Mehrdad Kia resigned last week as the University of Montana’s associate provost for international programs, UM Provost Perry Brown said Monday.

Brown, who is attending a conference in California, said he received Kia’s resignation in an email last Wednesday or Thursday. Kia will continue to teach at UM, and to head the Central and Southwest Asia Program.

The change will let Kia focus his attention on teaching and developing that program, Brown said.

Kia did not respond to requests for comment about the change.

Brown said there is no link – “absolutely not, none whatsoever” – between the change and the fact that an international exchange student at UM fled the country last month after being notified by the university that another student said he’d raped her. Her alleged assailant, who is Saudi, was studying at UM as part of its international program.

Over the weekend, UM posted the job now held by Dean of Students Charles Couture, who notified the Saudi student about the alleged rape and an assault on another woman that reportedly happened on the same night last month.