshing start to your new role.
Although we love the campus environment and small-town feel of Greencastle, we’d like to “DeBunk” a few stereotypes that come along with DePauw.
With multiple accounts of high risk drinking and prevalence of Greek LIfe, it is easy to blow off DePauw as merely a party school. Sure, we like to blow off steam after a hard week of school work, but to dismiss us as one big four-year party would neglect so much of our student life and involvement.
DePauw students are social, but more than that, we’re engaged, driven and involved—especially involved. Between radio shifts, research, or rehearsals, DePauw students are masters at juggling their academic, professional, and social lives on a daily basis. This “constant juggling” creates part of the engine that drives our serious commitment to the liberal arts.
As you probably know, the past few years have also brought up serious discussions about racial tension and identity on campus. Labeling us as an intolerant campus would be an injustice to the faculty, staff, and students who are actively combating these issues, but much work still needs to be done. The CDI and events like Day of Dialogue are steps in the right direction, and we wish to build on this progress with you.
Now that we have debunked a couple of the myths surrounding DePauw’s reputation, we want to express how excited we are to see the impact you’ll have on campus. We look forward to working with you, and we can’t wait to see what the future of DePauw holds.
We look forward to welcoming you into the DePauw community and hope that your transition goes as smoothly as possible (but if we lose to Wabash next year, it’s on you...)!
Sincerely,
TDP Editorial Board