Though Patricia O’Brien will be leaving her position as dean of the College of Letters and Sciences on Jan. 1, she is still very engaged in the university she says she appreciates so much.
Even when discussing her resignation, O’Brien manages to bring up quality-of-life issues for faculty, a topic of great concern for her.
“To be a great university, our faculty have a lot of challenges … and they don’t have the luxury that I have right now to step back,” she said.
Her decision to step down after four years as dean was “very much a personal one,” she said. “I’m at a place in my life where it’s a good moment for me … to step down,” she said. “My family needs me right now.”
It has been a busy four years for O’Brien, who said that while she enjoyed her job immensely, it was consuming.
One of the biggest parts of her job, O’Brien said, was fund-raising, particularly for undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships and endowed faculty chair positions.
During her tenure the College reached over $96 million in funds raised, surpassing all others schools including the David Geffen School of Medicine.
“Fund-raising has been a phenomenal success for the college,” O’Brien said. Beyond her fund-raising efforts, one aspect of her job O’Brien enjoyed the most was creating support for the College through outreach to alumni and local community members.
“The benefit of representing the College is a privilege. … It opens doors,” she said. For example, O’Brien mentioned that she had been working with a number of businesses, including movie studios, in order to raise the university’s profile in the greater Los Angeles community.
Rhea Turteltaub, interim vice chancellor for external affairs, worked with O’Brien on these outreach efforts and said her colleague’s dedication was outstanding.
“She rallied a great number of volunteers and donors in support of the college’s needs and priorities,” Turteltaub said. “She was energized and excited by the promise their involvement could bring. I know she derived great reward in developing those partnerships and nurturing them towards productive outcomes.”
This was particularly true of O’Brien’s relations with alumni, said Yolanda Nunn Gorman, president of the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association.
“I think Pat is one of the few people who gets the role alumni can play in making students feel welcome,” she said. “She really understood the connection between students and alumni.”
Both Nunn Gorman and the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s Academic Affairs Commissioner Addar Weintraub said O’Brien’s commitment to students was undeniable.
Whenever students came to O’Brien with ideas she was always supportive, Weintraub said.
“I think she was the first administrator we worked with … who told us, “˜Why don’t you think bigger?’ She challenged us to think outside the box and made us realize the power of student voice,” Weintraub said.
To improve students’ academic experience, O’Brien helped secure funding for humanities research and created three new programs for the College: the Institute of the Environment, the Center for Society and Genetics, and the environmental science degree program.
However, O’Brien will not be leaving her academic pursuits behind; she said she plans a number of academic and book projects during her time away from the university.
“I’m not going to give up my intellectual projects,” she said.
O’Brien said she will certainly miss the energy she sees at UCLA and as she tells the tale of walking down the aisle at commencement last year with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, her enthusiasm is palpable.
She described walking with Abdul-Jabbar through the crowd and watching the sea of students rise in their seats cheering.
“I said to Kareem, “˜I’ve never seen anything like this before,'” she said.