Saint Louis University board of trustees who has been a focus of faculty discontent during the stalemate over the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, will step down from his chairmanship at the end of the school year.
Brouster told the Beacon he was leaving because his business and his family required more of his attention than he could give if he remained in the board chairmanship, which he assumed last September – the beginning of a year of tumult at the university.
“It isn’t some coup of the board,” he said, “and I’m not being pushed out. There’s nothing wrong. It’s just my personal decision.”
Brouster, who is chairman of Reliance Bancshares, was elected chairman of the board last September following the death of John K. "Jack" Pruellage in May of last year. He has been on the board since 2001 and became vice chairman in 2010.
Brouster served for seven years as chairman of the board’s finance committee, playing a key role in financing facilities such as Chaifetz Arena and the Doisy Research Center on the SLU medical campus. Brouster Hall, which houses the university’s School for Professional Studies, is at 3840 Lindell.
He said he let Biondi know of his decision to step down earlier this month, then sent a copy of his resignation letter to fellow trustees earlier this week. He intends to remain on the board.
Asked about the tense times over the past several months, when the faculty has asked that Biondi be fired, Brouster said of his tenure:
“It’s been successful in a lot of respects. We reached out and tried to work with faculty on some of these areas of shared governance. Obviously we have a long way to go, but I think there has been a real cooperative effort from the board, and I feel that from my standpoint, I provide some leadership and guidance during that challenging time.”
Brouster noted that he recently completed a turnaround of Reliance, “and now I have the job of running this thing and making sure it succeeds and does what it needs to do, and I just cannot timewise jeopardize what I am trying to do.”
He also noted that he has a teenage daughter and seven grandchildren, and his time can be stretched only so thin.
“If you take the university, Reliance Bancshares and family obligations,” Brouster said, “that’s almost too much for anybody.”
Faculty reaction to Brouster's announcement was sympathetic.
Mark Knuepfer, a professor of pharmacology, physiology and biomedical Engineering, recently stepped down as president of the SLU Faculty Senate.
"I am saddened by the departure of Tom Brouster as chair of the board but understand and appreciate his reasons and the time he has devoted to the effort," said Knuepfer. "His actions and those of other executive board members we met with late last year were instrumental in creating a brighter future for the university. The six proposals designed and promoted under his tenure as chairman will improve shared governance at St. Louis University for long after our time here. Speaking for the Faculty Senate executive committee, we appreciated his reasonable approach and commitment to the future of the entire university."
Steve Harris, a professor in the department of math and computer science, is the head of the AAUP chapter that recently surveyed faculty about the university climate. He said he agrees with Brouster's comment that being board chairman is a full-time job.
"I can appreciate that very well; we are talking about mapping out the future of SLU, leading up to the bicentennial -- a process that needs the full-throated participation of the entire university community, if it is to succeed," said Harris. "My hope is that the next board chairman is someone who can devote the energies necessary to see this through in quick order, to unite the university in a positive manner -- something all of us fervently desire. Perhaps one of the Jesuits on the board?"
No one has been serving as vice chair of the board since Brouster became chairman, so whoever will become the next chair is unclear. Brouster said that issue will probably be solved in the fall.
He also said he has not yet discussed with Biondi whether the two will still be making a joint appearance before the April 30 Faculty Senate meeting, as previously planned. Biondi recently returned from a trip to Asia, then has been traveling to Chicago after his brother died.
Brouster said repeatedly during the interview that he loves the university and the decision to step down from the chairmanship was a difficult one, especially given the recent turmoil on campus.
A year of tumult
The end of Brouster’s brief tenure as chairman of the SLU board is the latest development in a series that began last fall, around the time he became chairman. Since that time:
- Annette Clark left as dean of the law school. She tells the university leadership that Biondi and Manoj Patankar, then the vice president for academic affairs, had “evinced hostility toward the law school and its faculty and have treated me dismissively and with disrespect, issuing orders and edicts that allowed me virtually no opportunity to exercise the very discretion, judgment and experience for which you and the faculty enthusiastically hired me.” Biondi said he planned to fire Clark on the day she quit.
- Patankar angered faculty by proposing modifications in tenure rules and review of faculty performance.
- Faculty and student groups voted no confidence in both Biondi and Patankar and told trustees that both should be fired.
- Patankar’s resignation was announced following a board meeting in December. His departure was announced in a letter to the SLU community from Brouster, in which he said: "Please know that we have listened and we have heard you. We have reflected on what you have told us, and have made some decisions to not only address those current concerns but also set the stage for a more connected community in the future."
- Tom Keefe, who had been named interim dean of the law school following Clark’s departure, left the post following controversy over comments he had made that were characterized as either inappropriate or sexual harassment, depending on who described them. He was succeeded as permanent dean by Mike Wolff, former chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court.
- As promised in December, the university sent out a survey to faculty, staff and students to determine the climate on campus. But the university's chapter of the American Association of University Professors, unhappy that the questions did not get at the heart of dissatisfaction with Biondi, planned its own survey until being threatened by SLU general counsel William Kauffman with copyright infringement.
- Instead, the AAUP decided to send out just one question -- “Is it time for Saint Louis University to choose a new president?” – to which 73.3 percent of the 834 faculty members responding said yes. Results were released on Thursday, the same day that rumors about Brouster’s resignation as chairman of the board began to circulate on campus.
At a meeting of the Arts & Sciences Faculty Council on the same day, resolutions passed overwhelmingly calling for more openness at SLU in determining a strategic plan and determining the level of faculty salaries.
On May 4, the trustees are scheduled to hold their final meeting of the academic year. That night, a $1,000-a-plate gala celebrating Biondi’s 25 years as university president will be held at Chaifetz Arena. The same night, an alternative gala, billed as being “for those of us who cannot afford a ticket to Fr. Biondi's 25 year celebration,” is planned.