Dr. Eric Darr (center, file photo)
Dr. Eric Darr, the long-time president of Harrisburg University, has resigned his post.
On Friday night, the university announced Darr’s resignation in a press release, without citing a cause for the departure.
“On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I would like to thank Dr. Darr for his work on behalf of our students,” said HU Board Chair Mark Singel, in a statement.
David Schankweiler, the former chair of the HU board of trustees, will serve as interim president as the university launches a nationwide search for a new president, according to the university.
“David’s passion for Harrisburg University and his longtime service made him the natural choice to serve as interim president,” Singel said.
Darr has been with HU since its founding in 2003, previously serving as a vice president and provost before becoming president in 2012.
In its release, HU stated that Darr helped grow the university from an initial class of 113 students in 2005 to its current enrollment of 6,500 undergraduate and graduate students, with over 600 employees.
Notably, Darr also spearheaded the construction of the 11-story UPMC Health Sciences Tower at Harrisburg University, which opened in 2023 at S. 3rd and Chestnut streets.
“We certainly have some challenges before us, but we’re already hard at work addressing them,” said Schankweiler, founder of the Central Penn Business Journal who also ran unsuccessfully for Harrisburg mayor in 2021.
In his statement, Schankweiler did not detail the nature of those challenges.
“Our next president is going to continue the tremendous progress we’ve made at HU since those initial exploratory meetings over a quarter century ago,” Schankweiler said.
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