Wednesday, Oct. 22 Chancellor Andrew Leavitt sent an email to the entire school announcing that he will be stepping down from his chancellor position, effective June 30, 2025. 

According to Leavitt, his main reason for leaving is because the university is at a point of transition and that makes sense. That doesn’t make sense to us though. 

Despite a horrible year laying off countless staff members, cutting courses, closing our two access campuses, getting intense backlash from the media and having the faculty vote that they have no confidence in him, he stayed steadfast. 

When the staff voted no confidence, he gave us the impression that he was too arrogant to step down, unlike another chancellor from the ‘70s, Robert Birnbaum, who realized after lots of criticism that he was not suited to be a chancellor.

Why now, on a random Wednesday when things have generally calmed down, did he chose to drop yet another bomb on the university? Most of us expected that if Leavitt were to resign, he would have done it a year ago, which could have controlled the massive blow to campus morale. 

We feel relieved by Leavitt’s resignation because we definitely noticed a change of attitude and the quality of instruction going down because of the layoffs. Many of the professors left over felt the pressure of these layoffs as they had to say goodbye to colleagues and had to pick up their slack, causing mental strain and an increased workload. 

At the same time, we are also terrified for the future. While this may be a good thing short-term, and while we’re less than confident in Leavitt’s leadership, we’re very apprehensive about who is to come.

Who wants to pick up the pieces of a broken university? Probably someone desperate for their big break and who is hungry for power. The system would never concede to that possibility though. That’s probably exactly who they’re looking for. 

Whether this is good for the university or not will depend on who takes his place. If we get someone who is qualified for the job and will help this campus grow again, the morale on the campus will definitely improve.

We don’t think Leavitt is necessarily a bad person, he’s just not fit for the role of a chancellor. Leavitt has a good heart, we really do think that’s true. We think that he’s too worried about his public image to put his foot down and that he became a yes-man to Jay Rothman and his own administrative goonies. 

In finding a new chancellor, we hope the next one guts this place from the inside out. We need a complete revamp, and not just the reorganization Edwin Martini is in charge of. 

We think we need to get rid of all of the administrators Leavitt put into place – they aren’t qualified for their jobs anyway. Restructure the “restructurers.” Maybe they can save UWO – or what’s left of it.