Johns Hopkins president stands on guard for all
‘MUCH OF WHO I AM TODAY WAS FORGED IN CANADA. AND I TAKE ITS VALUES SERIOUSLY,’ TORONTO-BORN DANIELS SAYS
Inside the president’s office at Johns Hopkins University, Ronald J. Daniels would be hardpressed to forget his roots. Mementos from his time growing up in Toronto are neatly hung on the walls, just as photos of friends and family are scattered around t he office. Then t here’s Moose Mountie. When students and faculty walk into Daniels’ office, it’s no surprise their attention is immediately drawn to the fivefoot stuffed animal in an RCMP uniform.
Daniels, who has been president at the Baltimore university since 2009 and has used his position to become an important civic leader in a city struggling with unemployment, race issues and poverty, looks at the oversized moose as he reflects on his career that now includes an appointment to the Order of Canada.
On occasion, Daniels even uses his clout to take on President Donald Trump.
“Much of who I am today was forged in Canada,” Daniels says. “And I take its values seriously.”
Daniels was born in Toronto in 1959. Excluding a short spell at Yale University earning a graduate degree in law, Daniels spent nearly 30 years walking the halls of the University of Toronto. First as a law student in 1978, then as a professor in 1988 and finally a dean in 1995, Daniels slowly transitioned from wanting to practise law to trying to forge a career in higher education.
Some detractors of his work at U of T blame Daniels for increasing tuition at the law school — he approved a spike to $ 22,000 annually. But it was here that Daniels began to expand his work beyond the school’s borders. His Pro Bono Students Canada program, which has since been implemented in every Canadian law school, matched students to different community organizations in desperate need of legal aid.
“We wanted to be both open and accessible … but also be attentive to this issue of what our students do upon graduation and making sure financial burdens didn’ t artificially distort t he career com- mitments they wanted to make,” Daniels says.
After 25 years at U of T, Daniels moved on to become provost at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. Four years later, Daniels became the first Canadian president of Johns Hopkins University, though he wasn’t a standard choice. Known primarily for its medical school, the head of the university usually has a coinciding background. It’s also required that the school’s presidents be American so they can oversee the applied physics l ab conducting classified research.
That wasn’t a problem for Pam Flaherty, the chair of Johns Hopkins’ board of trustees who recruited and hired Daniels in 2009. His background didn’t matter to Flaherty because Daniels “had all the buttons” and was a leader “who could bring all the parts of the university together.” What continues to impress Flaherty is Daniels’ work with Baltimore’s struggling and underprivileged communities.
“He likes to say ‘ We’re not in Baltimore, we’re of Baltimore,’ ” Flaherty says. “He’s been a leader not only in what Hopkins does but leveraging it and becoming a civil leader in Baltimore.”
When the city descended into civil unrest after Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died of fatal injuries obtained while in police custody, Daniels and the Johns Hopkins health system responded by boosting the amount of entry level positions going to workers from troubled communities to 40 per cent from 26 per cent. For the city’s youth, Johns Hopkins committed to hiri ng 300 people between 15 and 21 for summer positions.
With Trump’s election, Daniels has been forced to enter the fray on national issues as well, condemning the president’s executive order to establish a travel ban. In a letter to his students, Daniels, whose father escaped from Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, called Trump’s actions an “attack” on the “country’s celebrated values.”
“When universities such as ours find our fundamental mission imperilled by an executive order that erodes our core values and the founding principles of the nation, we cannot stand by,” Daniels wrote, after a PhD student and professor were both impacted by the travel ban.
Even though the community as a whole is a focus, Daniels never forgets the students. Never too shy to be hands- on, Daniels once noticed a group of students practicing for a Bollywood showcase in the university’s gym.
Although he’s been in the U. S. for more than a decade now, Daniels hasn’t forgotten the Canadian values that continue to shape his work. And his efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. He was appointed to the Order of Canada, the highest honour a Canadian citizen can receive, in December “for his contributions as a university administrator and for his achievements as a champion of community engagement.”
“I was so touched to know that the Canadian government still saw me as part of the country,” Daniels says. “Canada is important to me.”