The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

The Student News Site of Saint Louis University

The University News

Two Priests Resign Ministry Posts

    Two prominent Jesuit priests have departed Saint Louis University, having resigned their Campus Ministry positions more than two months ago.

    Michael Doody, S.J., who was at the University for 16 years, resigned as the director of campus ministry on May 23, 2005.

    Bernard Barry, S.J., who worked at SLU for seven years as a campus minister and taught a class in the John Cook School of Business, said he resigned a few days after Doody and that his last day of employment was June 15.

    Originally, the University fired Barry but later changed the status of his termination to resignation, Doody told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

    Both men said they were given until June 20 to leave the University.

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    University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., and other officials have been reticent to discuss the details of the two priests’ departures, due to legal precautions.

    However, Biondi did say, “There were complaints,” and that “information was brought to us that we had to act on in a decisive way.”

    While he did not clarify the nature of those complaints, he did say that they were not being used as an excuse to fire two employees who were known to clash with the adminstration.

    “I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t do that,” Biondi said. “First of all it would be morally wrong and unethical, and especially—two of my Jesuit brothers? I’m not going to do that.

    “My conscience is clear,” Biondi also said. “Despite what [Doody] thinks, we had a lot of input. And it was not just Biondi. We had other people, a variety of people…and that’s why I find myself at peace with this decision, because it was a serious number of areas that needed to be corrected.”

    Biondi confirmed that his office received messages of support, “the majority [of which] were from students.” He declined to show those messages to The University News, however, and said he would not feel comfortable inviting those individuals to speak with this newspaper.

    In a May 30 article for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Tim Townsend reported that “more than a dozen students, faculty members, alumni and parents who had spoken with the priests” said Barry’s criticism of a $75 graduation fee was one act that put him in poor standing with University officials.

    After the fee was announced by Vice President of Enrollment John Baworowsky at an April 13 senate meeting, Barry, who was the organization’s chaplain, told this newspaper, “You go to school here and at the beginning of the year you are given set fees, and then to have this fee added on at the very end is really and issue of justice.”

    In a recent interview, Biondi admitted that “the graduation fee was a mistake…not in the concept, but in its implementation,” adding, “I take part responsibility for that.”

    In late May, Kathy Hagedorn, SLU’s vice president for human resources, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the University “does not discuss the reasons for resignations. It’s a personnel matter.”

    In an interview with Biondi, at which the University general council, William Kauffman, was present, Kauffman reiterated the administration’s position not to discuss confidential employment matters.

    Specifically, Biondi declined to comment on claims by Doody that there had been “no due process” prior to the University’s request for Barry’s resignation.

    “My counsel would be that that really relates to the whole personnel matter and that, clearly, Father Doody is free to say what he chooses…but the policy of the University is really to refrain from commenting on [personnel matters],” Kauffman said, “and I would encourage the president to follow that policy.”

    In a written statement, the superior of the Jesuit’s Missouri province, Timothy McMahon, S.J., referred queries about the priests’ departures to University officials.

    “It is always unfortunate when conflicts occur, and especially painful when they occur within our institutions or between members of the Society of Jesus,” McMahon said. “As provincial, my responsibility is to make individual Jesuits available for work at any Jesuit university. The decision to employ or to continue to employ an individual Jesuit as a member of the faculty or staff of [SLU] must be left to the appropriate university administrators.”

    Lisa Reiter, an associate director for campus ministry, has been named the interim head of the department until a search committee finds a permanent replacement for Doody.

    Biondi said that a search for a permanent director of campus ministry would begin shortly after Labor Day, but said that the University had not set any hard deadlines for selecting a candidate.

    “There’s a priority with it, but we can’t start until the students are here, the faculty are here,” Biondi said.

 

Doody’s story

    Barry declined to speak with The University News prior to the deadline for this issue, other than to clarify the dates of his resignation and departure. Doody declined to comment on Barry’s situation, but offered the written statement he had given to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in May.

    In that statement, Doody explained that Hagedorn asked him to resign because he “created an atmosphere in campus ministry that was not supportive of the administration.”

    Doody, who had been the director of campus ministry for 10 years and was also the moderator of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, also explained to The University News that the University asked for his resignation specifically because, “I refused to be involved with the dismissal of a member of my staff.” That staff member, presumably, was Barry, a campus minister and moderator of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity.

    Both SLU officials and Doody declined to give specific reasons why the University asked for Barry’s resignation.

    In his statement, Doody said that in a meeting with Hagedorn and Vice President for Student Development Kathy Humphrey, Humphrey “informed me that one of my staff members—although seven years into his tenure—was not a ‘good institutional fit.’ She gave me three instances which she considered probative of this.”

    Doody added, “If details of these are desired, it is, of course, that particular vice president’s place rather than mine to provide them.”

    Humphrey, who resigned her post and left the University May 1, declined to comment. “The policy for this institution is that these sort of things are not discussed,” she said.

    Doody said he had protested to University officials after they proposed asking for Barry’s resignation, telling them, “No due process had taken place, no corrective counseling.”

