Timothy S. Healy

Timothy Stafford Healy (April 25, 1923 – December 30, 1992) was an American Catholic priest and Jesuit who straddled the religious and secular life, serving as the vice chancellor of the City University of New York, the president of Georgetown University, and the president of the New York Public Library.

Born in New York City, Healy entered the Society of Jesus and began teaching. He eventually became the executive vice president at Fordham University, before being named the vice chancellor for academic affairs of CUNY in 1969. It was highly unusual for a Catholic priest to hold a senior administrative role at an American public university. Entering the job during a time of intense student protests, Healy was responsible for implementing the university system's open admissions policy.

In 1976, Healy left CUNY to become the president of Georgetown University. During his tenure, Georgetown rose to a position of national prominence, especially its law school, medical center, and School of Foreign Service. The number and quality of applicants increased, and admission became much more selective. Healy undertook an extensive building campaign and increased the size of the university's endowment sixfold. This prominence was furthered by the men's basketball team's 1984 NCAA Championship. However, facing declining admissions, the School of Dentistry closed in 1990.

Healy became the president of the New York Public Library in 1989. The appointment of a Catholic priest to the position drew criticism by some, while others rejected such criticism as being motivated by anti-Catholicism. Healy nearly doubled the library's endowment, opened the Science, Industry and Business Library, and sought to improve access to the local branches by poor children.

Early life

Timothy Stafford Healy was born on April 25, 1923, in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. His father, Reginald Healy, was an Australian who emigrated to the United States to study petroleum engineering in Texas, His mother, Margaret Healy née Vaeth, was a schoolteacher in Gainesville, Texas.

Healy returned to Fordham University, where he began teaching. Shortly thereafter, the Jesuit superiors at Fordham noticed his potential as an administrator. he rose to become the executive vice president of the university.

The City College of New York, one of CUNY's senior colleges, was occupied for weeks in 1969. Healy saw as his primary mission the return of CUNY to its founding purpose: the education of the poor. At the same time, black and Puerto Rican students increasingly protested what they considered inadequate representation at CUNY colleges. The significant majority of students at the City College of New York and CUNY's other senior colleges at that time were Jewish.

Tensions came to a head on April 22, 1969, when black and Puerto Rican students took over the City College campus, demanding, among other things, the creation of a separate CUNY school for black and Puerto Rican studies, separate orientation programs for these two groups, and admission of the same percentage of black and Puerto Rican students as comprised the New York City public schools. As the occupation continued for weeks, the subject became a politically contentious issue in the mayor's and governor's offices, as well as among the city's congressional representatives. In July, CUNY's board of trustees voted to introduce an open admissions policy. Healy was charged with implementing this policy.

The open admissions policy came to be considered largely a failure, as low retention rates of black and Puerto Rican students resulted in minimal racial integration of CUNY, a significant portion of the student body required remedial education, and applications from the top students at New York high schools declined precipitously, all of which resulted in diminished academic quality. Nonetheless, by the end of Healy's tenure in 1976, the percentage of minority students at CUNY rose from 5% to 30%. The committee's ambitious desire for their new president was someone who would create a long-term vision for the university, dramatically expand its fundraising, and became a national spokesman for Georgetown and private higher education more generally.

Healy oversaw construction of Village A and two other student housing complexes. During his 13-year tenure, Georgetown emerged into the national spotlight as a top institution. Among these were Yates Field House, an athletic center for the general student body; the Bunn Intercultural Center, a new home for many academic departments and the School of Foreign Service; three new students housing complexes, Villages A, B, and C; and the Leavey Center, a university center that included a hotel. Despite the rapid development of the physical campus, Georgetown's growth soon resulted in a campus without room for additional physical expansion.

To support this era of expansion, Healy promoted aggressive growth of the university's endowment, which stood at $37 million when he took office. Within two years, the endowment had tripled, and Georgetown had outpaced every other university in the country in its financial growth. By the end of his term, the endowment had increased to $230 million. Healy became well-connected with The Washington Post and The Washington Star, sat on numerous U.S. presidential commissions, and assumed prominent leadership roles in national collegiate organizations. In 1986, he was named one of the five most-effective university presidents in the United States.

Rise to prominence

With the rise of Georgetown's academic caliber came a rapid increase in the selectivity of its admissions. The number of applicants increased by 2.5 times during Healy's presidency, and the acceptance rate dropped from 44% in 1975 to 20% in 1986, The average SAT scores of admitted students increased, which together with a concerted effort to broaden geographic recruitment, resulted in a student body that was increasingly drawn from around the country and the world. The religious and ethnic diversity of the school increased as well. Healy adamantly opposed racism and instituted a campaign to recruit black students, particularly from Washington, D.C. During Healy's presidency, the university saw great athletic success as well, particularly in basketball, track, and rowing. In 1984, the Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball team won the NCAA tournament, under the leadership of coach John Thompson. A secret society, the Society of Stewards, was founded in 1982, composed of prominent student leaders on campus.

With the increase in the caliber of students came an uptick in the number of graduates receiving prestigious awards, such as the Rhodes and Marshall scholarships. Even more so than the university generally, the national reputations of the School of Foreign Service and the School of Business improved dramatically. The Georgetown University Law Center became one of the most-prominent law schools in the nation, and the Georgetown University Medical Center, particularly the Lombardi Cancer Center, became a leading research institution. At the same time, the School of Dentistry was part of a nationwide trend of a diminishing number and quality of applicants. The problem became so severe that Healy decided to close the school in 1987, and it graduated its final class in 1990.

One contentious issue during Healy's presidency was the sale of the university's radio station, WGTB, to the University of the District of Columbia for $1. Prior to Healy's term, the station, though owned by the university, had been effectively operated by people unaffiliated with the university, who broadcast content that was deemed offensive by Georgetown's board of directors and the Federal Communications Commission. As a result, the FCC was considering denying the renewal of WGTB's license. With the board's authorization, Healy sold the license in 1979, despite protests of students and the faculty senate. Though a lifelong Democrat who offered prayers at party meetings and frequently criticized President Ronald Reagan, Contrary to the wishes of the Archdiocese of Washington, Healy declined to appeal the case to the U.S Supreme Court, stating that he desired to "pull the community back together."

New York Public Library Healy's plan included the establishment of the Science, Industry and Business Library. In February 1989, Healy resigned as president of Georgetown to become the president of the New York Public Library. He was succeeded as president of the public library by Paul LeClerc.