“The university will remain as a major educational and pastoral work of the abbey, and the monks of St. John’s will remain a vital part of the university.”
Regents endorse plan to split SJU from abbey
The St. John’s University Board of Regents today endorsed a plan that would create a new civil corporation that splits the university off from St. John’s Abbey, St. John’s Preparatory School and the Liturgical Press.
The Prep School and Liturgical Press will remain operating divisions of the existing St. John’s Abbey corporation when the new university civil corporation becomes effective July 1. The corporate board of directors of St. John’s Abbey authorized the creation of the new civil corporation in early September.
That came after five years of work toward a “reconfigured governance and management structure for the university,” according to a joint statement from Abbot John Klassen and St. John’s University President Robert Koopmann.
“The goals were to enhance governance authority for the university, reduce organizational complexity, and to strengthen the relationship between the abbey and university into the future,” the statement said.
Many enterprises, including most Catholic colleges and universities sponsored by religious orders, have created independent corporations to fulfill their missions, according to the statement. The creation of a university corporation “broadens the involvement for securing the future” of St. John’s and “maintaining and strengthening its Catholic and Benedictine character,” according to the statement.
The missions of the abbey and university corporations will not change, Koopmann and Klassen said in the statement.
“The university will remain as a major educational and pastoral work of the abbey, and the monks of St. John’s will remain a vital part of the university.”
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Regents endorse plan to split SJU from abbey
David Unze
St. Cloud Times
October 7, 2011
