Cecilia Chang- NY Mag

Otis I too would love to see SJU raise their academic profile and be more selective with regard to freshmen admissions but let me share with you my experience. In 1968 I graduated from high school with a solid B aveage and lousy SAT scores. I had made application to Hofstra but was quickly rejected because of the poor grade average and totally absymal SAT scores. My uncle who grduated from SJU with a Chemistry degree in 1958 convinced me to make application at SJU, and I f I did we would provide me with a strong letter of commendation. Shortly after submitting my application to SJU I was rejected for the very same reasons given to me by Hofstra, namely my SAT scores, but was informed that if I retook the SATs and performed better they would reconsider my application. I took the SATS once again only to improve my score marginally, bur not good enough to enter ST John's College. Fortunately for me they made a suggestion that instead of entering the 4 yr school, that I make application to the then School of General Studies, which had a lower academic requirement for entrance, and If I did well there I would then move into the 4 year school of my choice. Well fortunately for me I did well enough to enter the College of Business Administration, and went on to receive A BS degree in Management from SJU. Subsequent to that I also received my CLU designation from the American College in Bryn Mawr, PA, and went on to having a career in the insurance and financial services industry that has served me very well monetarily.
I guess my point is that if SJU was more selective in their admissions, a marginal student like myself would not have had the great experience of attending St John's. In retrospect, I suppose to some extent SJU was catering to my specific needs as an applicant whose parents never had a college education. Is that not their mission as a Catholic University?
 
rcatalano,

Thank you for sharing your story which is more common of the era your graduated that you may think.

Before I provide a full rely please advise what your total educational debt was when you graduated, and the year you graduated.

Again, thanks for sharing your story.
 
I want to thank all of you that are participating in this thread. I anted to reply to each topicI've participated in, from the allegations to upgrading the academics, but I didn't want to clog the thread with my replies. I greatly respect the restraint of a Jewish person not to want to publicly bash a Catholic priest and certainly not for his religion. I respect tbe opinion that we should upgrade academics and be more selective, and the response to my subsequent post. This type of thread used to end up in verbal brawls, so I wanted to say I greatly appreciate the feelings you've shared, our collective dismay and anger, and hope that if allegations are ture, that St. John's does the right thing and rid itself of both harrington and wile, and sooner than later.
 
Otis, I was more fortunate that most with regard to my total debt for a college education at SJU. MY grandfather, who by they way was born in 1898 had a college eduction if you can believe that for that time, had provided for my brother and I, $1000 per year for our education. Now that may not sound like a whole lot of money when you compare it to today's cost for a college eduction, but my total tuition in my senior year was $2000. excluding books and supplies. As a consequence, I took out a $4000 student loan for the balance of my four year education, which I was able to pay off over a 10 year period. I graduated SJU in 1972! CRAZY ISN'T IT!!!!!
 
Interesting I finished in Jan. 1961 never cost me more then $700.00 a year. The only ones you could owe money to was the school or your local loan shark Luckly I owed neither,
 
What an amazing story. And to think it went on for so many years. Sad.

BTW - FWIW, my tuition started at $550 a semester in 1965 and was about $850 a semester (I think) when I graduated in '69. That's without books and, of course, I commuted. As someone posted, it doesn't sound like much but it was a hardship on familiy and, through this day, I'm grateful to them for their sacrifices.
 
I think my first year in 88-89 was about 6k

I think it cost me more to drive to school then with gas in my 72 chevy impala
 
Now I don't want to be presumptuous, but I am guessing that most of us benefitted from a low cost private education, and still for many of us, it was a stretch. I believe tuition was 900 per semester when I started, and make 1100 or 1300 when i finished pahrmacy school 5 years later. i left with about 8000 in loans. It just burns me that HArrington would be so wasteful with large sums of money, lots of which were given in small donations by alumni with lesser means than the million dollar donors. Just think, if you check one of those boxes for a $100, $250, or $500 donation, they would need almost 6,000 hundred dollar donations to cover Rob Wile's salary alone.
 
The latest from NY Magazine:


The 2011 probe of Cecilia Chang, the corrupt former St. John’s dean who stole more than $1 million from the university, revealed that Rob Wile, chief of staff to St. John's president Father Donald Harrington, had charged $25,000 on brands like Prada, Ferragamo, and Lanvin to one of Chang's Taiwanese credit cards, which was billed to a university account. Now sources inside the investigation reveal that they told Harrington in 2011 that Wile should reimburse St. John's at least some of the money. Harrington said he'd consider the recommendation, "but it went nowhere," to the shock of one investigator.

Instead, "Wile got raises," as one source put it, after the investigation began in 2010. That year he received an additional payment of $150,000 in a category marked “other reportable compensation," according to an IRS form. Sources say the $150,000 included a $100,000 retention bonus and $50,000 in debt forgiveness. Wile received $370,000 in interest-free loans from St. John's and that year received more in compensation than any other current employee except the basketball coach, according to documents. He also approved some of Chang's expenses.

Harrington, who told investigators that Chang said her credit-card costs were covered by donors, also benefited from Wile's use of her Taiwanese card. In 2003, Wile charged $8,474.82 for Harrington and Wile’s long weekend in Turks and Caicos, supposedly a gift from Chang. According to sources, Wile brought along his then-girlfriend, who sources report was a sophomore at St. John’s at the time; they’re now married.

Outside counsel is currently further examining the actions of Harrington and Wile, among other things, after revelations that Wile was in business with Harrington on a real-estate venture. The St. John’s Board of Trustees meets in Rome on Monday.
 
I just called SJU, Wile's secretary has no comment when I asked if Rob Wile was still an employee of the University and quickly hung up the phone. I then called the alumni office explained I donate to the University and would like to speak to Mr. Wile they did tell me that he is still an employee at St. John's and to call his secretary.

I also called the media relations dep';t they just took down my name and phone # and said they would have someone call me back.

Sounds like the school is stonewalling the issue till Monday at the very least Rob Wile should have been terminated by now from St. John's . This is going to get worse before it gets better.
 
Is there a chance that Wile and Fr. Harrington could face criminal charges for theft of University funds?
 
No, I don't believe that. Someone ought to do a vigil, or an act of reparation and hope this all goes away.
 
http://www.stjohns.edu/about/general/bot.stj

Above is the list of the SJU board of trustees ,many are Vincentian priests or other celergy members other wealthy donors.

I think the BOT needs to do the following at the very least fire Rob Wile asap have his name removed from SJU's site and demand he pays back the money, secondly FH needs to announce his retirement at the end of June and the University should elevate Fr. Maher as the next SJU President provided his hands are clean in the Chang mess.
 
http://www.stjohns.edu/about/general/bot.stj

Above is the list of the SJU board of trustees ,many are Vincentian priests or other celergy members other wealthy donors.

I think the BOT needs to do the following at the very least fire Rob Wile asap have his name removed from SJU's site and demand he pays back the money, secondly FH needs to announce his retirement at the end of June and the University should elevate Fr. Maher as the next SJU President provided his hands are clean in the Chang mess.
Click to expand...

Fr. Maher no way , basicly a protiege of Fr. Harrington. What is needed is a house cleaning.
 
How about Rev. Holtschneider, President of Depaul? Or, is that not a promotion for him? I seem to recall Father Holtschneider has strong ties to SJU but, not necessarily FH..
 
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