New York University announced on Wednesday that it will no longer lend money to star professors and top administrators to buy vacation homes, that it will include faculty members more in university decisions, and that its controversial president, John E. Sexton, will step down once his term ends in 2016, according to reports by The New York Times, the blog NYU Local, and other news organizations.
But a resolution adopted by the Board of Trustees made clear that the university was not criticizing Mr. Sexton’s performance. “The board is extremely satisfied with the direction and leadership of the university,” a special committee of the board said in a message posted on the university’s Web site. The message also implied that the decision to step down was the president’s own. “John Sexton’s agreement with the university to serve as president extends to 2016,” it said, “and he has made clear that he will not serve beyond that.”
Mr. Sexton has been a focal point for many critics of the university’s ambitious expansion plans, in Manhattan and internationally, and he has irked many faculty members with a leadership style seen as autocratic. He has been the subject of numerous no-confidence votes among the institution’s divisions, although not all of the votes have gone against him.
The changes announced on Wednesday emerged from a series of meetings that the special committee of the board has held with faculty and staff members, administrators, and students over the past few months, the Times reported. “This is a matter of extreme importance to us,” it quoted Martin Lipton, the chairman of the board of trustees, as saying. “No university can prosper if there’s disruption, if there’s unhappiness in the family.”
