Presidential Search

Jackson Announces He’s Stepping Down in 2005

The search is under way for a successor to President Jackson, who announced in March that he plans to leave the presidency at the end of the 2004–05 year.

Jackson, who will complete his 11th year as president in 2005, plans to take a year off from teaching and then return to campus as a Distinguished University Professor with appointments in the College’s Department of Political Science and in the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration.

In a letter sent to all Rochester alumni, G. Robert Witmer Jr. ’59, chairman of the Board of Trustees, who is chairing the search for a new president, credited Jackson’s leadership with strengthening all the University’s units.

“His accomplishments as president, and his guidance of the University community, have been extraordinary,” Witmer wrote. “Our local, national, and international contributions as an institution of higher learning, health care, and artistic performance continue as a result.”

In his announcement, Jackson said 2005 is a “propitious time” for a new president to assume leadership.

“Next year will be my 11th year as the University’s president,” Jackson said. “Even before I became president, I observed that leadership change and evolution is good for an institution, and that a successful tenure as an academic leader is likely to be measured in an 8- to 12-year period. Thus, 11 years is ‘about right’ in terms of the normal cycle of modern presidential terms.

“As measured by projects, or accomplishments, I believe that I have completed virtually all of the major goals that I set for myself, and for the institution, upon my arrival,” he said.

Jackson became the University’s ninth president in 1994. Previously, he was vice president and provost of the University of Virginia, which he first joined in 1988 as dean of Virginia’s School of Law. He had been professor of law at Harvard from 1986 to 1988 and served on the Stanford University faculty from 1977 to 1985.

A graduate of Williams College, Jackson earned his law degree from Yale in 1975. He clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Marvin E. Frankel in New York (1975–76), and for then Supreme Court Justice and now Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist (1976–77).

He is the author of bankruptcy and commercial law texts used in law schools across the country, and he has served as Special Master for the U.S. Supreme Court.

For more on Jackson’s announcement and the search for his successor, see the Chairman’s Message, or visit the presidential search Web site.