Two more years. That's how long Ryerson's Sheldon Levy has agreed to stay on, if necessary, after a search committee failed to announce a replacement for the popular university president Friday morning.

"I had already cleaned most of my office, packed my bags and was ready to go, so to speak. I had already been throwing over the fence to someone else the stuff that I had been doing, and now I have to go on to the other side of the fence and clean up and get to work. I had no plans, zero, that I would be here today with this type of conversation."

An announcement of a new president was rumoured to happen last week but had been delayed.

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"We had sincerely hoped that at this time we would be announcing the completion of our search. However no candidate for the position is being brought forward to the community," said a statement from Janice Fukakusa, the chair of Ryerson's board of governors, who led the presidential search committee.

"The committee has finished its work and for practical reasons will not be continuing," the statement said, adding that some of the members of the committee were finishing their terms and were not available.

"We know that president Levy was making plans for the next phase in his life, and we are very grateful for his … dedication to the university, and for agreeing to continue in his role."

The highly unusual news of Mr. Levy's extended term was preceded by an open note on Thursday from Concordia president and former Ryerson provost Alan Shepard, who quickly denied a report from The Ryersonian, the university's campus newspaper, that the job was his.

"The two institutions have a lot in common – urban, engaged, with a lot of momentum. I wish Ryerson well, naturally, but I am not the next president of Ryerson," his statement said.

Mr. Levy oversaw the growth of Ryerson into an institution known for innovation with an expanding footprint in downtown Toronto. But even though the university changed its bylaws so that he could seek a third term, Mr. Levy said he was not interested.

Through his two terms, Mr. Levy steered the school once known as Ryerson Polytechnical Institute during a decade when government funding was not under deficit pressures.

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Just this week, the university opened its new Student Learning Centre, the latest in a growing physical presence along a stretch of Yonge Street that, over the past decade, it has come to dominate. It also has space that was partly funded with federal dollars in the former Maple Leaf Gardens building.

The provincial government will soon begin changing how it distributes money to postsecondary institutions. Last year, it signed strategic mandate agreements with each university that set out the specific priorities of every school and that will guide a new funding mechanism.

"I don't see the future as negative, I see the future as challenging. But I'm bullish."