William P. Leahy

This article is about the academic. For the naval officer, see William D. Leahy.

William P. Leahy, SJ (born 1948) is the 25th President of Boston College, a post he has held since 1996. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska and raised in Imogene, Iowa, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1967, and is a member of the Jesuit's Wisconsin province. Leahy earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy and a master's degree in United States history at Saint Louis University in 1972 and 1975, respectively. He then began studies at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, where he earned degrees in theology (1978) and historical theology (1980). He received a doctoral degree in US history from Stanford University in 1986.

He began his academic career as a teacher at Campion Jesuit High School in Wisconsin from 1973-1975. He served as a teaching assistant at Stanford in 1981 before joining the Marquette University faculty as an instructor of history in 1985. He became an associate professor with tenure in 1991, and in that same year became Marquette's executive vice president.

Published works

Books

• Adapting to America: Catholics, Jesuits and Higher Education in the Twentieth Century (Georgetown University Press, 1991)

Articles

Leahy has written a number of articles on Catholic higher education in the United States, including, among others:

• "The Rise of Laity in American Catholic Higher Education," Records of the American Catholic Historical Society (1991)
• "Academic Professionalism and American Catholic Higher Education," Assembly 1989: Jesuit Ministry in Higher Education (1990)

In addition, Leahy has authored numerous articles in the Dictionary of Christianity in America and book reviews in History, Journal of American History and History of Education Quarterly.

Boston College presidency

Since assuming the Boston College (BC) presidency, Leahy's tenure has been marked with an acceleration of the growth and development of the university initiated by his predecessor, now-chancellor J. Donald Monan, SJ. BC's endowment has more than doubled, it has expanded by almost 150 acres (607,000 m²), and undergraduate applications have surpassed 29,000. At the same time, its students, faculty and athletic teams have seen unprecedented success — winning record numbers of Fulbrights, Rhodes Scholarships and other academic awards; setting new marks for research grants; and winning conference and national titles. In 2002, Leahy initiated the Church in the 21st Century program to examine issues facing the Roman Catholic Church in light of the clergy sexual abuse scandal. His effort brought BC world-wide praise and recognition for "leading the way on Church reform." In 2004, Leahy announced plans to merge with the Weston Jesuit School of Theology to advance BC as the world's foremost Jesuit university and a leading center of Catholic intellectual thought. In athletics, Boston College left the Big East Conference and joined the Atlantic Coast Conference on July 1, 2005.

Leahy's memberships include the American Catholic Historical Association, the American Historical Association, the History of Education Society and the Organization of American Historians.

Controversy

Fr. Leahy's presidency has not been without controversy. Fr. Leahy approved a decision to not alter the history requirement in BC's core curriculum to extend beyond Western history. He cancelled a dance sponsored by the BC gay and lesbian group, an event sponsored by the Boston College Woman's Health Initiative, and has remained stalwart in his resistance to substative changes to the universities policy of non-discrimination. The move from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference resulted in numerous lawsuits and venomous editorializing by some Boston sports writers, though eventually BC won the lawsuits and membership in the ACC resulted in greater financial reward and national exposure for the athletic department. (ACC schools received an average of $10.85 million for the tax year ending June 30, 2006, Big East full members averaged a little more than half that at $5,842,599.) [1] The invitation of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to receive an honorary degree and deliver the 2006 Commencement Address evoked protest from a significant number of the faculty members. While Dr. Rice received a standing ovation accompanied by extended applause at the 2006 Commencement Exercises, a subset of students and faculty did rise and turn their backs toward the stage as she was presented an honorary degree. Fr. Leahy has also been criticized for his lack of Pastoral leadership, sparse presence on the campus, and the "purge" of high ranking university leadership, including VP of Student Affairs, Dean for Student Development, and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

References

• "History from the ground up". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)