An incredibly difficult decision
November 13, 2024 9:02 AM

Dear Faculty, Staff and Students,

As I am sure you will agree, I have sent numerous massmails throughout my tenure as the 10^th Chancellor of the University of Illinois. Some have certainly been easier than others.

This is a hard one.

In fact, it is tied to the most difficult decision that I have had to make across my nearly 47 years in higher education. I am writing to let you know that I will be ending my tenure as chancellor at the end of June 2025. At that point, I will have been in this role for nearly nine years, which will be the longest tenure of any chancellor of this university since the first chancellor served nearly 57 years ago. But choosing the best time to step away from a job and a university community I truly love is an entirely different thing. I really believe this is the right time to begin the transition to find the next chancellor of this great university.

When I joined the Illinois family in 2016, I knew I was coming to an outstanding public university with an impossibly long list of discoveries, inventions and world-changing ideas. I knew that serving as the next chancellor here was a tremendous personal and professional opportunity. What I did not know was that it would also be the most profound experience of my career in higher education.

It has not always been easy. We have endured the worst budget crisis in our state’s history. We navigated the worst global health crisis in living memory. We have shared the intense pain, sorrow and suffering that are the inevitable prices of inequity, injustice and war. But it has been in these most difficult moments when I have gotten to see the strength of character of the students, faculty and staff who choose to call this university their home. Time and again, you have demonstrated a fearless commitment to the pursuit of knowledge that is matched only by your generosity of spirit and your care and empathy for others. I am extremely proud of what I have seen you all accomplish, together, even when it seemed like everyone else in the world was telling you it was impossible. The university is at a historical highpoint in its transformational impact on the nation and the world, and that makes it even harder for me to step away.

I am so very grateful to all of you over the past eight years who have shown me patience, enlightened me, extended me grace and helped me truly understand what it means to be a member of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign family. Thank you for letting me be a part of your Illinois experience. That is a very special and treasured gift.  

I look forward to working closely with my leadership team, our deans and the University System to navigate this transition as smoothly as possible. And I promise I will do everything I can to help ensure that your next chancellor has the skills, experience, bold vision and courage that the students, staff, faculty and alumni of this university expect and deserve.

If you have heard me speak publicly, you have probably heard me say that it is my great privilege to serve as chancellor of the greatest public university in the world. That was never a throwaway line. It was just the truth. I mean it every time I say it. And never more than I do today.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Jones
Chancellor