    Those officials, Doody says, told him that it was his fault, as Barry’s supervisor, for not conducting such counseling. Doody then told officials, “I should be fired [for that],” not Barry.

    Corrective counseling is outlined in SLU’s staff handbook as a “policy of the University to correct inappropriate behavior through progressive discipline, up to and including dismissal, depending upon the circumstances of any particular case.”

    Such counseling is carried out in four stages—first corrective warning, critical warning, final warning and discharge—but “first-time level 3 offenses may be the basis for discharge.”

    The handbook lists 18 different kinds of level 3 offenses, which range from insubordination and horseplay, to more serious infractions involving alcohol, drugs and sexual harassment. The list also includes “any other similar offenses which reason, morals or common sense indicates to be seriously harmful to the University” or its members, according to the section of the handbook, which is available at www.slu.edu/services/HR/hrhandbook.html.

 

Reactions from the community

   While most students are away from SLU’s campus for the summer, there was still a considerable reaction from students.

    SGA Senator Eric Barr expressed concern about the timing of the events. He stated students “felt betrayed” that these actions occurred over the summer, while most students were away from campus.

    Senior James Swift, who was a member of a contingent of students protesting the forced resignations at the ground breaking of the new research building, responded to Biondi’s comments in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

    “He said something along the lines of there being only four out of eleven-hundred students protesting, that is because most students have to work during the day to help pay for SLU,” Swift said.

    Alumni were upset to hear the news of the priests’ dismissal as well. Former SGA President Nick Sarcone was outspoken in his criticism of the administration’s actions.

    “I understand they have a legal duty as to why they can’t release the information, but Fr. Biondi shouldn’t insinuate that something terrible happened,” Sarcone told The University News. “That is just terrible politics.”         

    Sarcone is also concerned for the student body as a whole. He referred to the two priests’ involvement with the Rugby Club, SGA, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Delta Sigma Phi and Students for Life as many of the organizations whose members would feel the effects of the departures.

    Barr, who is also a member of Delta Sigma Phi, said his fraternity feels the effects of Barry’s departure. He cited Barry’s support in times of difficulty and his willingness to “go to bat” for Delta Sigma Phi when they needed him.

    “Definitely, the students will feel a sense of loss because of this,” said SGA President Cari Johns. “But, we need to move forward, because they are not coming back. We need to honor and remember what they did for us, but we need to work with the people who will fill their positions.”

    Johns said SGA would bring two resolutions to the floor during its first meeting to commemorate the two Jesuits and what they have accomplished for the campus while they were at SLU. She also said SGA will work hard to assimilate the new members of campus ministry who replace the priests.  

    Steven Agostino, S.J., who worked in campus ministry from 2002 to 2004, offered a more subdued reaction.

    “Put the signs away and get on with life,” he said, referring to talk among students of holding a public demonstration when the school year begins in August. “Don’t protest it.”

    He said it was “sad that it had to happen this way,” but “campus ministry really needed some new life.”

    Agostino also said it was his understanding that Doody and Barry would be leaving SLU after the 2005-2006 school year, unrelated to any plans University officials might have had to dismiss them.

    Doody, he said, would be up for reassignment, and Barry would be leaving to begin his tertianship, a stage in the Jesuit development process that all priests undergo.

    “It was possible,” Doody said, referring to reports that he might be reassigned. “My province had asked if I was ready to leave next year,” he explained, adding, “It would have been on my terms.”

 

The president’s perspective

    Where Biondi would not speak about Doody and Barry’s resignations, or the events leading to them, he did offer his thoughts about student advocacy and the University moving on in the absence of two prominent figures.

    “We want to be positive about this,” he said. “Campus ministry is important, campus ministry is not just about two people.”

    He also said that the areas of SLU life toward which Doody and Barry focused much of their energy—specifically, the Greek community and the 10 p.m. Sunday Mass, which Doody is credited with introducing to campus—would not be neglected in their absence.

    “That’s an extremely important Mass,” Biondi said. “We’re not going to be short-shrift.”

    He added, “I know that the Greeks…the fraternities and the sororities may be upset…Well, there’s nothing, hopefully, that’ll change in that area…I want to strengthen the fraternities and sororities.”

    Biondi stressed that he felt the role of student advocacy was not limited to Doody and Barry. “We’re all advocates. I’d like to think there’s not just two campus ministers who are advocates,” he said.

    He listed a number of different kinds of University employees who he said helped the school in their individual capacity.

    He also produced a check from Anheuser-Busch (A-B) for $500,000—the fourth payment of a $3.5 million pledge to be payed by A-B over the course of seven years for the development of the Busch Student Center.

    “Father Biondi was an advocate when he went, with his hat in hand, and asked Mr. Busch, ‘We need money for scholarships. We need money for the BSC,” Biondi said. “Is that advocacy? Is that what I try to do? Do I try, as president…to advocate for academic freedom?…Advocacy? We’re all advocates.”

    On the loss of two priests who were known for being popular with students, Biondi said only, “I hope for the good reasons. I hope he was popular for the good reasons. I hope.”

Matt Rysavy and Annie Boken contributed reporting for this article.

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