THREE-SIXT-E | ALUMNI E-NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 10/SEPTEMBER 2014
ALUMNI E-NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 10/SEPTEMBER 2014
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Constructing a Legacy
Prof O’Connell retires The year 2014 sees the end of an era with the retirement of Rector and Vice-Chancellor Prof Brian O’Connell – the end not only of his long and productive tenure as a leader, but also of an association with UWC that almost spans its entire history. His experience of UWC in the 1960s was bad enough for him to vow never to return after his graduation with a BA in 1969. He held to that vow until 1985, when he accepted a post as a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education. From 1988 Prof O’Connell took up leadership positions at several institutions, including the old Peninsula Technikon, and headed the Western Cape Education Department before succeeding Cecil Abrahams in 2001. He found an institution struggling with dwindling student numbers and financial deficits that resulted in the retrenchment of staff. Worse, the government’s National Working Group then examining the status of universities recommended that UWC be merged with Peninsula Technikon. Arguing that “UWC could be as great if not greater than it was in the struggle for this new challenge of building the intellectual power of a nation,” O’Connell and the University
management convinced the government to shelve the merger. O’Connell then oversaw a decade of massive infrastructural developments (including Africa’s biggest life sciences facility), impressive improvements in academic standards, dramatic growth in student numbers and the return of financial stability. “It has been argued that UWC has risen from a university that was thought of as not able to fend for itself just 12 years ago to being the South African university that has by far, and with relatively few resources, made a bigger leap into excellence than any other university,” says O’Connell proudly of the University, which now ranks among the leading institutions in South Africa and Africa. Although retiring, he would like to continue helping the institution through fundraising. And what will the lifelong educationist miss the most? “The wonder of being in the midst of a vibrant site of learning,” he says. And his dream? “For the UWC rugby team to beat the Maties!” O’Connell chuckles. PAGE ONE