University President Neil L. Rudenstine announced today that he will resign his position following the 2000-2001 academic year.

Rudenstine said he plans to step down on June 30, 2001, a decade after assuming the post.

In what is widely considered his most significant accomplishment, Rudenstine spearheaded the Harvard's Capital Campaign, which raked in $2.6 billion over six years--half a billion more than its original goal. The amount boosted Harvard's endowment to a record high of $14.4 billion.

"The time seems right," Rudenstine said in a statement. "With the campaign behind us and new opportunities on the horizon, it will be important to revive the University-wide academic planning process and to take a fresh look at future priorities. It's only fitting that a new president be in a position both to shape that process and to see it through."

Rudenstine, a Rhodes Scholar, came to Harvard from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where he served as executive vice president. Prior to that, he was provost at his alma mater, Princeton.