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	Seattle University Official Quits Amid Harassment Allegations The Rev. Tony Harris Was a Vice President By Phuong Cat Le and Vanessa Ho Seattle Post-Intelligencer October 13, 2006 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/288618_harris13ww.html The Seattle University vice president who oversaw campus ministry has resigned from his post amid allegations that he had sexually harassed a young seminary student a decade ago. The Rev. Tony Harris, the university's second-highest ranking Jesuit, resigned Thursday in an e-mail sent to faculty staff and students. He will stay on for the remainder of the academic year and will work on special projects assisting the university's president, said Barbara Nombalais, a university spokeswoman. Last Friday, the P-I reported that Seattle University hired Harris in 2001 after he had settled a sexual harrasment lawsuit filed by John Bollard. In that lawsuit, Bollard accused Harris and two other priests of making repeated sexual overtures when he was training to be a priest in San Francisco in the early 1990s. "The recent coverage in the P.I. challenged my role in representing the mission of Seattle University," Harris wrote in his Thursday e-mail to the campus community. "I have a deep and abiding love for Seattle University and its community and consider its mission to be precious. I do not want to be a distraction from the important work at hand." Less than an hour after Harris resigned, university President the Rev. Stephen Sundborg sent out an e-mail to faculty, staff and students saying Harris "is doing what he has determined, through discernment and prayer, is right for him and for the university. "Since joining Seattle University six years ago, Fr. Harris has always acted with integrity and with heart," Sundborg wrote. Bollard, now 41 and director of an education research program at UCLA, said today that he felt mixed emotions about Harris' resignation. "By all accounts, Father Harris did a really good job in that position," said Bollard. "The issue for me was him being put in that position in the first place." Bollard said Sundborg made the wrong choice by hiring Harris for the highly visible job overseeing campus ministry and that he should take responsibility for that poor decision. "That job really is the face of the Jesuits to Seattle University," Bollard said. "He's (Sundborg') making a very clear statement about that, and I think in this day and age, at some point, it would have been clear that it wasn't a good choice." Bollard said he was 25 when the persistent come-ons began. They lasted six years, until 1996, he said, and involved an invitation from one priest to cruise gay bars. Another wanted to masturbate with him. Harris sent a series of pornographic greeting cards, according to Bollard. "Thought this might inspire some theological thoughts," said one, depicting a fully aroused man. The Jesuits ultimately agreed to settle the suit out of court six years ago, after the case resulted in a groundbreaking appeals court ruling and national coverage on "60 Minutes." Nombalais said the university did not pressure Harris to step down, and that he did so because he didn't want create a further distraction. Harris wrote that he stepped down from his position "with a deep sense of gratitude for the ways the mission is alive at Seattle University." He will continue to work on projects, including serving as the university liaison with Catholic Relief Services and another university in Bogota, Colombia, Nombalais said. He will leave in June. Seattle U, among the nation's pre-eminent institutions of Jesuit education, recently has come under fire from victims of clergy sexual abuse for its handling of problem priests. Nothing in Bollard's lawsuit suggests Harris ever acted improperly toward minors. Before Harris resigned, the former seminarian had been troubled that a priest who sent such "shocking" cards was continuing to work around young adults. Through the late 1990s, Harris, despite his legal problems, worked in Portland as an administrator, rector and campus minister at Jesuit High School. In 2001, he came to Seattle University as an assistant to Sundborg, overseeing the Office of Mission and Ministry. Before Harris resigned, the Rev. John Whitney, the superior of the Jesuits' Oregon Province, which includes Washington state, told the P-I that Harris' record -- apart from the Bollard matter -- had been spotless. Seattle University vice president who oversees campus ministry has resigned from his post amid allegations that he had sexually harrassed a young seminary student a decade ago. The full text of Harris' letter to the campus community The Rev. Tony Harris sent this e-mail to faculty, staff and students Thursday. From: Official Communications Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2006 3:44 PM To: Faculty-Staff; All-Students Subject: Letter to the SU Community from Fr. Tony Harris Dear Faculty, Staff and Students: The recent coverage in the P.I. challenged my role in representing the mission of Seattle University. I have a deep and abiding love for Seattle University and its community and consider its mission to be precious. I do not want to be a distraction from the important work at hand. Accordingly, I have decided to resign my leadership role as the Vice President for Mission and Ministry. This is my decision. I believe that it is in the best interests of both me and the University and my decision comes from careful Jesuit discernment and prayer. I step down from the Vice Presidency with a deep sense of gratitude for the ways the mission is alive at Seattle University. It has been made tangible by the excellent work, commitment and talent of those in the Mission and Ministry division. The mission has become a part of the lives of so many good people at Seattle University. In Christ, Tony Harris, S.J.
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