After three months on the job, G. Allan O’Connor sums up his associate dean’s position of NIU’s College of Visual and Performing Arts as “bringing new students in and making sure they get out.”

O’Connor advises undergraduate students studying the field and confirms that they complete their graduation requirements. “I’ll do whatever the dean (Stanley Madeja) wants,” O’Connor said, “It is open-ended.”

His new responsibilities include monitoring and developing academic programs, coordinating academic reviews, preparing budgets, developing student performance data, recruiting students, supervising student financial aid and scholarships, and publishing a college newsletter for faculty and staff.

The college enrolls about 1,800 students majoring in visual and performing arts and serves about 7,000 students in general education courses. “The college has an excellent reputation and my job is to make sure that it continues,” he said.

NIU’s college of visual and performing arts is “in fairly good shape academically” O’Connor said. “I have a great concern in advising students, I’d like to see individuals improve.”

The college is education oriented and it gives students an educational experience that gives them a feeling of successful training, while providing them with training comparable to that of art institutes, O’Connor said.

Low enrollment in the arts and related fields is a nationwide problem, O’Connor said. Enrollment has declined severely in recent years nationally, but NIU’s program has maintained a stable enrollment, and in some cases has increased, he said.

O’Connor has two degrees in music, an education degree and a master’s degree in music performance. He began his career at NIU in 1968 when he became the music school’s percussion professor. In 1982, he was appointed the associate chairman of the school of music.

In 1973, O’Connor began the first university steel band in the United States. Since then, steel bands have become very popular in colleges across the country. “I’m very proud of it,” he said. O’Connor will continue to teach steel band, but said that his new position will require much of his time.