Dalhousie University is set to begin a search for a new president after its current head, Richard Florizone, announced that he will step down in 2019.
Florizone, who has since 2013 served as the university’s 11th President, is set to lead the Quantum Valley Ideas Lab which is based in Waterloo, Ont.
The news was announced on Monday morning.
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Florizone’s term has seen record student enrollment and saw Dalhousie secure the largest federal research grant in 2016 for the Ocean Frontier Institute, said Lawrence Stordy, chair of the school’s board of governors, in a memo on Monday.
“As Chair of the Board and someone who has had the opportunity to work closely with him, I have respected and admired how Dr. Florizone brought to the presidency an openness, reflectiveness, and deep belief that we can — and must — always strive to do better,” Stordy said.
But Florizone’s time as president has not been without its controversies.
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His tenure saw the Dalhousie Dentistry School scandal, in which a group of male students made sexually violent comments about their female classmates on Facebook in a group called the “Class of DDS 2015 Gentlemen.”
Florizone commissioned a report on the matter, which found that Dalhousie Dentistry School’s standards for professionalism were “inconsistent,” there were “rumours of favoritism,” and that “inappropriate relationships abounded.”