DePaul president Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M. announced he will resign as president of DePaul University effective summer of 2017.
“It’s best for DePaul if I step aside in the summer of 2017 so that a new leader can assist the institution to name and ambitiously pursue its next set of strategic objectives,” Holtschneider said in an email sent to faculty and staff Monday afternoon.
According to the email, the decision has been underway since December of last year.
“My decision to step aside as president has been underway since my Christmas retreat,” Holtschneider said in his email. “In late January, the provincial of my Vincentian congregation gave permission for this transition. I informed DePaul’s board leadership in March, at which time we decided to share this news more broadly at the conclusion of the academic year.”
The email also stated that he will not being leaving for another position, but rather return to a tenured faculty position after a year away from the University.
Holtschneider’s resignation comes just weeks after increasing tension on campus, the tipping point of which was a visit by Milo Yiannopoulous and subsequent protests, where many students called for his resignation.
DePaul professor of law Terry Smith was one of the people who called for Holtschneider’s resignation in a recent letter to the editor.
“The President’s decision to step down was an act of true leadership,” Smith said in response to Holtschneider’s announcement today. “His decision, however, should not be used as an excuse to slow-walk or ignore the demands set forth by the university’s black community.
“My concern is also that the faculty not be passive in the selection process for a new president, and that the leadership of Faculty Council does not betray the interests of the faculty in that process.”
The University will comprise a search committee of board representatives, university administration, faculty and students, led by DePaul Trustee and Vice Chair Jim Ryan, to hire a new president, according to a university press release.
“The board is dedicated to conducting a comprehensive national search to find the best individual possible to lead the university,” board chair William Bennett said in the release.
The committee will also retain assistance from an executive search firm, Witt/Kieffer, and “will consider both Vincentian and lay leaders.”
The board will also invite the submission of candidate names from members of the university community, according the release.
RU_Serious • Jun 14, 2016 at 8:16 pm
They should change the team name from “Blue Demons” to “Special Snowflakes”.
mdsman • Jun 14, 2016 at 5:06 am
Congratultions, children
You have achieved a very important status
I will confirm that I did not accept any interns from your school this year.
Furthermore, no graduate of DePaul, after 2010, will be considered for employment.
And due note, those are high 5 figure jobs.
Good Job, Snowflakes!
7even • Jun 13, 2016 at 5:28 pm
Cucks run DePaul.
Ari Fine • Jun 13, 2016 at 3:30 pm
Coward. Those “activists” are fascists.
nevalha • Jun 13, 2016 at 2:48 pm
I guess the other thing that you learned while over in France was how to surrender without putting up much of a fight.
The administration reaped what it sowed in how it tried to sabotage the Milo Yiannopoulos talk, how it policed the event (ie. they didn’t), and in its milquetoast response to the lunatic fringe who drove this clown car off of a bridge. The proof is in how the speaker himself has been treated at other universities. Similar events where the protests and talks were properly policed and supported went off just fine.
Catholic education is supposed to stand for a whole new level of insight, inquiry, and introspection. In kow-towing to the politically orthodox, this administration has betrayed the very ideals that DePaul once stood for. At DePaul, the inmates are running the asylum.