May 04, 2013 06:47 AM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

St.John's University President Father Donald J. Harrington has decided to step down after serving the University for 24 years following a corruption investigation that also involves his Chief of Staff, Rob D. Wile.

Harrington's resignation is effective from July 31.

"The difficulties for everyone during the past year have convinced me, after much prayer and reflection, that the time to leave the presidency has now come," Harrington said. 

The announcement made on Friday, follows an ongoing probe of lavish gifts Harrington and Wile received from a corrupt dean, Cecilia Chang, at the Queens College who committed suicide, November, during a federal fraud trial that accused her of defrauding the university of more than $1 million. She was charged with stealing donations and using foreign scholarship students as her personal servants.

She is also alleged to have created bank accounts in the students' names to transfer tens of thousands of dollars.

Chang, a former dean and vice president of international relations at the university, submitted bills of oversees shopping trips, vacations and jewelry to the university. These bills were allegedly signed by Wile.

Chang, 59, was suspended in 2010 when an internal audit uncovered evidence of missing money.

During the trial, Harrington,67, admitted in court that his oversees trips along with Chang featured luxurious hotels and receiving expensive watches and finely tailored suits as gifts. Chang convinced him that it was customary in Chinese culture to give gifts and that it would be rude to refuse them.

"Cecilia Chang was somebody who was flagrantly corrupt, and Father Harrington, the president, along with his chief of staff, were the people who were supervising her," Fishman said. "So the question always was, how could she have been so corrupt for so long, for decades, and others really not have known?" New York Magazine's Steve Fishman said.

On the other hand, Wile, 35, took $370,000 in no-interest loans from a former St. John's Board of Trustees' chair to help fund a real estate venture with Harrington.  It is believed that Harrington recommended the loan.

Neither of them revealed the loan or the real estate project to the board.

Wile, 31, has also submitted his resignation and his last day will be on June 30.

Reacting to Harrington's resignation, students allege that the university will no longer be the same without him. He is credited with having transformed St. John's from a regional commuter school into a diverse national institution.

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