Although university officials declined to confirm it, various sources have told the Journal that Provost Barry Brown is expected to soon leave Suffolk for a high-level administrative position at another school.
Reached by phone, Brown declined comment and referred questions to Greg Gatlin, interim vice president of marketing and communication, who also declined comment.

Brown, who joined the Suffolk Law School faculty in 1976, was appointed Provost in 2008.
He became acting president in 2010, after David Sargent’s abrupt resignation. He filled the role until Feb. 1, when James McCarthy became Suffolk’s new president.

Brown has been credited with leading the university through the transition and with weathering the negative press that had dogged the school in previous years.

One of the more controversial administrative decisions Brown presided over during his time as acting president were the layoffs of 20 employees in September, which Brown described to the Journal as “very difficult for me personally and for the university in general,” in the Feb. 1 issue.

Brown told the Boston Globe in September that a second wave of layoffs wasn’t specifically planned, but he wouldn’t rule it out.

Sources also reported that one or more administrators from the Provost’s office may also be leaving, which Brown and Gatlin also declined to comment on.  President James McCarthy and Andrew Meyer, chairman of the Board of Trustees, could not be reached for comment.