Although she wrote in her e-mail announcement that she steps down with “considerable reluctance,” she added that she accepted the deanship in the spring of 2002 “with great trepidation.”

“I never wanted to be a Dean,” she wrote.

Willett said that Summers persuaded Lagemann to take the position.

Lagemann said she left yesterday’s faculty meeting 25 minutes early to discuss public relations strategy with University Provost Steven E. Hyman. On her way out, Rodman shielded her from a photographer.

In a statement, University President Lawrence H. Summers wrote that the search for Lagemann’s successor would start immediately. Summers declined to comment beyond his letter yesterday.

Lagemann said that she plans to work very closely with Summers, Hyman, and other administrators in Mass. Hall to select the new dean. She said that she also plans to involve the GSE Faculty in the search.

Willett said he is confident that Summers will conduct a collaborative search.

“The last time we went through this, Larry was very consultative with us, much more than we had expected,” he said.

Hyman said yesterday it was “premature” to discuss what the search committee will seek in a new dean.

Willett added that GSE faculty are now discussing who could serve as interim dean if the dean search is not completed by Lagemann’s departure in June.

“I’m sure there are several people on our senior faculty that could easily do the job, including the current academic dean,” he said.

Professor of Education and Social Policy Gary Orfield agreed that there are plenty of qualified GSE faculty members to fill the administrative post. But he said that convincing professors to take the position would be a “hard sell.”

“The University is in a crisis right now,” Orfield said. “Finding someone who wants to take the deanship under difficult circumstances is going to be tough.”

Lagemann said that as dean, her main achievements were to strengthen the school’s curriculum and raise “a lot of money.”

Willett agreed that Lagemann was crucial in restoring financial grounding.