School president to step down
Rev. Michael Engh has led the Jesuit institution for the last decade
The president of Santa Clara University will step down at the end of the 2018-19 academic year, the school announced Friday.
Rev. Michael Engh, 68, has led the Jesuit institution for the last decade, overseeing the expansion of degree offerings and increasing the number of applicants by 60 percent.
“As I have reflected on the university’s path as well as my own, I came to the conclusion that now is the right time to bring in a new leader to take Santa Clara University into the future,” Engh, the school’s 28th leader, said in a statement. “Santa Clara is prospering and rising to new heights of achievement in teaching, curriculum development, scholarship, creative expression, and service to our students and the broader community.”
The university’s board of trustees will put together a search committee of board members, faculty, staff and members of the Jesuit community to identify the next president.
“With our talented and capable leadership team, I know that we won’t miss a beat and will continue to advance our priorities to ensure Santa Clara’s long-term success,” board chair Paul Gentzkow said in a statement.
Engh, who previously served as dean of the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and sits on the board of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, will take a sabbatical in June 2019 and then meet with Jesuit leaders to determine his next assignment.
During Engh’s presidency, the
university nearly doubled its endowment from $515 million in 2009 to $926 million in 2018. During his tenure, Santa Clara University received several large donations, including $100 million from Susan and John A. Sobrato and $30 million from the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Foundation to bolster the school’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) offerings and deepen its ties to Silicon Valley.
“Father Engh has passionately embraced the University’s vision,” Gentzkow said, “to educate global citizens and leaders of conscience and compassion.”
In recent weeks, Engh and his administration have also faced some criticism from adjunct faculty for rejecting a request to work with them to unionize.
Engh did not address the criticism in his resignation.
“The decision to step down from this role — one of the great honors of my life — was certainly not an easy one,” he wrote in a letter to faculty on Friday. “The insights born of deep personal reflection, however, are an important guiding light. We teach this to our students, and it is true for me as well.”