Stephen Vincent Sundborg, S.J. is an AmericanJesuit and theologian. He has served as the 21st President of Seattle University since July 1997. Sundborg was raised in the Territory of Alaska. His father, George Walter Sundborg, was a newspaper reporter and editor, and longtime assistant to Ernest Gruening when Governor and U.S. Senator from the new State of Alaska. George Sundborg was a delegate to the Alaska State Constitutional convention in 1955–56, where, as Chairman of the Committee on Style and Drafting, he was responsible for selecting most of the words in that document. Stephen Sundborg entered the Society of Jesus in 1961 and was ordained a Roman CatholicJesuit priest in 1974 in Seattle. In 1982, he obtained a doctorate in spirituality from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He taught theology at Seattle University from 1982 until 1990, when he was appointed the Provincial of the Northwest Jesuits, a position he held until 1996. Sundborg also served as the rector of the Jesuit community at Seattle University beginning in 1986. In July 1997, Father Sundborg became the 21st President of Seattle University. He is well known around campus as "Father Steve". In 2017 the Trustees appointed him to another 5-year term.
Controversy
In October 2019, Seattle University removed references to Planned Parenthood as a student resource from its website, after pro-life group Students for Life of America sent a letter to Sundborg and other university leaders in August 2019 arguing that Planned Parenthood had "no place on a Christian campus" as an "abortion corporation". An excerpt from Sundberg's email response to the request to remove references to Planned Parenthood: Sundborg also "refused an in-person interview when approached by Spectator reporters on Oct. 3 and refused a phone interview with The Spectator on Oct. 4 or over the weekend". Sundborg issued a statement responding to the controversy, reading in part: On October 9th, 2019, Sundborg sent an email message to the Seattle University Community with additional statements about his decision, which read in part:
