Cornell University President resigns

Most of Jeffrey S. Lehman’s speech to Cornell University alumni Saturday consisted of what reunion attendees expect from such presidential addresses. Praise for a music professor’s Pulitzer Prize and a student’s Rhodes Scholarship. A report on applications (way up). An update on fund raising (setting new records).
But in the final minutes, he stunned the audience by announcing that he was leaving the presidency, after only two years in office, because of disagreements with trustees. “Over the past few months, it has become apparent to me that the Board of Trustees and I have different approaches to how the university can best realize its long-term vision. These differences are profound and it has now become absolutely clear that they cannot be resolved,” he said.
The hundreds of alumni present were totally quiet during the surprise end to the speech, gave the outgoing president at rousing standing ovation, and then — like faculty members and students at the university — tried to figure out what happened. Lehman, the first Cornell alumnus to serve as its president, was popular with many alumni (as well as with students and faculty members). And while he has had his share of controversies in two years in office, none of them appeared to be of the sort that ends a presidency.
In an interview Sunday evening, Lehman said that the Cornell presidency was “a dream job” and that there was no one reason for his departure. He offered the analogy of a long car ride. “Let’s say you are driving down a road for 18 months and it’s smooth and then you hit your first bump. You think, ‘it’s still a smooth road,’ and then you hit another bump, and then in a few months, you realize you’ve hit 20 bumps. None of them is a mountain, but this is a bumpy road,” he said.

Full Story: http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/06/13/cornell