BY LEV D. ZILBERMINTS
Seton Hall University (SHU) has become a lightning rod for various scandals. Over the past seven years, Local Talk and other news media have covered various scandals and controversies arising out of the oldest diocesan university in New Jersey. In this article, Local Talk examines the similarities between various SHU scandals; their causes; and how SHU has done its best to avoid being held accountable.
Research done by Local Talk has uncovered scandals at Seton Hall Universities going as far back as 1964. For the purposes of this article, only the scandals between 1997 – present will be examined.
Scandals at Seton Hall University follow a familiar, well-set pattern. They usually involve rules and regulations at SHU that are on the books but are not enforced. For example, in its May 19, 2022 and Sept. 6, 2023 issues Local Talk reported that the university failed to protect its students from sexual harassment. Similarly, media outlets from New Jersey to Canada have recently reported the case of a teen ex-pitcher that reportedly endured horrifying hazing at the university’s baseball program.
According to the New York Post, which did an exclusive interview with the now – former freshman pitcher, his fellow teammates forced him to undergo a wrestling match with a much older and larger player.
“As his teammates watched, the teen was choked, dragged and body slammed onto his back – then left “spitting blood” in a beating so brutal it dashed his dream of becoming a professional baseball player, the Post reported in its May 28, 2025 edition.
In its May 19, 2022 edition, Local Talk reported on an interview done with former SHU student and sexual violence survivor Emily Archibald. Ms. Archibald described in detail how the university did nothing to help her.
Well-established cycle of avoiding responsibility
As was originally reported in the Sept. 6, 2023 edition of Local Talk, when it comes to dealing with pressing matters, many have accused Seton Hall University’s leadership of talking platitudes and delaying matters as much as possible without taking any action. Both critics and history say that the university has not done enough to move faster when crises arise. Only when the SHU students, alumni, outside groups, and the media create an outcry does the university seemingly start to respond.
The scandal surrounding current SHU President Monsignor Joseph Reilly is one such case. As has been widely reported, Reilly was priest secretary to the now discredited and defrocked late Cardinal McCarrick. Reilly must have at least heard rumors about the Cardinal’s disgusting habit of sharing a bed with young seminarians.
By 2012, Monsignor Reilly was the dean of the Immaculate Conception Theological School. At that point, according to Politico.com, “he investigated a student complaint of sexual assault ‘in house’ and did not report it or follow the school and federal Title IX policies and procedures, according to the memo. It said the seminarian who was accused of the abuse was dismissed, but the university was not alerted to issues that led to his departure and he continued as a student.”
In 2022, Reilly quietly left his position. This was the result of a report that recommended Reilly leave his powerful post. According to Politico, A Responsive Action Plan, which the university approved in August 2019, said any employee or board member “with knowledge of sexual misconduct claims involving ICS seminarians” could not continue to serve on any board or any leadership position if they had failed to report the conduct or take other actions required under the school’s sexual harassment policies.
After the memo was issued, the university formed a special task force committee to carry out disciplinary actions.
Reilly did not fully cooperate with investigators before they issued the September 2019 memo, but he then agreed to speak with them in January 2020, according to a separate document reviewed by POLITICO. During the interview, Reilly disclosed that he received information about a 2014 allegation of sexual harassment at St. Andrew’s Hall but did not report it and was instructed by the archdiocese not to answer questions about it. He did not, however, discuss the 2012 allegations in that interview.
The task force cited him for failure to report abusive conduct and recommended his removal from Seton Hall boards and leadership.
Reilly left the Board of Trustees and, in 2022, stepped down as dean of the seminary to take a sabbatical.”
In 2024, following the resignation of President Joseph Nyre, Reilly was appointed as his successor.
So, where is the accountability?
Seton Hall’s legal tricks
When it comes to acting in a crisis, it all depends on the matter. For example, in 2023 SHU students demanded that the university fund its African American Studies Program. Students made their point by occupying President’s Hall for five days between May 3-8 2023.
As reported in the Aug. 9, 2023 Local Talk, according to the Setonian, the protest in President’s Hall ended on May 8, 2023, after 11 Protect AFAM representatives met with the administration multiple times.
In this particular case, both sides got something out of this. The administration would not mind getting new students who expressed interest in the African American Studies Program. Plausibly, this was why the administration agreed to fund the African American Studies Program in return for the students leaving President’s Hall. It was a win-win scenario for both students and administration.
It should be mentioned that the protest came at the end of the semester, during final exams. This was another factor in getting the administration to negotiate.
As Politico reported in its May 23, 2025 issue, “Joseph Nyre, the university’s former president, had been scheduled to speak with investigators until Seton Hall intervened. In his first public comments since leaving the presidency, Nyre said in a statement: “Either the Cardinal has been overruled by his own board, including the bishops who sit on it, or the openness he promised is being applied only when convenient. The public deserves to know which it is.”
From the above it can be seen that Seton Hall tries to stop key witnesses from testifying; issues platitudes while doing nothing about the issue at hand; does not enforce its own policies and laws; and delays, denies, and obfuscates.
What is the point of Cardinal Tobin ordering, as Politico puts it, “an investigation of the investigation”? It could well be that this is Seton Hall University’s way of trying to show that something is being done, when in reality, nothing is being done.
One of the few times SHU was held accountable happened after the infamous Boland Hall Fire of 2000. As was reported in Local Talk’s Sept. 6, 2023 issue, “the infamous Seton Hall Fire of 2000, in which three students died and 58 were injured, six critically, came about as a result of SHU administration doing nothing. Since 1996, there were calls to install sprinklers in the dorms, yet this was not done. At the time, there was a tradition of creating fake alarms.
On Jan. 19, 2000, two freshmen set fire to a couch in Boland Hall. Despite the alarm, few took it seriously. It got to the point where a student, Dana Christmas, went around, knocking on doors, telling people to evacuate. She was badly burned and spent months in a hospital. Later on, Ms. Christmas was lauded as a hero for saving lives.
The fire and smoke grew to the point where people jumped out of windows to avoid being burned. All this could have likely been prevented had the university installed sprinklers in Boland Hall.
To make a very long story short, the university ended up paying millions of dollars in damages to the victims of the fire. The two freshmen who started the fire were sentenced to five years in prison. The state of New Jersey passed the strictest law in the nation, mandating that sprinklers be in all dormitories.”
Underlying reason for the scandals
It is an open secret that the Roman Catholic Church has gay priests, like the late Cardinal McCarrick, that prey on young boys and seminarians. Unlike priests in Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim religions, Catholic priests cannot marry. Some critics say that if the Vatican allowed priests to marry, the problem would decrease.
For Seton Hall University, reputation is very important. It is for this reason that SHU administration and lawyers attempt to silence witnesses, delay, deny, doubt anything that is not said their way. If Seton Hall University is found liable, it would look very bad on the school. Students might switch to other colleges, money might dry up.
As a Roman Catholic institution, Seton Hall University is resistant to fast change. The Roman Catholic Church has been around for 2000 years. Many powerful people among the SHU governing elite, such as the Board of Regents, Board of Overseers, the administration, stand much to lose if the school is found guilty in a scandal. Undoubtedly, given the number of scandals, there is corruption at the very top. Only when the light of truth shines upon these dark corners will justice and fairness carry the day.
