STORRS, Connecticut -- Tom Katsouleas has announced his resignation as the president of the University of Connecticut.
The resignation takes effect on June 30.
In a letter made public Thursday, Katsouleas said:
"For reasons we have discussed at length over time, I have made the difficult decision to resign my position as President of the University of Connecticut. I appreciate your understanding of my decision.
While there is no need to list them here, I am very proud of the advancements made by the University during my tenure as its 16th president. UConn has fared extraordinarily well in the face of unprecedented challenges under the leadership and decision making of our leadership team and the Board. I look forward to contributing further to the continued success of the state’s flagship institution of higher education as a member of our distinguished faculty.
Please accept this as notice of my resignation as required under Section 3.3 of my employment agreement. By my signature below, I hereby irrevocably resign my position as president, effective at the end of the current contract year: June 30, 2021."
The letter was dated March 13. According to UConn, Katsouleas had been privately discussing details with the Board of Trustees and had agreed to wait to announce it until after the end of the academic semester and Commencement to avoid distraction from those events.
In a letter to the UConn community, Katsouleas said, "At the next regularly scheduled meeting of the board, which takes place on May 19, we will vote to appoint an interim president. We will announce the selection to the university community that day, following the vote."
Gov. Ned Lamont said, “On behalf of the State of Connecticut, I want to thank Tom Katsouleas for his time leading Connecticut’s flagship institution of higher education, UConn. I had the pleasure of working with President Katsouleas since he started leading Husky Nation in 2019. His energy and enthusiasm for UConn is infectious, and I always enjoyed spending time with him, hearing about his ideas for the university. He and members of the Board of Trustees agreed that it was time for a change in leadership, and I look forward to working with the Board of Trustees to find a suitable replacement who shares their vision of growth, and building on its reputation as one of the top state institutions of higher learning in the country.”
Katsouleas, formerly the provost and executive vice president of the University of Virginia, was appointed in February 2019.
During his tenure, he has negotiated the school's response to the pandemic and overseen it's return to the Big East.
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