Rev. John T. “Jack” Butler, S.J., never imagined he would pursue a career in higher education—let alone hold a leadership position at Boston College.
“I said, ‘I am never going to go and get a doctorate, and I’m never going to be at a university,” said Butler, Haub vice president for University Mission and Ministry in a 2010 Agape Latte talk. “Nineteen years later, here I am at Boston College, and someone had a stroke and they made me a vice president.”
Fifteen years later, Butler is set to succeed Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J., as the next University president after Leahy steps down in the summer of 2026.
For over two decades, Butler has helped shape the spiritual and intellectual landscape at BC. Butler has worked to support the University’s Jesuit mission and promote personal and communal growth among students, faculty, and alumni.
As a member of Leahy’s senior leadership team, Butler has been a part of the major University policies and proposals, ranging from academics to diversity efforts.
As Butler prepares to assume his next role, The Heights takes a look at his history at BC.
Beginnings at BC
Butler’s relationship with the University began in 2002 when he came to campus as a residential minister, trading his work in prison ministry for working with college students.
“Prior to coming to BC, I had worked in prison ministry with violent offenders and I never thought of higher education as a career option,” Butler said in a Heights article at the time. “But I have fallen in love with BC and the higher education apostolate.”
The University appointed Butler as the inaugural director of Manresa House, a spiritual resource designed to help students discern their vocations, in 2007. Under his leadership, Manresa House became a key institution in spiritual life, centered around fostering reflection and discernment among students.
In 2010, Butler succeeded Rev. Joseph A. Appleyard, S.J., as Haub vice president for University Mission and Ministry. His appointment was met with high praise from University leadership, including University President Rev. William P. Leahy, S.J.
“Fr. Butler is a Jesuit who is widely known on campus, and someone who cares deeply about the University’s mission, especially the intellectual and religious dimension.” Leahy said in The Heights’ article.
Following his appointment in 2010, Butler emphasized his commitment to helping students find their calling.
“Ultimately, the goal is to become a University where, through our academics, service programs, and personal reflection, men and women can find their deepest desire, which is at the heart of Ignatian spirituality,” Butler said in a 2010 statement.
Butler has influenced major institutional initiatives, including the renewal of BC’s Core Curriculum and the strengthening of mission-based programming, according to a University release announcing his appointment.
He has served on all senior administrator search committees for the past 15 years and has helped raise nearly $40 million for academic and student life initiatives, the release added.
In addition, Butler has served as team chaplain for BC football since 2010, providing pastoral care to the student-athletes.
Diversity Activism Takes Center Stage
In October 2017, after two Black Lives Matter signs were vandalized in Roncalli Hall, thousands of BC students staged and attended a “Silence is Still Violence” demonstration. After the march, BC administrators met with eight students to discuss plans for improving diversity and inclusion at the University.
Subsequently, several senior BC administrators, including Butler, signed a letter outlining their plan to increase diversity and inclusion on campus.
The letter proposed a plan to implement a learning module on diversity and inclusion for all incoming undergraduate students and create a survey to collect student feedback on how diversity and inclusion efforts could be improved. It also stated that the University would commit to working with its then-eight schools to increase diverse faculty hires and recruit a more diverse student body.
At the time, some students said they felt the administrators’ letter accurately addressed the issue of diversity on campus, while others wanted to see if BC would follow through on its commitments. Despite some skepticism, students acknowledged that the letter signaled that administrators were listening to students.
“I think it’s just an extension of the aversion that we’ve been experiencing up to this point,” Franchesca Araujo, BC ’20, said in 2017. “Though the ideas are nice, there are no specifics. We didn’t get any actual concrete action steps or timeline that we can hold them accountable to.”
A year after the “Silence is Still Violence” march took place, over 100 students staged a ‘die-in’ in honor of the demonstration in October 2018.
That same evening, an organization called the Black Eagles sent a letter of demands to the University administration addressed to Leahy, Butler, Patricia Lowe, then-executive director for institutional diversity, Joy Moore, then-interim vice president of student affairs, Tom Mogan, then-dean of-students, and David Quigley, provost and dean of faculties.
“We, as students of Boston College, are not responsible for solving structural inequity. Rather,
we recognize the places for advancement in our community here at Boston College and are open to active listening,” the letter reads. “Despite this, we are exhausted of the repetitive and cyclical conversation. Therefore, we strongly encourage the university to utilize external organizations and nationally recognized services.”
Two months later, Michael Sorkin, CSOM ’21, defaced University property with racist epitaphs, sparking outrage across campus. Following Sorkin’s actions, UGBC confronted a panel of administrators about Leahy’s response to the incidents.
Butler was included on the panel. At the event, he apologized to the student community for BC’s failure to prevent the hate crime.
“Maybe the first step to say, ‘How do we make it more safe for Black students, for all of us here,’ is for you to hear from me I’m sorry,” Butler said. “I’m sorry as Jack Butler—I am deeply sorry as a Jesuit and a priest—that this environment has not lived up to the standards that I hoped for, and clearly not to the standards that you hoped for.”
Butler acknowledged the need for administrators to listen to the pain Sorkin’s actions caused and reiterated his commitment to collaborating with students to address these issues.
“So the place to start … is for me and my colleagues to hear the pain, disillusionment, the hate, the lack of safety, and for you to hear not only ‘sorry,’ but I want to be committed to work with you,” Butler said.
The events in the fall of 2018 were not the first time that die-ins across campus prompted Butler to join the conversation about diversity at BC, nor would they be the last.
Following a series of protests in 2014, the University created the Committee on Race, which sought to address the issues of race on campus. Butler, along with Quigley, then-Vice President for Student Affairs Barbara Jones, and Vice President for Human Resources David Trainor proposed the committee.
After George Floyd’s death, in June 2020 Leahy sent two letters to the BC community. Butler signed the second letter.
“America today stands as a nation divided and wounded because of longstanding tensions concerning race, police conduct, and civil liberties,” the letter reads. “The current anger, division, and alienation result from long-term, systemic causes, and they call for resolution of underlying issues through immediate and sustained action.”
The letter came after several BC organizations, including the Black Student Forum and the Climate Justice at Boston College (CJBC), circulated petitions that called on the University to explicitly state its support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
In Leahy’s first letter, he stated that Campus Ministry, a division under Butler’s control, would establish partnerships with other faith communities in the surrounding area, in addition to starting efforts for undergraduates to speak about race and justice with elementary and high school students.
The letter also stated that the University Mission and Ministry would hold a series of multi-faith services to pray for reconciliation in the country.
A few months prior, in February 2020, CJBC sent a list of demands to University administrators, including Butler, that called on the University to create a plan to divest from fossil fuels.The University agreed to four of CJBC’s demands, including a meeting with Butler, Mogan, Moore, University Spokesman Jack Dunn, and Chief Investment Officer John Zona.
Most recently, Butler participated in discussions about establishing an on-campus LGBTQ+ resource center.
In 2021, Chris Rizzo, BC ’22 and former chair of GLBTQ+ Leadership Council (GLC), introduced a new proposal to bring a new resource center to campus. According to Rizzo, he and Aneesa Wermers, then-GLC vice chair and BC ’24, met with Vice President for Student Affairs Shawna Cooper Whitehead about their proposal.
Following this meeting, Rizzo said he did not receive any update on the proposal until a meeting with Cooper Whitehead and Butler, where it was quickly shut down, according to Rizzo.
“So it was [Butler] and Shawna, and, you know, within about five minutes of the meeting happening, Shawna was like, ‘Okay, so the resource center is not going to happen,” Rizzo said to The Heights in 2023.
Rizzo told The Heights in 2023 that the University was rejecting the proposal because of its Jesuit values, along with a lack of space and funding.
In 2023, Butler did not respond to The Heights’ request for comment on the alleged meeting with Rizzo and Wermers.
The University has since integrated LGBTQ+ programming and resources into the Thea Bowman Intercultural Center.
Reaching Greater Heights
While Butler won’t assume his role as University president until the fall of 2026, he told The Heights that he wants to maintain BC’s current direction.
“I just want to continue our trajectory,” Butler told The Heights on the day of the announcement. “I want to continue our momentum, our continuity, and our stability.”
In the announcement, Butler reiterated his commitment to the University and said he hopes to strengthen BC during his tenure.
“I look forward to spending the coming year preparing for the presidency, and I promise to devote myself to continuing BC’s upward trajectory and making this great university an even stronger beacon of light and hope for the world,” the announcement reads.
An already active member in the BC community, Butler stated that he looks forward to enhancing his presence as University president.
“I look forward to working closely with the BC community so that together we can lead Boston College to even greater heights, ever mindful of the responsibility that has been entrusted in me as the University’s next president,” the announcement reads.
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