Ah, another I.S. Monday – March 25, 2013. A weather system out of the west blanketed the campus in snow, as History majors and friends (yes, yes, and I.R./History majors and East Asian Studies majors and all of you double majors) came together to celebrate the completion of Senior I.S. There had been rumblings all day, shouting in hallways, a few empty seats in the back of the classroom, excited seniors scribbling greetings on whiteboards outside of their professors office. Late in the afternoon a giddy crowd of seniors gathered on the steps of Kauke and as the bagpipers piped and the drummers drummed and the Registrar-dressed-as-a-tootsie-roll did her tootsie roll impression, the Dean of the Faculty, Hank Kreuzman, in his finest kilt led the students through the Kauke arch and down the Kauke lawn. Strange, the seniors did not seem to notice the cold.
Doesn’t it say something about the College of Wooster that the most boisterous day of the year is associated with students’ most significant intellectual accomplishment? (I won’t venture any comparisons here to some of the fine institutions I knew from my own college days.)
So, congratulations, seniors! You can enjoy waking up to a day without I.S. tomorrow. Please don’t worry too soon about second readers and orals and all of that. It will come soon enough. And note: class will be in session tomorrow. And the next day, and so on. We look forward to seeing you there!