Boston College is getting a new president Friday, ending Rev. William P. Leahy’s 30-year run and handing the Chestnut Hill institution to another Jesuit who has spent much of his career inside BC’s walls. Rev. John T. “Jack” Butler, 63, will become the university’s 26th president in a transition built to preserve continuity while testing whether continuity is enough for the next chapter.
Butler succeeds Leahy on Friday, July 31, the same day Leahy’s presidency officially ends. The timing carries an extra bit of Catholic symbolism: July 31 is the feast day of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, according to The Boston Globe.
This is not an outsider parachuting into BC. Butler joined the university in Campus Ministry in 2002, has been part of the president’s senior leadership team since 2010, and has served as chaplain for the football program, according to Boston College’s announcement.
Leahy Leaves Behind A Much Bigger Boston College
Leahy’s tenure transformed Boston College from a rising national university into a significantly larger and more prominent institution. In a retrospective published by BC Magazine, the university said its campus footprint more than doubled under Leahy, sponsored research quadrupled, and annual financial-aid commitments increased fivefold.
The growth is even more striking in the numbers highlighted by the Globe: student applications rose from about 16,500 to nearly 42,000, full-time faculty grew by more than 350 to 932, and the endowment climbed past $5 billion. The university also launched a $1 billion expansion plan and added 150 acres, while Leahy was given the title of president emeritus and plans to assist Butler as needed, the Globe reported.
Butler Inherits Expansion, Expectations And A Jesuit Mission
Butler arrives with a portfolio that touches nearly every part of campus life, including student formation, campus ministry, service learning, curriculum renewal, and student wellness. Boston College has also credited him with helping raise nearly $40 million for academic and student-life initiatives since 2019, and with bringing experience from three decades of prison ministry.
The formal celebration will come later. Boston College has scheduled Butler’s inauguration for October 15 through 17, with an academic symposium, a Mass, a formal ceremony, receptions, and a football game against the University of Pittsburgh, according to the university’s inauguration schedule.
For now, the handoff is deliberately low-drama: a longtime insider taking over from the longest-serving president in BC history. Butler’s early challenge will be keeping the momentum of Leahy’s expansion era while deciding what a bigger, richer, more selective Boston College should become next.
