After serving as president of Yale University for almost 20 years, President Richard C. Levin announced on Thursday that he will step down at the end of the academic year.



According to a news release from Yale, Levin has served the New Haven university longer than any other president currently in the Ivy League or the Association of American Universities.

Levin joined the Yale faculty in 1974 and became president of the school in 1993. He is credited with advancing Yale’s schools and academic programs, particularly science, engineering and medicine; transforming the campus with the largest building and renovation program since the 1930s; building partnerships with the City of New Haven; and supporting expansion of Yale’s international activities.



“It is a source of great satisfaction to leave Yale in much stronger condition – academically, physically, and financially – than it was when I began in 1993,” Levin said in a letter to the Yale community.

Levin plans to take a year’s sabbatical leave and write a book on higher education and economic policy.

Edward P. Bass, senior fellow for the Yale Corporation, said in his letter that he will “write in the near future concerning the upcoming presidential search.”



