The Rev. Donald J. Harrington, who as president of St. John’s University came under fire for accepting lavish gifts from a former dean, announced on Friday that he would retire on July 31 from the New York institution. His chief of staff will resign on June 30, university officials confirmed.
Father Harrington, 67, has been president of St. John’s for 24 years, and the last few have been particularly tumultuous. The trial of Cecilia Chang, a former dean charged with stealing more than $1-million from the university, brought with it revelations that Father Harrington and Robert D. Wile, the chief of staff, may have benefited financially from Ms. Chang’s embezzlement.
Trial testimony and a subsequent investigation by New York magazine showed that Father Harrington and Mr. Wile, 35, took exotic vacations and accepted watches and suits from Ms. Chang. The allegations would have been problematic for any president, but they were particularly damaging to Father Harrington, a Vincentian priest who had taken a vow of poverty.
Ms. Chang, who was suspended in 2010 when an internal audit uncovered evidence of missing money, committed suicide last November before her trial concluded.
Father Harrington announced his pending retirement in an e-mail to students and members of the faculty and staff. The nearly one-and-one-half-page message does not specifically mention the controversy swirling around the president, but one sentence acknowledges “difficulties.”
“For quite a while, I have been thinking about when would be the best time to relinquish the leadership role to younger, perhaps more energetic individuals,” Father Harrington wrote. “The urgings of many members of the Board of Trustees and others persuaded me to remain longer than I had originally planned. But the difficulties for everyone during the past year have convinced me, after much prayer and reflection, that the time to leave the presidency has now come.”
‘Torches and Pitchforks’
Several months ago, the university’s Board of Trustees hired Frank H. Wohl, a New York lawyer, to investigate the allegations against the president and his chief of staff. University officials, however, would not say on Friday whether the investigation was still continuing.
“We have no information to share on that at this time,” Dominic P. Scianna, a university spokesman, wrote in an e-mail.
Gregory G. Maertz, an English professor, said he regarded Father Harrington’s retirement and Mr. Wile’s resignation as signals that the investigation would not absolve them.
“They’re getting out the door,” Mr. Maertz wrote in an e-mail, “before the villagers attack with torches and pitchforks.”
Father Harrington has previously cited the investigation as a reason for not commenting on the allegations, but university officials have never said whether a report of the findings would be made public. That fact has contributed to some professors’ skepticism about the efficacy of the probe.
Kathleen M. Lubey, an associate professor of English, said she had mixed feelings about Father Harrington’s retirement.
“It seems the retirement is a way of avoiding the hard issue of having Harrington accept responsibility for what happened,” she said. “Accountability of the administration may go unexamined.”
For all of the criticism he has taken, Father Harrington is credited with helping St. John’s to make the transition from an exclusively commuter institution into a residential campus. Announcing his retirement, the president cited that transition and creating a branch campus in Rome as signature accomplishments.
“I leave the presidency,” he wrote, “cherishing many memories, none more significant than those associated with the professional and personal relationships that I have enjoyed.”
