This just in – Jehuda Reinharz, who has been president of Brandeis University since 1994, has announced his intention to resign. In an e-mail today to the Brandeis community he said he plans to remain in the job through the current academic year and as late as June 30, 2011, depending on how long it takes to choose a successor.
Within the art world, Reinharz is best known these days for the attempt to close or variously modify the school’s Rose Art Museum and, perhaps, to sell work from its collection to cover a university-wide budget shortfall. But in his resignation letter to Brandeis Board Chairman Malcolm Sherman, as well as in that e-mail to members of the Brandeis community, Reinharz makes no reference to that still unresolved controversy. As for what this all means for the fate of the Rose — much too soon to tell.
The Brandeis University press release announcing his eventual resignation is here.