Jehuda Reinharz, president of Brandeis University, announced Thursday that he will step down from his post at the end of the academic year, The Boston Globe reports.

Mr. Reinharz, 65, said his departure is unrelated to the controversy over the Rose Art Museum, which has engulfed the Boston-area campus since the administration floated plans in February to close the contemporary-art institution and sell some of its $350-million collection.

Since taking office in 1994, Mr. Reinharz has been credited with boosting Brandeis’s fund-raising and raising its national profile with a host of new programs and facilities. He said he now plans to head a major nonprofit group focused on international Jewish issues, but he did not name the organization.

His announcement came two days after a committee appointed by the university to explore the Rose museum’s future recommended that Brandeis keep the facility open as a public museum but took no stand on selling artworks, according to The Boston Globe.

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