President: 1969-1976
Fr. Robert Henle, S.J., served as Georgetown's 45th president from 1969-1976. Fr. Henle's tenure leading the University was marked by substantial growth, spearheaded by increased admission of women and Black students, as well as tensions over the antiwar movement and on-campus protests.
Early Academic Career
Robert Henle enrolled at Creighton University in 1926 and joined the Society of Jesus the following year. Fr. Henle earned his bachelors degree in 1931, his A.M. in 1932, his Ph.L. in 1935, and his S.T.L. in 1941 from Saint Louis University. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, Fr. Henle taught classics at Saint Louis University High School before teaching as a philosophy professor at Saint Louis University from 1943-58. Fr. Henle was appointed dean of the Graduate School from 1950 until 1964 when he was appointed vice-president. While vice-president, Fr. Henle served as a consultant to the U.S. Office of Education, the Bureau of Higher Education, and the U.S. Public Health Service.1
Appointment as President
When Fr. Gerard Campbell announced his intention to resign, Georgetown's newly created presidential search committee began the search for his replacement. On January 6, 1969 they settled on Fr. Henle as Georgetown University’s forty-fifth president. In Fr. Henle, Georgetown set several new Presidential precedents. For the first time since Louis DuBourg in 1796, a president had been appointed who had no former connections to the University.2 Fr. Henle was also the first president selected by the Board of Directors rather than the provincial of the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, and he was the first Jesuit from outside the Maryland Province.
Fr. Henle responded to the news of his appointment saying, “I am deeply honored to be asked to assume the presidency of such a distinguished Catholic university. I have great confidence that Georgetown will continue to provide national leadership in many fields, and I am determined to devote all my energies in promoting the welfare of the total university.”3
Priorities and Accomplishments
Upon taking office, Fr. Henle’s “highest priority” was financing the University's operations. During his final interview for the job, Fr. Henle expressed doubt about his ability to perform the necessary fundraising duties, “All I can promise is that I will work hard and we’ll see what happens.” 4In 1969, the University was facing a deficit for the fifth year in a row. In 1970, the board authorized Fr. Henle to use the income from unrestricted gifts to the Progress Fund to offset the deficit, but the deficit still tripled, reaching $1.4 million. Fr. Henle responded by replacing the treasurer and his assistant, authorizing a formal budget planning process, freezing tuition, and increasing both undergraduate and graduate enrollment.
Between 1964 and 1975, the undergraduate enrollment increased by 77% from 3,094 to 5,475. 5Women, who were admitted to the College for the first time in 1969, and African Americans, whom Fr. Henle actively worked to recruit and support, contributed in large part to this growth. Fr. Henle also encouraged extending University recruiting efforts beyond the Northeast and searching outside Catholic and Jesuit high schools.
With the increased enrollment, the 1970 fiscal year ended with a budget surplus of $572,000.6 The 1971 fiscal year also ended with a $220,000 surplus despite a University embezzlement scandal involving the Director for Student Activities and $83,000 in fabricated student organization expenses. 7Fr. Henle also began Mandate 81, a new $51.3 million campaign, and by 1976, the University had raised $39.3 million in the campaign’s first phase. Fr. Henle had managed to balance the University’s then $101 million budget.
With an expanding student body, Fr. Henle tried to negotiate additional land from the Archbold estate across from the medical center and a portion of land from the Visitation Convent, but both negotiations fell through. Although Marcus Bles gifted 2,000 acres near Dulles Airport, Fr. Henle turned his attention to creating a committee to oversee long-term planning. In 1970, the Office of Institutional Research was formed and plans were made to convert campus green spaces into much needed parking garages. A housing shortage was also emerging from the increased enrollment, forcing the University to buy Alban Towers on Wisconsin Avenue in 1973 and begin plans for what would become Henle Village. By 1975, the University had created on-campus parking for 1,300 vehicles, but fewer than 50% of the undergraduates lived on campus.8
Faculty Reforms
Fr. Henle also implemented several changes to the University faculty. Surprised that the University had only one endowed chair, for a professor of Pharmacology in the medical school, Fr. Henle worked to increased endowed chairs and thus raise the quality of the University’s faculty. By 1975, ten endowed chairs had been established, and funding was in the works for an additional six. Amidst administrative concerns about the increasing number of tenured faculty, standards for rewarding tenure were raised and the University began to enforce a general policy of faculty retirement for those aged 65 or older.9
Antiwar Movement and Protests
Perhaps Fr. Henle’s most difficult task was navigating the student body through the unrest of the early 1970s. With antiwar sentiment growing over Vietnam, one of Fr. Henle’s first acts as president was to institute a University neutrality policy, “When there is a wide and honest difference of opinion on complicated issues, the University, while actively concerned about the common good, must not by identifying with a partisan view appear to bind its faculty, students, administration or others associated with it to that view.”10
Despite his best attempts to steer the University neutrally, Fr. Henle’s Georgetown was the scene of several protests. On May 7, 1970, in the aftermath of Kent State and mass student protest by both graduate and undergraduate students alike, Fr. Henle suspended classes for the remainder of the spring semester. The following May, while Fr. Henle was away in Rome, the police drove thousands of non-University affiliated demonstrators from West Potomac Park. When 2,500 of them sought refuge at the University, the acting president James Kelly allowed the demonstrators to remain and provided food as their presence did not disrupt the students taking their final exams. However, the District police, without University permission, began firing tear gas from helicopters at the demonstrators below. Exams were postponed as students were forced to return to their dorms to escape the clouds of gas.11
Resignation
On June 30, 1976 with tensions rising between Fr. Henle and the Board after his firing of academic vice president Edmund Ryan and his worsening alcoholism, Fr. Henle formally resigned from the position of President. 12Fr. Henle was succeeded by Fr. Timothy Healy, and while Fr. Henle never returned to Georgetown to teach or serve in an administrative position, the Henle Village dormitory completed in late 1976 was dedicated in his honor.
- 1“Biographical Sketch: The Rev. Robert J. Henle, S.J.” 7 Oct. 1969, pp.28-29.
- 2Emmett Curran, Robert. “A History of Georgetown University The Rise to Prominence, 1964-89.” 2010, pp.50-51.
- 3“Georgetown Names New President.” Georgetown University News Service. 6 Jan. 1969, pp.11-12.
- 4Raley, Nancy. “A Down-Home, Practical Midwesterner.” Georgetown Today. 1976.
- 5“A History of Georgetown University The Rise to Prominence, 1964-89.” 2010, p.72.
- 6Id. at 56-57.
- 7“Dixon Case Goes to Grand Jury, $83,000 Allegedly ‘Misused.’” The Hoya. 5 Sept. 1971, p.1.
- 8 “A History of Georgetown University The Rise to Prominence, 1964-89.” p.112.
- 9 Id. at pp.70-71.
- 10Id. at p.145.
- 11Id. at p.154.
- 12Matthews, John. “Father Henle Resigning at Georgetown in June.” The Washington Star. 22 Oct. 1975.
