In the Filming on Vocation series, members of our Wabash campus community offer their insights and advice in an interview with Career Services. We focus on their work, their professional development, and on their general advice for Wabash men. We post the interview, a synopsis, and a transcript with highlights.

Synopsis:

We sat down with Patrick White to discuss his work as campus president. Hear his take on the work, on the values and skills necessary for the job, and how you can grow personally and professionally by being confident and remaining open to opportunities as they present themselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejvJz_391k0&feature=youtu.be

Transcript with Highlights:

James Jeffries: President White, thank you very much for meeting with Career Services.

President White: My pleasure.

James Jeffries: You have a particularly interesting job, and of course a very high profile job that we see in front of us all the time. But we don’t see everything that goes on behind the scenes; we don’t see what it took to get to your position. We don’t see the kinds of things that frustrate you sometimes, or really bring you alive to the position.  So we would like to talk to you a little bit about those kinds of things, and also what advice you really have for students who are looking into their futures. So first off could you just describe your work as a president, and what do you see as your major responsibilities.

President White: Well the interesting thing is that, why should I be laughing when I get asked that question in part because a president, particularly the president of a small college, covers an entire spectrum of activities. If you’re president of a large university you’re pretty much the head of a corporate structure, like a large company. At a small college you’re connected to students, you’re connected to faculty; you’re connected to alumni. Most people think it’s about raising money that it’s about a fundraising job. My friends who are not in the business say well Pat you must be raising money all the time.” That’s an important part of it; you have to be out there raising money and friends. But a lot of it is really running the college, with a collaboration of my direct reports, the deans and the CFO, and everybody else at the institution. So there are a lot of questions and problems and issues that come right to the president at a small college like Wabash. And that’s both a delight and would drive some people crazy.

James Jeffries: Okay so, of course you made the transition from being a professor of English, right? Into these administrative roles, and eventually into this presidency. What was the biggest surprise?

President White: I think the biggest surprise was how much you don’t have control over. One of the beautiful things about being a professor is essentially in your class you have a lot of control. I mean, students obviously shape that class, but in a large degree as a professor you have control over what happens that particular day. You set up the syllabus. In my job there is less control. One of the reasons I got into the administrative side of things, was at the same time was at the same time; you had an opportunity to influence an entire institution, or have some effect on an entire institution. And that’s very exciting, but it’s very different. It’s a question of scale. One is very focused, student centered, the other is the entire institution. Whether you’re a dean or a college president.

James Jeffries: So if you were to key in on three or four of the most vital skills for your work, what would they be and how did you go about developing them?

President White: That’s a good question. I think you have to have patience; you have to have an ability to imagine the other. That’s essentially a rhetorical position, you have to think, what is the audience going to think about? What questions people are going to have? That’s very very important. So patience, the ability to imagine. Imagine not only an audience, but also imagine solutions to the problems. And then to gain the collaboration of other people. So there is a collaborative skill that is very important in being in either being a president or a dean. Because there is very little, that one can do alone in those positions, you have to, especially small colleges; there are not a lot of resources, and you have to find people who will be able to collaborate with you and share your vision, and share your excitement. So the fourth thing I would say that you have to be able to inspire people to get excited. Not only about what you want to do, that’s kind of a good cheerleading aspect that I think all presidents should be good at, but they have to be excited about what they are doing so that they feel that their work is valuable. It’s very important.

James Jeffries: So opening this up a little bit, of course you come in contact with a lot of students who are going in all kinds of different directions. What do you say to the student who hasn’t figured it out yet? Who doesn’t know what they want to do.

President White: Be patient and recognize that they may have figured out what they want to do, they just haven’t figured out how they are going to get paid for it. And I think that is something that they should not sell themselves short about, we have a number of students as you know, at Wabash who are majoring in what they are passionate about, interested in, and the job will come, the position will come. But they have to begin to think about themselves as marketing, the skills, the passions and the habit of thought and inspiration for their thought that they have. They also have to recognize that a lot of people, they think that everybody can do what they can do. That’s not the case. Many of our students at Wabash have passions and energies and abilities far beyond those of mortal men, to quote the Superman of the 1950’s. And I think that they have to begin recognize that and they see that when they are all out in the market place, as I think you know.

James Jeffries: Okay, well let’s close with some influences, what would you point to as an influential person to look at, a model, a great book, great movie, something that you think students could get a lot from.

President White: I think for me it’s simply to be awake to the possibilities that they see around you. And don’t say oh I could never do that. Say I could do that position, I could do that work. I say to students all the time they might be president one day, if not here then somewhere else. I mean the first person who told me Pat you’d make a great dean I said are you out of your mind? Who would want to do that? When they said Pat why don’t you apply for the presidency at Wabash I said are you crazy. I’m not going to be able to that work. I think don’t sell yourself short. And I would simply say look at the movies and the books and continue to imagine yourself in the roles that inspire you.