Pilarz Leaving: Update

Multiple rumors about current (and soon to be past) Marquette President Scott Pilarz are swirling around campus. Why is he leaving? There must be more to it than has been announced, a lot of people are assuming.

Indeed, we got a rather nasty note in our mailbox at the Political Science Department today accusing us of being “naïve” for writing that we like what we have seen from Pilarz. It then gave a long list of supposed derelictions on Pilarz’ part.

We aren’t going to post about anything we can’t properly source.

And indeed, there are conspiracy theories about who, in the Marquette community, might have a grudge against Pilarz that would lead them to spread nasty rumors.

If anybody actually has any solidly sourced information about any derelictions on Pilarz’ part that might have led to his dismissal, we would like to know about it.  Until then, we aren’t too receptive to “reading between the lines” of statements from Pilzar and the Trustees.   That can be less a sound interpretation of a text than a reaction to a Rorschach test.

Statement From Pilarz On His Resignation

Just in, via an e-mail sent to the entire university community:

Dear members of the Marquette community:

I am writing to provide some further background and information on my decision to resign as president of Marquette. First, I want you to know that I have enjoyed my time here, especially my interaction with students, faculty and staff. The classes I have been privileged to teach stand out in my mind. Marquette students are bright, engaging, thoughtful and genuine. Our faculty and staff are generous and deeply devoted to the university’s mission. Our work together throughout the strategic planning process is also a highlight in my career in higher education. I have never before seen a campus community work so well toward a common purpose. Hopefully the plan will shape the university’s direction for years to come. Additionally, I want to thank the vice presidents and deans for their contributions to the life of the university and to my life.

Given all of these truths, leaving Marquette is a decision that involved a great deal of prayer, thought, and spiritual conversation, a decision that evolved gradually over two years. But once I came to clarity, I decided it was best to act in a timely manner. Both the clarity and timing are entirely mine, despite the efforts of friends and colleagues to convince me to consider remaining at Marquette.

As part of the final stage of my Jesuit formation, called tertianship (which admittedly came later for me than most Jesuits), I made the 30-day silent version of the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. Many of you are familiar with the dynamic of the exercises and its drive toward interior freedom. The exercises can lead to what St. Ignatius calls “an election.” During the retreat I felt initial stirrings that have grown in me over the past two years. I began to consider other apostolic opportunities available to me. As I look forward to my future as a Jesuit priest from the vantage point of being over 50, I realized I had been a university president for more than a decade. That is the longest I have ever done anything in my life and I have always been a restless soul.

Believe me that I will be forever grateful for my work with colleagues and collaborators at Scranton and Marquette. It has been a blessing.

At the same time, I have decided to do more and different things as a Jesuit. For example, I desire to do more pastoral work than I have been able to do as a president. I also want to do more teaching, research and writing. I acknowledge, as well, a couple practical realities that have influenced the timing of my decision. First, I believe that Marquette needs a president who is willing to commit to working wholeheartedly on a comprehensive capital campaign over a five to seven year period. Given my other hopes and desires, I am not in a position to do that now. Also, I want to be more available to my aging parents’ health concerns than I can be in my current role. This is common among people my age. Finally, I want to give the Marquette trustees enough time to conduct a careful search for a new president. I decided it was better to share my thinking with them at the start of the academic year rather than in December or May. I agreed that I would stay at Marquette until the board could find an appropriate interim president.

I’m happy to share that the Board of Trustees has asked my predecessor, Rev. Robert A. Wild, S.J., to serve as interim president. Now that Father Wild has agreed to serve in that capacity during a search, I can confidently take some time to consider my future options during a sabbatical period in the coming months. I will assist Father Wild with the transition, while traveling back and forth to the East coast to care for my ailing father. Father Wild is concluding his duties with the Wisconsin Province and will take over as interim president on Thursday, Oct. 16. I know that Marquette is in great hands, and I look forward to working with Father Wild and the Board of Trustees to ensure a smooth transition and a successful search.

I hope this helps to explain the nature and timing of my decision. Again, this has been a deliberate process in the context of great personal freedom during which I have had the support of friends and colleagues at Marquette and beyond. I am grateful for that and for my time here.

God bless you, God bless Catholic and Jesuit higher education, and God bless Marquette.

Sincerely,

Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J.
President
Marquette University

Note, first, the comments about the capital campaign.

