ames Johnson Duderstadt, the 11th president of the University of Michigan, announced Sept. 28 in a letter to the University community that he intended "to retire from the presidency and return to the faculty of the University next summer" after almost eight years at the University’s helm.
President Duderstadt said that he and his wife, Anne, felt that while "there is no perfect time to step aside from a leadership role," this might be the best year to do so since "through the efforts of countless members of the University, most of the goals we set in the late 1980s have now been achieved. Today, in 1995, by any measure, the University is better, stronger, more diverse, and more exciting than at any time in its history due to your efforts."
He pointed out that "national rankings of the quality of the University’s academic programs are the highest since these evaluations began several decades ago" and that "through the remarkable efforts of our faculty, the University now ranks as the nation’s leader in research
activity."
"Despite a decline in state support over the past two decades," he continued, "the University has emerged financially as the strongest public university in America. Our endowment has increased four-fold to over $1.3 billion. And, with almost two years left in the Campaign for Michigan, we are already at 90 percent of our goal."
Duderstadt also cited the "remarkable transformation in our environment as we approach the completion of our massive effort to rebuild, renovate and update all of the buildings on our campuses."
Perhaps the most important results of his administration, he said, was that, "through efforts such as the Michigan Mandate and the Michigan Agenda for Women, we now have the highest representation of people of color and women among our students, faculty, and staff in
our history."
At the end of the 20th century, Duderstadt said, Michigan stands as "the leading public university in America ... challenged by only a handful of distinguished private universities in the quality, breadth, capacity and impact of its many programs and activities. Throughout higher education, people now look to us as truly ‘the leaders and best.’"
Duderstadt said he had timed his decision so that the U-M Board of Regents would have "ample time to complete the search for my successor" during the transition period.
"After 27 years on the faculty, then as dean, provost and finally as president, [Anne and I] are maize and blue down to the level of our DNA," Duderstadt concluded. "We look forward to serving the University in new ways in the years ahead. And we look forward to many more years of working with the marvelous people who make up the Michigan family. Thanks for the opportunity to serve! And Go Blue!!!"
Michigan Gov. John Engler injected controversy into news reports about Duderstadt’s decision by saying that unhappy Regents had forced the president's hand. Duderstadt said Engler’s charge "was news to me," and stated that he had "always enjoyed the support of the Regents" despite inevitable ups and downs in any power-sharing relationship.
Several Regents also challenged Engler’s account of the events, including his fellow Republicans Andrea Fischer Newman of Ann Arbor, who said Duderstadt "was not forced out" and that his retirement "was an immense shock to me," and Daniel Horning of Grand Haven, who said he was "outraged" by Engler's remarks.
Under the terms of his retirement, Duderstadt will receive his full presidential salary of $260,709 during a one-year sabbatical, and be eligible to return as a "University professor of science and engineering" at a salary averaged from the three top Engineering school faculty salaries, or about $180,000 a year.
The U-M Board of Regents announced that they accepted President Duderstadt’s decision "with regret," adding that he had "worked tirelessly and effectively to serve the best interests of the University."
Duderstadt also denied a spate of rumors. Some had the former Yale lineman becoming U-M's head football coach; others had him returning to the engineering school, moving to head another university or doing an about-face and continuing his presidency.
The rumors amused Duderstadt. He told the University Record that even though he’d been "deluged with proposals and probes" from many directions, including at least one major university's presidential search committee, "Anne and I are firmly committed to leading this institution and serving as president until midnight June 30."
‘Almost Every Goal We
Set Has Been Achieved’
On the day his retirement was announced, President Duderstadt was interviewed for radio broadcasts by Roger Sutton of U-M News and Information Services.
Duderstadt said that "the role of a modern university president these days is a very complex one; it involves a wide range of activities that do tend to take you away from what faculty love to do most, which is teaching and scholarship. There are a whole host of things that I have piled up over the years that I am really very interested in participating in."
Asked to reflect on his and Anne Duderstadt’s achievements as U-M’s leaders, the president replied that their sense of accomplishment "was perhaps the key factor that drove this decision. We were walking round the campus in August and noticed all the new buildings that were coming on line and being finished. We started taking score and it turned out that almost every goal we set when we first took this job in the late 1980s has been achieved or exceeded—every one. And so it’s natural to begin to think, ‘What do we do next?’ As we thought more and more about that, we realized that the next series of initiatives for the University would be ones that would have to be sustained for some time, probably after the turn of the century. We just did not see ourselves being in leadership roles for that length of time."
Reminded of a former University of Wisconsin president’s advice that university presidents probably shouldn’t serve more than five to seven years or so because of the stress and strains, Duderstadt said he agreed.
"Maybe there’s something about public universities these days where eight years is enough. I know it’s twice as long as most presidents serve in public universities—it’s more typical of private universities. But eight years is a long time, particularly in my case when I was also acting president and provost for two years prior to that, so it’s almost a 10-year stint. That is a long, long time."
. . . October 1995