Trustees developing transition plan for Brand’s departure from IU

Eichhorn

Frederick F. Eichhorn Jr., president of the trustees, said he was very disappointed about Brand's departure. Brand will begin his new job with the NCAA on Jan. 1.

"He will be sorely missed. But I know he will bring a high level of leadership and experience to the NCAA," Eichhorn said. "He'll do a terrific job for the NCAA."

"We recognize this presents new challenges for the university, and we'll begin to address them immediately," Eichhorn added.

The trustees may meet as early as this weekend to consider transition plans, including the possibility of naming an individual to assume the president's role on an interim basis beginning Jan. 1.

Brand was in Indianapolis at NCAA headquarters Thursday evening. He said the decision was a difficult one for him and his wife, Peg, to make.

"It's an opportunity for me to play a national leadership role on issues central to higher education, and I look forward to that," Brand said. "I leave IU with deep regrets. The university is well positioned for the future. IU will always have a special place in my heart."

Brand has presided over a period of remarkable growth at IU, including record student enrollments and national leadership in information technology and the life sciences, while maintaining the university's traditional strengths in the arts and humanities. IU Bloomington was named by Time magazine as a College of the Year among research universities in September 2001, based on the quality of its programs to help incoming students adjust to college life.

Under Brand's leadership, IU received its largest single private gift in its history, a $105 grant from the Lilly Endowment to fund the Indiana Genomics Initiative. Last year, IU was the leading public university in private fund-raising support, and the university attracted well over $300 million in federal grants and contracts.