The Rev. Bernard Knoth, S.J., University President, made it clear last year that he was a finalist for president at Loyola Chicago, and, if offered the position, he would have accepted. Had Knoth been picked, we would now be searching for a new president.Last year, Georgetown University chose a layman as president, and a Sister has been president of the Jesuits’ Detroit-Mercy University.Choosing presidents at Jesuit universities has changed radically during the last thirty years. And some of those changes will affect how Loyola chooses its next president.Before 1970 the resignation of a Jesuit president was automatic every six years. Why? Because, according to Rome, a Jesuit president was also the Jesuits’ Superior (rector). And a rector could only serve six years. As a consequence, when a Jesuit priest’s term as Superior was over, his term as president was over as well.The Superior General of the Jesuits then chose a new rector, who would also become president, after consulting key Jesuits. The rector at Loyola is still chosen that way, but not the president.There were two key reasons for the separation of Jesuit rector from Jesuit president – and the president still had to be a Jesuit. Holding both positions was becoming unduly burdensome, and different skills were needed for each. One was to be the spiritual leader for the Jesuits exclusively, and the other was to run the increasingly larger and increasingly lay university, and to be responsible for fund raising, etc.The Rev. James Carter, S.J., Loyola’s previous president, was the first to serve under the separate regimes. Since he was not a term-limited Jesuit rector, his term as president ran for 25 years.There really was no effective contractual mechanism, under the separation, for term limits, except for resignation for major illness, old age, scandal, serious incompetence, being chosen for another presidency, the order of the Jesuit Provincial or the faculty voting “No confidence.”But what of the Board of Trustees? It could theoretically vote a president out, but, historically, that had not been its role. And there was little in the various boards’ constitutions about limiting a president’s term. In addition, the new presidents were understandably loath to create effective methods for their own removal; thus long terms all over the United States.The trustees, effectively chosen by the president, would have thought it ungrateful to vote out the president who chose them. And certainly a majority of trustees could not be garnered to do so, except for serious incompetence, often indicated by a “No confidence” vote by the faculty.What also inhibited a change of presidents by the increasingly lay boards was that they could only choose a new Jesuit from the diminishing list of eligible Jesuits, provided by the Jesuits themselves.Thus the lay board often found itself effectively powerless, as was the case when Knoth was the only candidate brought in for the whole Loyola Board of Trustees to “interview.” Indeed, Knoth was candid enough, at the time of his appointment, to say that the whole board had not, in fact, even interviewed him. He had only spoken with them informally over cocktails and dinner.Carter had resigned, after consulting his superiors, because of his long years of service and the burdens on someone of his advancing age. He was not asked to resign by the board.With the Georgetown choice of a layman as president, the “Jesuit only” rule for presidents is effectively over, for good and for bad. But each university will change the “Jesuit only” rule in its own way.As Loyola would have it, the power to change the “Jesuit only” rule is not in the power of the Board of Trustees at all, but in the Loyola Corporation, made up exclusively of Loyola Jesuits. (I proudly confess to have served on that corporation when I was a Jesuit.)The corporation, in the last few years after Knoth’s “election” by the Board of Trustees, has wisely, but quietly, changed the “Jesuit only” rule to a form of “preferential choice” of a Jesuit. If a suitable Jesuit is not found, the search would then be opened to all qualified applicants: lay, religious or priests.I suspect the change was kept so quiet, partly so as not to seem to insult Knoth, which it was not meant to do. It is simply the recognition of the paucity of qualified Jesuit candidates and the awkwardness that could have ensued if this change was not in place before the next presidential search.Loyola is still left only with the options mentioned above for changing its president. The predominantly lay board has no history of changing presidents of its own initiative. For the faculty, this leaves the awkward instrument of the “No confidence” vote, when, and if, that may be necessary.