FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 14, 2004
www.jcu.edu
Contact: Christine Somosi/216-397-4663
Jerry Sheehan/216-397-4565
Edward Glynn, S.J., President of John Carroll University, Announces Resignation
University Heights, OHIO --Rev. Edward Glynn, S.J., President of John Carroll University, announced his resignation today at a regularly scheduled meeting of the University’s board of directors. The resignation is to become effective “whenever in the next academic year my successor is able to be in place.” Charles J. (Bud) Koch, Chair of the University’s board of directors, has established a nine-member presidential search committee. The committee is chaired by former Board Chair, Vincent A. Chiarucci. Glynn gave two reasons for his decision. One is the need to begin a new major fund raising campaign, which he said should be led by a president who will shape its priorities and see it through to a successful conclusion. “In 2005, I will be celebrating my 70th birthday. A campaign comparable to the one we just successfully concluded will take at least five or six years minimally to bring to successful completion. I then would be turning 75 or 76 years old. Is that a good thing for the university?” Under Glynn’s leadership, in May 2004 the University completed a successful $135-million “Choosing the Greater Good Campaign.” The second reason Glynn cited is that there currently is a “window of opportunity to search for a president without competing for candidates with any of the other Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. During this academic year, there is no search being conducted for a president at any of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. This is a rare thing in recent years.”
Board Chair Koch commented: “The seven years that Father Ed Glynn has been president have been a period of remarkable accomplishments for John Carroll. The university community has much to thank Ed for, not the least of which was the successful completion of its largest capital campaign, the new Shula Stadium and, of course, the remarkable new Dolan Science Center building. Despite all of this internal work, Ed still found time to reach out to the Cleveland community at large. One such example would be his leadership role in bringing the International Children’s Games to Cleveland last summer. The new president will truly have large shoes to fill.” Koch noted that the presidential search committee is mindful of an agreement between John Carroll University and the John Carroll University Jesuit Community which, in Article 1, stipulates: “The University and the Jesuit Community agree that the President of the University will be a person, preferably a member of the Society of Jesus, capable of and committed to the promotion of the Jesuit nature and mission of the University.” Thus, the search committee will search first for a Jesuit. Fr. Howard J. Gray, S.J., Rector of the Jesuit Community said: “Since 1998 Father Edward Glynn has provided John Carroll University with exemplary leadership. He has guided the community to a record Capital Campaign; he inspired the construction of the Dolan Science Center and the Shula Stadium; he sustained John Carroll in the everyday business of providing quality graduate and undergraduate education to thousands of young women and men. Foundational to his presidential oversight was the enduring Jesuit commitment to a faith that was expressed in works of justice, to a Catholic consciousness that gloried in its embrace of the world, and to a belief that only through cooperation with our lay colleagues would the Kingdom promised by Christ be accomplished. We will miss his honesty, his humor, and his humanity.”
Father Glynn became president of John Carroll in June 1998, succeeding Rev. John Shea, S.J. Immediately before that he served as interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Other positions of leadership include service as president of St. Peter’s College (Jersey City, NJ), as academic vice president and later as president of Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA), and as provincial of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus. He is a native of Clarks Summit, PA. John Carroll University, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a liberal arts university grounded in the Jesuit, Catholic tradition. The university has some 3,350 plus undergraduates and just over 750 graduate students. The U.S. News & World Report’s 2005 annual college guide ranks John Carroll University among the top five master’s-degree-granting universities in the Midwest and first in graduation/retention rank. Originally founded as St. Ignatius College in 1886, the university was renamed in 1923 to honor America’s first Catholic bishop, John Carroll of Maryland. John Carroll is one of 28 Jesuit colleges and universities located in the United States. Top of Page Statement by Edward Glynn, S.J., President of John Carroll University
Meeting of the Board of Directors
December 14, 2004 During this past academic year, as we were approaching the successful conclusion of the $135-million Choosing the Greater Good Campaign, I have had conversations with the chair of the board and the executive committee of the board regarding the need to begin another major campaign. In these conversations I pointed out that next year, in 2005, I will be celebrating my 70th birthday. A campaign comparable to the one we just successfully concluded will take at least five or six years minimally to bring to successful completion. I then would be turning 75 or 76 years old. Is that a good thing for the university? If I am not going to stay to the conclusion of the campaign, is it a good thing for the university that I have significant influence on shaping the priorities of the campaign and then leave it up to my successor to complete a campaign which had priorities that were shaped by a previous president? The question then is, of course, what for John Carroll is the best time for me to resign as president. Should it be sooner rather than later? An additional very important fact is that at this time, during this academic year, there is no search being conducted for a president at any of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. This is a rare thing in recent years. Since 1998 eighteen presidents have been appointed at these 28 institutions. Fourteen have been appointed since 2000. Thus this year we have a window of opportunity to search for a president without competing for candidates with any of the other Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States. For example, last year there were three searches going on. I chaired the presidential search committee at one of these, Fairfield University, and served on a second as a trustee member of the University of Detroit Mercy presidential search committee. The question that I asked the board chair and the executive committee is what is the greater good for John Carroll University. This is not about me. It is about the university. Thus I suggested to the chair and the executive committee that we should make use of the present window of opportunity and begin a search for my successor immediately. My resignation will become effective whenever next academic year my successor is able to be in place. If that is during the summer of 2005, it will occur then. If it is later in the academic year, it will occur later. Our board chair and executive committee agree with this timetable. Top of Page |
