Brandeis University President Ronald Liebowitz, who garnered headlines last year for taking a strong stance against antisemitism after Oct. 7, resigned on Wednesday morning following a vote of “no confidence” passed by the Brandeis faculty, according to a letter he sent to the university community. 

The Tuesday faculty vote, which passed by just 10 votes, 159-149, described “a consistent pattern of damaging errors of judgment and poor leadership.” 

Liebowitz’s decision to step down comes after a chaotic year for the university, marked by some controversy over his handling of anti-Israel protests, as well as more mundane matters of university management that frustrated many in the Brandeis community. The no-confidence resolution described both, according to a draft copy published in the Brandeis student newspaper earlier this month: “The results this year include badly handled budget shortfalls, failures of fundraising, excessive responses to student protests, indifference to faculty motions, and the recent damaging staff layoffs.” 

Liebowitz banned the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine last November, making Brandeis the first private university to do so after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. He stood by that decision in an interview with Jewish Insider in February, despite receiving pushback from some on campus. 

“One thing I’m also opinionated about is selective free speech and a university cannot take selective stances on when it’s OK to do what some might describe as hate speech — I call it gratuitous speech,” Liebowitz said at the time. “The SJP situation to me was one of those examples where they were simply being a mouthpiece [for Hamas], which has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S.”

In his conversation with JI, Liebowitz also leaned into Brandeis’ history as a preeminent institution catering to Jewish students. “What drew me to Brandeis,” he said, was that the school is “both a Jewish institution and very much committed to the secular nature of its founding.”

Liebowitz’s strong stance in support of Jewish students took place against a backdrop of uncertainty at the university, which is also facing major staffing and budget issues. 

“There was this sense for a long time, before the war, that the wheels were coming off the bus. And then the war [in Gaza] came along,” one Brandeis faculty member, who requested anonymity to describe university affairs, told JI on Wednesday. 

Neither Liebowitz nor Lisa R. Kranc, the university’s board chair who announced the news, offered a reason for his resignation. Kranc praised Liebowitz for his role elevating the university’s founding Jewish values.

“He has continually reminded us that we are animated by Jewish values and identity, including a reverence for knowledge, a commitment to repairing the world and openness to all,” Kranc wrote in an email to the Brandeis community. “We are proud of the role President Liebowitz played over the past year in speaking out against antisemitism in our world and on college campuses.”

In his own email, Liebowitz said he is stepping down “with mixed emotions, because this is an exceptional institution, which carries great meaning, especially at this time, due to the reason for its founding.” 

Liebowitz’s resignation is effective on Nov. 1. Arthur E. Levine, a former president of the Teachers College at Columbia University, will take over as interim president.