Over 50 letters sent to Senator Ryan Mishler in opposition of proposed cuts
Over 150 students at Wabash are recipients of the Frank O’Bannon Grant — a state-funded grant aimed at making it easier for Hoosier students to attend college in-state. But the Indiana Education Commission for Higher Education has recommended cuts to the O’Bannon Grants — something Christian Gray ’25 and Jordan Olarewaju ’27 objected to.
“When I first read the email, I just sat on my bed and just stared at the ceiling for a couple of minutes,” said Olarewaju, a recipient of the O’Bannon Grant. “I just gathered myself, thinking ‘What is going on?’”
Even students who were not affected directly by the cuts felt sympathy for their Wabash brothers and saw the need to stand in support.
“Once I saw [the email], I was like, ‘Hell no,’” said Gray. “If someone else is stressing about something, I’m going to try to be there and support them. That moment made me say, ‘Let’s do something.’”
Together, Gray and Olarewaju decided to host a student-led activism event to try to combat the proposed budget cuts. Members of the Wabash community joined together on April 10 in the Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies to write letters in opposition to the proposed state budget cuts to State Senator Ryan Mishler of the Indiana State Budget Committee.
“I, for one, was not going to sit here and let [these cuts] just happen,” said Olarewaju. “The solution we came up with, knowing there were other people affected, was to bring the campus together to help brothers in need.”
Students, faculty and staff came together to write 25 letters in-person on the day of, and over the course of the next day, an additional 27 letters were emailed in to Gray and Olarewaju, totaling 52 letters addressed to Senator Mishler. The letters were hand delivered to Senator Brian Buchanan — whose district encompasses Wabash — by Gray himself during a legislative breakfast on April 12.
The two Wabash men, along with many other members of the student body, faculty and staff hope the letters may have an impact on the cuts to the O’Bannon Grants. But since the state is still preparing to make these proposed cuts, at least for now, Wabash is looking to the future to prepare for the worst.
“[The cuts] put the College in a precarious situation,” said Gray. “If the cuts go through, the College has to pick up the slack, because they don’t want to lose out on a student they’ve already invested in.”
“We will just make it work,” said Wabash Chief Financial Officer Kendra Cooks. “If Indiana doesn’t want brain drain, if it wants to have a strong workforce and talent, we are working on our relationships to convey that Wabash College makes a difference. We will make the funding work.”
Brain drain is not a new concept to Hoosiers. Ever since a breakout study in 1999 that showed that the college graduation retention rate for the state of Indiana was 30 percentage points lower than the national average, efforts like the O’Bannon Grants have endeavored to make post-secondary education a priority for Hoosiers.
As recently as 2024, studies have shown that one year after graduation, 61% of Indiana graduates are working in Indiana, but the proposed cuts to the O’Bannon Grants signal to some students that putting a stopper in the brain drain is less of a priority than in years past.
“They’ve put us in a confusing spot right now,” said Olarewaju. “They’ve pushed the agenda of funding education, but now my grant is getting cut. I’m hoping that with our efforts, we can make a change.”
Another factor adding to the confusion many students are feeling is the fact that the Indiana state government is being headed by recently-elected Governor Mike Braun ’76. While not a part of making the budget itself, Governor Braun still has a say in what gets included and what he approves.
“I like to imagine that Governor Braun had a good experience here,” said Gray. “So to have that experience, and then to not ensure that other people in the future can have that experience is troubling for me to comprehend.”
The proposed cuts will not only affect the current classes of students that are recipients of the grant, but also future generations, making it harder for private institutions in particular to fund scholarships and increase enrollment across the state of Indiana.
“The College is funding the vast majority of a student’s scholarship needs here,” said Wabash President Scott Feller. “But the fact is, we can make our scholarship dollars go further if we are leveraging a Pell Grant from the federal government or a state award from the O’Bannon. These allow us to do more and touch more students when we have a partner in the state of Indiana.”
Both Gray and Olarewaju are hoping their efforts, along with 50 other members of the Wabash community, will be enough to make an impact on the proposed O’Bannon cuts, but will have to wait to see if their efforts will be in vain or not as the cogs of the state government slowly turn.
“Activism is like a muscle you have to flex,” said Gray. “Leading a protest or an activist event doesn’t have to be the first time [you flex it]. It takes us encouraging younger guys to stretch those muscles, and that will lead to community-wide change.”