President Ruth Simmons will be stepping down at the end of the academic year, she announced in an email to the Brown community this morning.

Simmons, who took the helm as the University’s 18th president in 2001, wrote that she intended to step down after a 10-year presidency – a figure in keeping with the average tenure for Ivy League presidents – but she stayed on because of requests by members of the Corporation. She was the first black president of an Ivy League university and the second female president.

Chancellor Thomas Tisch told The Herald last March that he expected Simmons to stay as president “for the foreseeable future.”

A group within the Corporation is responsible for presidential succession plans, The Herald reported last March. Maria Zuber, a member of the Corporation’s Board of Fellows, told The Herald that “any outstanding institution always has a succession plan at all levels.”

Simmons wrote that she “recently” decided to step down, adding that this is “the ideal time” for the University and for herself to move to new leadership. The Corporation was informed today, according to Marisa Quinn, vice president for public affairs and University relations.

Simmons wrote she will first take a leave to “take up projects that have been on hold far too long.” She then plans to return to Brown as Professor of Comparative Literature and Africana Studies.

Peter Weber, dean of the Graduate School, said, “While we should have all expected it, it still comes as a shock.”