If there’s anything Daniel O’Brien has learned over his career, it’s how to be diplomatic.
Diplomacy has become O’Brien’s strong suit, given that wherever he goes, he seems to leave having made the organization better.
During a 16-year term as president of St. Thomas University, he oversaw a massive campus expansion, adding seven new buildings and more than doubling the university’s enrolment. His influence on the STU of today is so strong that the study hall in Margaret Norrie McCain Hall bears his name.
But he didn’t stop there.
Since leaving STU in 2006, O’Brien has facilitated the Atlantic School of Theology’s first-ever faculty contract negotiations, chaired a commission that helped the Nova Scotia government balance the supply and demand of teachers and assisted the Canadian Medical Association with revamping its governance structure – to name a few projects.
O’Brien’s been called on to help again and this time, the task in front of him is large.
O’Brien, who now splits his time between Halifax and Chester, N.S., has been asked to advise the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design as it drafts a sustainability plan. His official title is facilitator and he’ll report monthly to the Nova Scotia government.
The college has been operating beyond its means for years, O’Brien explained.
“NSCAD has hit a classic funding wall. Expenditures far exceed operational revenues. That’s occurred in three successive years.
“The only reason why they’ve been able to operate as is, [is] because the government has seen fit to essentially infuse more money than their formula would suggest is satisfactory.”
Under O’Brien’s watch, the college has to figure out how to live with what resources it has over the foreseeable future, without the quality of education taking a hit.
The stakes are high and the future of NSCAD rests on the sustainability plan.
“I’m working diligently to help them uncover every possible means of salvaging what is by everyone’s estimation a highly valuable addition to the post-secondary sector,” he said.
“It’s [a] difficult task, but it’s doable.”
O’Brien couldn’t pinpoint a specific experience at STU that prepared him to take on the task. But said he understands the complexity of universities and how change needs to be carried out differently, sometimes slower, in them.
For example, a university still has an obligation to its students, even as it’s changing, he said.
“The government might say, ‘You should eliminate programs that are under-enrolled or aren’t as robust in terms of financial break even as others.’
“You can’t just do that in a university environment when you’re recruiting students a year in advance of their arrival…to participate in specific programs.”
That’s the kind of advice O’Brien has been brought in to offer.
He can’t speak specifically on some of the things he’s working on at NSCAD because they’re still under development. But he can say what he won’t do. He doesn’t plan on reminding everyone about his success at STU and with other projects. He wants to focus only on the future.
“You can’t constantly be drawing on your own experiences that resulted in [success]. People don’t want to hear about that all the time.”
Even as he’s worked on other projects, O’Brien has kept up with what’s going on at STU. He regularly checks the STU website and attended president Dawn Russell’s installation last fall.
The best advice he can give to STU to avoid a situation like NSCAD’s is for the university to operate within its means.
“That’s the important balance that everyone strives for, to strive for quality, strive for excellence, but do it in a way which does not over extend your resources. It’s a lesson in fiscal balance and moving towards fiscal responsibility.”
It sounds logical enough, but O’Brien warns it’s easy to lose fiscal balance. Any combination of decreasing operating grants from provincial governments, dipping enrolment or contract negotiations could be all it takes.
“It can happen almost overnight. You have to be very vigilant.”
