The University of California Office of the President issued the following message on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019:
University of California President Janet Napolitano announced today, Sept. 18, at the UC Board of Regents meeting that she will step down in August 2020 after seven years of leading California’s preeminent public university system.
“My time at UC has been deeply gratifying and rewarding. I have been honored and inspired every day to serve this institution alongside incredibly dedicated, passionate people,” said Napolitano, the 20th president and first woman to lead the university. “The decision was tough — and this moment, bittersweet — but the time is right.”
Since taking the helm in September 2013, Napolitano has chartered a strong, solid course for the world-class system of 10 campuses, five academic medical centers and three nationally affiliated labs. The impacts of her leadership have reverberated beyond UC and higher education: increasing enrollment and access for California students while stabilizing tuition, shaping issues of national importance such as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and chartering innovative initiatives that have established the university as a leader on climate change and Title IX, among other issues. From expanding access for community college transfers to raising the minimum wage at the university, addressing the student housing crisis to battling student hunger, the president’s agenda has underscored her commitment to access and affordability, while directly addressing the practical challenges that students at UC, and at colleges across the nation, face.