"I think I made a difference . . . "

NEWS: You've been doing a lot of these interviews lately. Does it feel a bit like you're being asked to write your own obituary?

WHALEN: You do get a feeling like you're being buried while still walking around. It's kind of hard sometimes to realize it's all over, but everything does come to an end. I'm going off and [Ithaca College] lives and breathes, and I can turn around and look back and say it was fun. I was really very pleased by the way I was treated by the students, faculty, staff, and board of trustees these last few weeks. I felt a warmth like a lot of people were saying, "Hey, J.J., it's a tough job and lots of times we weren't able to say it, but we want to tell you we think you did a pretty good job." I was very pleased with that pond with the turtle; that's probably the most touching thing of all. [see the fountain dedication]

NEWS: Are there any unfinished jobs you wish you had taken care of, or any you decided to leave to your successor?

WHALEN: The latter one, no. It's a built-in thing with me to try not to leave something for the next person to do if it's negative. If there's some positives to be gained, why that's a nice thing to pass on. But if it's negative, if it's a tough job, I believe you should get it done if you can. I wish that we had gotten construction started sooner on the new music and health buildings. The financing and funding are there so that's good to have before I leave, but I would have liked to have seen some of that rising out of the ground.

NEWS: Do you have any regrets or second thoughts about actions you took, or didn't take, in your 22 years as president?

WHALEN: I never really have looked back much. I've always been so busy. The downsizing was something I would have preferred not to have to have gone through. But I felt very strongly that when the board said it had to be done and asked me to stay to do it, since I had enjoyed the prosperity of the first 19 years maybe it was my responsibility to get it shaped up so the next president didn't have that. That would have hurt me a lot to have a person coming in behind me and have something like that to do which would have been awfully difficult.

I'm convinced that what we did has secured the College for a significant period of time. I won't say for all time, because when Peggy Williams comes in she's going to have to work hard at developing more resources for the institution and doing all the political lobbying that I have had to do. But the budget has been reduced in a way that I think we can handle and still be very successful. I think it will be a richer and a healthier school.

NEWS: Have you been speaking much with Peggy Williams?

WHALEN: I've talked to her a few of times on the phone and then she came in early May for the weekend. She and her husband and I went over the president's home pretty carefully, then Peggy and I had a long talk Sunday morning. The one thing I want to make very clear to everybody is that I'm not going to be sticking my nose into anything. When I finish as president at the end of June, I am finished as president. I'm going to be available to Peggy whenever she wants me to be available, to help with raising money or wherever else I can be of service, but I think when you leave the presidency you should leave, and not in either reality or in perception seem to be staying.

NEWS: Do you have any specific plans come July?

WHALEN: Trying to figure out how to fit all the stuff Gillian and I have in Fountain Place into our home in New Hampshire, which is already filled! Actually, I am committed to one College project. I was able to get travel support for Rod Winther and the wind ensemble, who have been invited to give concerts in England and Ireland, and I have agreed to be at the concerts in London and in Limerick, where we have a special relationship with the University of Limerick.

I'll also be working on some evaluations for the military in the coming year. Some people have talked to me about doing various other things, but I want to think about it before I jump in. Maybe I'll just watch the water go by at the lake in New Hampshire. I'd like to go skiing next year at some old haunts in Switzerland and maybe hit the beach in Spain. I'm just wide open at the moment. My whole life I never really planned, and this all worked out okay.

NEWS: Were there ever any times here when you just thought about calling it quits?

WHALEN: People don't understand the complexity of this institution. We tend to be called a small, private, liberal arts college, but that's not quite right. It's a complex comprehensive institution, a small university, and so the difficulties that most presidents of colleges and universities face pretty much are faced here in this office. The two times when I found it most stressful -- not that I didn't feel up to the task, because if I had not felt that I would have gone -- were when the collective bargaining push came right after I arrived here and the downsizing as I was preparing to leave.

Nobody is indentured in these offices. I've often heard college presidents bemoaning their fate and I've wondered, "why do they stay if they feel so badly about it?" I think it's a good job. I'm hurt sometimes by what people say, and I don't want to be seen as having only a corporate mentality, but if that's what it takes to get this place secured on down the road, then that's what you do. I've enjoyed it; I wouldn't have stayed if I didn't.

NEWS: Is there a particular moment you can point to when you felt proudest about being president of Ithaca College?

WHALEN: I take great pride in the accomplishments of our students and faculty. When a student got admitted to four top medical schools, that made me feel good and say, "Wow, that science program of ours is really doing the job." There are times in that concert hall in Ford Hall when you feel, "This is my college, my school," and you can sit there and be really proud of the performance. There have been the great games, the national championships. That was the best part of the whole thing -- being with the students, being able to get out there and talk and participate as much as I had a chance to. I'll miss that.

NEWS: Is being a college president any different now than it was when you started?

WHALEN: I think to some degree it is more difficult because there are so many more challenges now. Just financing an institution today is a problem. Governance -- who's in charge -- is challenged today like it's never been challenged before. It's a job in which you have to be able to live comfortably with confrontation. Oftentimes people assume that if there's confrontation, the president caused it. But it usually develops mutually or from somebody starting an issue you didn't want anyway. Having to say "no" is tough. It is hard sometimes at the end of the day after you've gotten beaten up a little bit. So you go home and get a good night's sleep and try again the next day. Again, if you don't enjoy it you shouldn't be there.

NEWS: Is Ithaca College a fundamentally different place than when you arrived here?

WHALEN: There are the obvious signs, in buildings and numbers of students and faculty, but I think where we have really advanced is in quality. Our music school, for example, was always excellent, but I believe you can get better, and over the years they have. The measurements of quality of students and of faculty in degrees and research and teaching have significantly changed, and I think they are very proud of that. Not that I ever want to be a slave to board scores, but student scores are better now, and that's a sign we're getting the kinds of students we'd like to get.

NEWS: Right after you had been hired as Ithaca's sixth president, you said, "No one can walk on water, but I hope I can swim fairly well." How do you think you've done in the water here?

WHALEN: I sure haven't been walking on it. Sometimes I've been swimming in it and sometimes I've been submerged for longer periods than I would have liked, but I've always gotten my head up out of the water in time to breathe a little bit. I've always felt that when you start a presidency you get a certain amount of coin in your pocket, and you should spend it wisely. It shouldn't be frittered away. I saved it up for a few years and then in recent years spent it up like crazy. But I think I've got a little small change left.

I had a good time. You don't miss things that you didn't like, and I will miss this job a lot for many different reasons. I will miss the people, the challenge, the opportunity to be involved, to participate, and to feel that I can make a difference. That's very important, that you feel you can make a difference. I think I made a difference in those 22 years.

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