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ST. LOUIS — Fred Pestello, president of ӣ����Ƶ University, announced Thursday that he will resign at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year.

Pestello was named SLU’s 33rd president on March 21, 2014, to help stabilize the university after the contentious departure of long-term leader the Rev. Lawrence Biondi.

“I took an organization that had been through some periods of turmoil, and got us to re-coalesce around its mission and vision and values,” Pestello said. “You never quite get there, but I think we’ve moved forward very successfully.”

During Pestello’s tenure, SLU hit record highs in fundraising and enrollment, which reached 15,204 students this year. The university’s endowment stands at $1.8 billion, up 88% in the last decade.

“Dr. Pestello is a remarkable academic leader who has faithfully led SLU through increasingly complex and challenging times in our world while remaining unyielding in his commitment to the SLU’s Catholic Jesuit mission and 205-plus year history,” said Aric Hamilton, a 2023 graduate and education program coordinator at SLU’s medical school.

“His belief in holistically supporting students, faculty and staff in their journeys and his resolve to uplift efforts toward diversity, equity and inclusion throughout his tenure will leave an indelible legacy that will far outlive his presidency.”

Pestello, 71, became SLU’s first layman president when he arrived from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, where he was also president.

He succeeded Biondi, a towering leader who retired as SLU president under pressure from faculty and students after heading the school for 26 years.

While Biondi was viewed by critics as a heavy-handed and sometimes retaliatory leader, Pestello was brought in as a bridge builder.

Pestello’s first test came three months after his inauguration when protesters occupied the SLU campus in October 2014 in the wake of police killings of young Black men, including Michael Brown in Ferguson and VonDerrit Myers Jr. in south ӣ����Ƶ.

Pestello allowed the protesters to stay in tents for six days near the clock tower on campus while negotiating their demands for racial justice. The 13-step Clock Tower Accords included a larger budget for SLU’s African American Studies department, more support for Black students and improved college access for children in Normandy and ӣ����Ƶ.

“I’m proud of the way we handled this. We stayed true to our values,” Pestello said at the time. “I think our young people are hurting, and there’s anger there, but they are also very bright and very thoughtful.”

In February of 2020, Pestello hit his stride as enrollment reached a record high and the donations were rolling in.

“We were almost giddy things were going so great,” he said.

A month later, the COVID pandemic turned the college president into an epidemiologist overnight. Like all schools, SLU switched to virtual learning. One-third of U.S. colleges stayed online in fall of 2020, but Pestello said students and professors were begging to come back. The university would not close down for another day.

The pandemic led to the lowest point of Pestello’s tenure, during the 2021-2022 school year, when three undergraduates and one medical resident died by suicide.

“It was the most tragic thing that could happen,” Pestello said. “We could see that our students were not as resilient as they had been pre-COVID. They were a little more fragile.”

The high points for Pestello include opening a $550 million hospital with SSM Health, securing $200 million in new construction on campus and the creation of the Midtown ӣ����Ƶ Redevelopment Corporation for neighborhood investment. Christine Rollins, a law professor and president of the SLU Faculty Senate, said Pestello has been a trusted supporter by encouraging faculty input in the budget process and making sure they were included on committees and the University Leadership Council.

Pestello plans to take a sabbatical in 2025 and then return to teaching, writing and research in his field of sociology. He also plans to work through the stacks of books he’s been saving to read.

“I think 73 is a good age to be able to devote my time to other pursuits and slightly less stress,” he said.