Dreaming big, living large: Patrick White will be president of Wabash College
By: Alice Frost

Sometimes, behind the wire-rimmed glasses and tweed jacket of an academic, there lies the burning soul of an artist.

Professor of English Patrick White, who will assume the presidency of Wabash College this summer, was not only Saint Mary's associate dean of faculty for 14 years and vice president and dean of faculty for the past four years, but also was a poet, playwright, fiction writer, and art, film, and literary critic.

For many years, White taught popular classes on women in film. He has published film, art, and book reviews; a short story, "Eurydice Unbound;" eight poems; two award-winning one act plays, "Prairie Man" and "Sandwich;" and given numerous academic presentations. But his most creative contributions while at Saint Mary's may have been in making a liberal arts education come alive for a new generation of students.

Back in 1988, when White first came to the College after chairing the English and Modern Languages Department at Pfeiffer College in North Carolina, he found students who were smart and working hard, but not having much fun. Further, there was a "work-play dichotomy," he said. Students failed to see the intellectual leadership they were capable of at the College and in the community.

In his "Life of the Mind" initiative, funded by the Lilly Endowment Inc. from 1989 to 1992, White asked the faculty to give a series of talks about how they came to pursue the scholarly life. Their presentations began to fire the students' ambitions for learning and intellectual leadership, he says.

Next came "Play of the Mind" (also supported by a Lilly grant from 1991 to 2003), which, for the first time, gathered students, faculty, and administrators from women's colleges around the country to discover and discuss, as equals, issues from religious life to global problems. It was an "incredible experience," says White. He acknowledges the program was messy, chaotic, and unpredictable at times, but he also witnessed how it empowered students intellectually.

White helped secure Lilly funding for the Center for Academic Innovation and the Center for Women's InterCultural Leadership, both of which support new curriculum initiatives and opportunities for student development outside the classroom. Prior to that, he directed the Leaders of a New Indiana (LONI) project and other efforts to increase diversity at Saint Mary's.

"Engaging," "quirky," "funny," and "kind" are some of the words Assistant Director of Alumnae Relations Michelle Poeppe Egan '93 uses to describe her former professor. White taught her English literature and film classes and was "always interested and excited about my writing, ideas, and dreams," she says. "He is so proud of every student."

"What a warm, delightful person Pat is," says Patrick Pierce, associate dean of the faculty and director of the Center for Academic Innovation. "It is impossible to imagine or appreciate what faculty development programs would look like without Pat White. Everyone at the College understands this. This is a fundamentally different place because of the work Pat White did." White has left an indelible mark on Saint Mary's; at the same time, the College has shaped his career path. His respect for same-gender, liberal arts education was something he learned at Saint Mary's, he says. "I believe that lives can be changed by a student-centered education. A small Catholic women's college is an exciting, caring community where students could dream big and then live lives bigger than they ever imagined."

When he assumes the presidency of Wabash College this summer, he will lead one of only three remaining men's colleges in the country. He'll take with him his own vision for living large and what he learned at Saint Mary's. If he has the soul of an artist, Wabash College is his next canvas.