I believe that Marquette needs a president who is willing to commit to working wholeheartedly on a comprehensive capital campaign over a five to seven year period.

This seems to confirm what our sources have suggested: that Pilarz is simply not the sort who wants to glad-hand potential donors incessantly.

Of course, in any case of a “resignation” people are going to ask “was this person fired, or perhaps forced out?” Unfortunately, we don’t have sources who would have a definitive answer. Our tentative conclusion is that he probably wasn’t. When Marquette had a disastrous president (Albert J. DiUlio, S.J.) in the 1990s, it took six years for the Trustees to bounce him. It seems too soon for Trustee dissatisfaction to have reached the point of firing Pilarz.

Thus, we are in an odd situation. We have a statement from a Marquette official that we are inclined to think is actually the (mostly) full and honest story.

We have long maintained that the best kind of university administrator is somebody who does not want to be a university administrator. The best administrators (and they are very rare) are those who care little about building a bureaucratic empire, and who identify with the faculty, and students and (among clergy) long for pastoral work.

Pilarz, it seems, is somebody who did not terribly badly want to be a university president.

Pilarz Out as Marquette President

The official statement from the University is reproduced below. Marquette President Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., has resigned.

This came as a shock to the campus.

And of course, everybody is asking “what’s the real story behind this?”

We don’t claim any inside sources, but a common assumption seems to be that Pilarz simply wasn’t a good fundraiser. He didn’t have the gregarious personality necessary to glad-hand alumni and others who might write big checks to Marquette.

He has not been around long enough for us to have a distinct impression of him, but we have liked what we have seen. He had the gumption to pull official sponsorship from the salacious FexSem seminar that was being sponsored by the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center last spring.

More importantly, he canned Provost John Pauly after allowing him to serve a “decent interval.” Then he made it clear that, with Pauly’s replacement, there was going to be a fundamental change in how the University is run.

When Albert J. DiUlio, S.J. took over the presidency of Marquette in 1990, he shifted the balance of power in the University away from the “academic side” toward the “business side” of the organization. Where before the bureaucrats running the business affairs of the institution had been rather deferential to deans, department chairs and even individual faculty members, they began to dictate all kinds of decisions.

Pilarz has promised that the new Provost who replaces Pauly will be the “number two person” in the administration. That is, will dominate the business side of the institution.

That’s a massive change for the better. So we wish Pilarz well. And as we always must be at a time like this, we are apprehensive for the future of Marquette.

Official Statement

Dear alumni, parents and friends:

As chair of the Marquette University Board of Trustees, a fellow alumnus and Marquette parent, I’m writing tonight to let you know that Marquette University President Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., has informed the Board of Trustees of his resignation in order to pursue new apostolic work.

Father Pilarz informed the Board of Trustees of his resignation now to allow the university to begin its search to have a new president in place for the 2014-15 academic year. He will stay on as university president through the end of the first semester of the 2013-14 academic year, which ends on Dec. 14. Marquette will begin the search process for a new permanent president immediately.

In a news release sent out tonight, Father Pilarz said, “After 10 years as a university president, I believe the time has come to consider other apostolic opportunities for me as a Jesuit priest. I have made this decision after much prayer, discernment and conversation with religious superiors, my spiritual director and others whose counsel I have sought over the past three years.”

During his tenure as president, Father Pilarz guided Marquette into a newly reconfigured Big East conference, hired a dean for Marquette’s largest college, the Helen Way Klingler College of Arts and Sciences, and collaborated across campus with faculty, staff and students to develop a university-wide strategic plan. He also led significant renovations for the university’s historic core buildings of Johnston Hall, Marquette Hall and Sensenbrenner Hall, as well as an expansion of the School of Dentistry.

The entire Board and I thank Father Pilarz for his accomplishments and dedication to Marquette, our faculty, our students, and our alumni, parents and friends throughout the world. As Chair of the Board and a proud alumnus, I take immense pride and responsibility for ensuring the mission and innovative spirit of our Catholic, Jesuit tradition continues well into the future. The Board of Trustees and I have the utmost confidence in the university leadership currently in place and will work closely with them to map out a transition plan for the future success of this great university.

Sincerely,

Charles M. Swoboda, Eng ‘89
Chair, Marquette University Board of Trustees