UPDATED: UNI President Ben Allen to Retire

Updated 11:20 a.m.

President Ben Allen will retire no later than July 1, 2013.

The announcement came during a Board of Regents meeting on the UNI campus today.

"It has truly been an honor serving as president of UNI these past six years," said Allen in a press release. "Pat and I believe this is a very special place and we have enjoyed working alongside so many talented students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the university."

Allen has been UNI's president for six years. He was named president in April 2006 and assumed his duties in June 2006.

The Board of Regents will conduct a search to replace Allen. He will plan to retire no later than July 1, 2013, based on when a new president is appointed and is ready to take over.

“The Board is most proud and appreciative of Ben’s leadership role in Iowa's Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative, and his extraordinary work in leading UNI through significant economic challenges,” said Board of Regents President Craig Lang.

Those economic challenges led to challenges and controversy for Allen. He earlier this year when UNI enacted budget cuts, which included the closure of dozens of academic programs, the University Museum and Malcolm Price Laboratory School.

A press release from UNI's University Relations sought to cast those challenges in a positive light, listing, "Managing UNI through some of the toughest economic times in recent history," among Allen's accomplishments.

Other accomplishments listed are:

-       A leadership role in Iowa's Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative

-       Establishment of the Richard O. Jacobson Center for Comprehensive Literacy

-       Meeting the UNI Foundation's "Imagine the Impact" campaign's $150 million goal one year early

-       A visit to UNI by His Holiness, the 14^th Dalai Lama of Tibet