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Wim Wiewel, Portland State University president, announced Wednesday he will step down next year. After nine years on the job, it was time, he said.

(LC- Jeff Manning)

Marinus "Wim" Wiewel will step down as president of Portland State University, the school announced Wednesday, after nine years marked by independence from the old state system and near-constant financial challenge.

His resignation surprised even some university trustees. Wiewel, 66, had signed a new three-year contract 13 months ago. But in an interview Wednesday, he said after nine years on the job, it was time to go.

"Someone told me when I started here that this is not a job, it's a life," Wiewel said. "It's just been an amazing experience. But it's an exhausting position."

Wiewel, eager for PSU to leave behind its commuter-college roots, oversaw rapid enrollment growth and aggressive expansion of the university's physical footprint. His proudest accomplishment, he said, was the achievement of Portland State's independence from the state of Oregon.

While the University of Oregon initially took the lead in fighting for independence, when it came time to negotiate the fine points with state lawmakers, Wiewel was at the forefront, said Tom Imeson, an executive at Northwest Natural and a PSU trustee.

"From the public's perspective and a good-governance perspective, independence is a great thing," Wiewel said.

Wiewel assembled Imeson, Peter Nickerson and other prominent business executives to serve as PSU trustees on an independent board.

"If you look at the full nine years of Wim being there, Portland State is in a totally different space than it was," said Sandra McDonough, of the Portland Business Alliance. "It's much stronger. And Wim made it happen."

McDonough's business group clashed with Wiewel after he proposed a payroll tax on Metro-area businesses that would raise as much as $40 million a year for Portland State. The controversial plan earned plenty of criticism and it was withdrawn before it made it to the ballot.

"When you talk about any leader who's been successful, that doesn't come without trials and tribulations," said Rick Miller, a Portland entrepreneur and member of the PSU board of trustees. "I think he realized it was either the wrong thing or the wrong time. In the end, he made the right decision to back away from it."

Miller and Imeson agreed with Wiewel that the payroll tax debacle played no role in his decision to resign.

Wiewel assumed PSU's helm in 2008, just as the depth of the economic recession was becoming clear. As the recession sapped the economy, state tax revenue plunged, as did spending on higher education.

To make up for sagging state support, PSU repeatedly raised tuition, which Wiewel admits was particularly painful for a student body that is more diverse and less able to afford price hikes than those at other universities.

An upside of the recession, though, is that Oregonians went to college in record numbers. Enrollment at PSU surged from 23,000 to 29,000, making it the second-largest four-year university in the state.

The school had to make room for that 26 percent jump. During Wiewel's tenure, Portland State spent $571.8 million building or renovating more than 1.8 million square feet of space.

Wiewel will remain as president through the next academic year. Until he's replaced, he will continue to collect annual compensation of $539,000 and stay in the university's $2.1 million "presidential residence" in the Dunthorpe neighborhood..

He then plans to go on sabbatical for a year and eventually return to campus with a faculty appointment in the College of Urban and Public Affairs.

-- Jeff Manning

503-294-7606, jmanning@oregonian.com