U.Va. president to retire next year

University of Virginia President John T. Casteen III will retire next summer after 20 years at the helm of one of the nation's Public Ivies.

Calling his time at U.Va. "magical," Casteen, 65, told the board of visitors yesterday that he will step down Aug. 1, 2010, and said he is "eager to applaud what comes next."

Under Casteen's leadership, the university founded by Thomas Jefferson has consistently ranked at the top of academic standings.

Casteen is credited with major expansion -- including 98 new buildings -- and solidifying the university's financial future with an endowment that until recently was worth $5.1 billion. Even with steep hits it has taken during the recession, the endowment's overall value remains at $3.9 billion.

Casteen will serve as a consultant for a year after he steps down to remain active in the university's current $3 billion fundraising campaign.

His announcement was not a surprise, and the accolades were quick to come in.

"The presidency of Mr. Jefferson's university is a unique position in global higher education, and John has been a wonderful steward of the school at a time of great change and progress," Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said.

"John Casteen will be remembered as the person who understood Jefferson's vision of this place and catapulted it into the 21st century," U.Va. Rector W. Heywood Fralin said.

"I think the world of John Casteen," said retiring Virginia Commonwealth University President Eugene P. Trani.

"He will be greatly missed in higher education in Virginia and across the nation," said Trani, who steps down June 30.

Casteen became U.Va. president in August 1990, a month after Trani took over at VCU. Casteen was president of the University of Connecticut at the time and had briefly put his name in contention for the VCU post.

But Casteen said recently that he quickly decided he wasn't the right fit for VCU. He chose instead to return to Charlottesville, where he had earned his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in English.

Born and raised in Portsmouth, Casteen arrived at the Academical Village as a 17-year-old in 1961, the first in his family to attend college.

Casteen was U.Va.'s dean of admission from 1975 to 1982 and is credited with working to increase the number of minorities and women among a student body that had been all white until 1950 and virtually all-male until 1970.

He was Virginia's secretary of education from 1982 until 1985, when he left to take the top post at the University of Connecticut.

At an afternoon news conference in the university's Rotunda, Casteen said he began contemplating the transition last year. He said it was important for the board and new president to have adequate time to find successors for other senior administrators also nearing retirement.

Fralin said that he expects the board to begin a search for Casteen's successor in late July.

After a sabbatical, Casteen will join the faculty of the university that has been ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 among the nation's public schools for the past 12 years. It's No. 2 in this year's U.S. News and World Report rankings.

University of Richmond President Edward L. Ayers, who had served as Casteen's dean of arts and sciences, praised him for creating opportunities for students from all backgrounds.

"For two decades, people have looked to John Casteen and the University of Virginia as inspiring examples of what public education can achieve in this nation," he said.

Casteen successfully advocated for greater autonomy for universities under the state's higher education restructuring act.

Casteen has said a strong endowment, which was just $500,000 when he became president, is necessary to counter erratic state support. That was a theme he continued Tuesday when he told the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia that his board should be focused "on doubling the size of the university."

But it can't, he said, because "it doesn't trust its state partner."

At his news conference yesterday, Casteen said he would like to see his successor add new schools, particularly in global studies or environmental policy.

"The fact that the net result of 35 years of state action to clean up the Chesapeake Bay is a dead bay, it's probably not hard to figure out that we need to figure out a better way to direct public policy toward solving major public problems," he said.

Contact Karin Kapsidelis at (804) 649-6119 or .

The Associated Press contributed to this report.