Like David Jayne Hill, our second president, Dennis O'Brien came to us from the presidency of Bucknell University. Inauguration of President O'Brien took place on October 1, 1984.
President O'Brien's administration saw the opening of a number of important facilities, including the Computer Studies Building with its Carlson Library, and Schlegel Hall on the River Campus; the new Sibley Library, Eastman Student Living Center, and Cominsky Tower at the Eastman School of Music; a major addition to the Memorial Art Gallery, and the beginning of a major addition to the Medical Center complex.
Innovative academic programs were instituted during the O'Brien years, including the Take Five Program.
From 1987 to 1990, an annual week-long Rochester Conference was hosted by the University. The topics were Creation, Time, Power and Pleasure. Speakers included Steven Jay Gould, Derek Walcott, Alfred Kazin, Marge Piercy, Harlan Ellison, Robert Bly, John Cage, William Shatner, and The Amazing Randi.
Some of the events during the course of Dennis O'Brien's presidency 1984-1993:
- 1984: George Dennis O'Brien inaugurated on October 1 as Rochester's eighth president
- 1985: Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African-American Studies established
- 1986: Susan B. Anthony Center for women's studies established
- 1986: "Take Five" (tuition-free fifth-year option) is among innovations adopted in undergraduate education
- 1986: Graduate School of Management announces $30 million endowment and is renamed William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration
- 1986: Aggressive recruiting of River Campus undergraduate students gets under way; applications nearly double over next seven years.
- 1986: Rochester joins seven other national research universities to form University Athletic Association
- 1987: Carlson Library and Computer Studies Building opens
- 1987: Medical Center's Miner Library expanded and renovated
- 1989: Bausch & Lomb Riverside Park created
- 1989: Eastman Place opens, housing Sibley Music Library
- 1989: First annual Bausch & Lomb Invitational Regatta
- 1990: Alumni organization revitalized and reborn as University of Rochester Alumni Association
- 1990: University of Rochester Press established
- 1990: Rochester awards its 5,000th Ph.D.
- 1990: US. News & World Report ranks Rochester among the nation's top 25 universities
- 1991: Eastman Student Living Center opens adjacent to Eastman Theatre
- 1991: $375 million Campaign for the '90s begins public phase with a nucleus fund of nearly $127 million
- 1991: Schlegel Hall opens as classroom building for the Simon School
- 1992: Upgrade begun on Laboratory for Laser Energetics' OMEGA laser; will become one of the world's two most powerful lasers on completion in 1995
- 1992: W. Allen Wallis Institute of Political Economy established
- 1992: Project undertaken to create new Ambulatory Care Facility at Medical Center
- 1993: Center for Optoelectronics and Imaging, 120,000-square- foot research facility, opens on South Campus
- 1993: Endowment restructuring, begun in the mid-'80s, now nearly complete, with endowment total at $656.2 million
- 1993: Education school endowed and renamed Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development
- 1993: US. News & World Report ranks Rochester among the top 25 "best value" national universities.