Suffolk University president retires

The president of Suffolk University announced a sooner-than-expected retirement on Wednesday.

This comes a year after a controversy blew up over the president’s compensation package, the second largest for private university leaders in the country.

David Sargent, who had served as president for 21 years, announced his immediate resignation Wednesday at a university Board of Trustees meeting. The 79-year-old previously was scheduled to retire in July 2013. The university is forming a search committee to search for his replacement.

In the interim, Barry Brown, the university provost, will serve as president.

Sargent had been criticized for receiving $1.5 million in compensation for the 2007-08 school year and $2.8 million the year before. Soon after this news broke, the university extended his contract until 2013.

Sargent has worked at the university since 1956, when he was a teacher. He became dean of Suffolk University Law School and eventually president of the university. During his tenure as president, Suffolk expanded dramatically, with enrollment doubling over the past 20 years.

“No university in this country could be prouder of a president than we are of David Sargent, who has done so much to serve the University and the wider community,” said Andrew Meyer, Jr., chairman of the Board of Trustees, in a statement. “The contributions he has made as a leader and an architect for growth will serve as a model for future presidents of universities who attempt to achieve a similar level of excellence.”

“I feel privileged to have been at this University for such a long period of time,” Sargent said in a statement. “It is a uniquely wonderful institution. Its students, faculty and staff have become my extended family. Suffolk today is a vibrant and thriving institution dedicated to academic excellence and social responsibility.”