The Graduates Memorial Building, home to the Hist and the Phil
Jack Leahy & Daire Collins
News Editor & Staff Writer
John Engle will resign as auditor of the College Historical Society on October 31st after a vote of no confidence was passed at a meeting of the society committee. The motion arose at a formal discussion of the report of an ad hoc sub-committee investigating the circumstances surrounding a €2000 loan to Engle from the society over the summer.
The sub-committee, chaired by William Quill and which also included an ordinary member of the society and one former auditor, recommended that an impartial mediator be solicited to resolve the situation and asserted that resignations were undesirable. Liam O’Neill’s resignation in the Michaelmas term of last academic year was the first for an auditor of the Hist in over a century.
Engle had agreed prior to the investigation, which involved 100,000 words of written submissions and 15 interviews lasting 25 hours, that he would accept its verdict as binding. However, a discussion of the report produced a motion of no confidence in which ten of the 14 voting members voted against Engle retaining the chair. A source present at the meeting informed The University Times that a number of committee members have pledged to resign regardless of the outcome of the vote.
The University Times understands that Engle offered to make a number of concessions regarding his own finances and those of the society, including removing his signature from the society accounts. Furthermore, the Central Societies Committee had previously threatened to withhold the Hist’s annual grant until Engle and Treasurer Emma Tobin had resigned and last night voted to freeze the society accounts until the matter had been resolved. However, this reporter understands that the CSC’s request for the Treasurer’s resignation was ultimately withdrawn following discussions between the two parties.
The subcommittee was established at a private business meeting of the society on October 3rd following the passing of a motion to ‘regret the actions of the auditor and the treasurer’. Speaking at the meeting, Engle – a US citizen – confirmed that he had taken the loan to meet minimum balance requirements to satisfy immigration officials when faced with the threat of deportation.
He subsequently confirmed that the loan was also used to meet the cost of rent incurred while spending the summer in Dublin. Ms. Tobin, who has since resigned from the society, gave notional consent to the loan but has confirmed that she was not a signatory on the account at the time. The subcommittee’s report cleared Ms. Tobin of wrongdoing based on circumstantial considerations and there was little to no mention of wrongdoing on her part in the discussion on the motion to regret.
Engle will remain as auditor until the end of a period in which a number of high-profile guests will address the society, including former The Onion editor Joe Randazzo. Engle has acted as a liaison between the society and the guests expected this month and The University Times is aware of only one opposition to the delay in his resignation.
Furthermore, the society’s traditional auditorial address, this year titled Pax Americana, is set to take place in the next week and it is understood that the event will proceed as had initially been arranged with an address from Engle in his capacity as auditor.
Engle’s girlfriend, who was a member of committee until her resignation this afternoon, spoke to this reporter earlier today to tell of her pride in Engle and express her disappointment in the manner in which the matter was resolved:
‘I don’t believe that resignation is in the best interests of the society and it would have been better, as recommended by the sub-committee report, to try resolve the matter by mediation.
‘If committee were still unwilling to support him thereafter then we could have looked at resignation.’
