Martha E. Pollack, Cornell University’s president for the past seven years, announced in a surprise email on Thursday afternoon that she is resigning. In a separate announcement, Kraig H. Kayser, the chairman of Cornell’s board of trustees, said the board had asked the university provost, Michael I. Kotlikoff, to serve as interim president for two years. Dr. Kotlikoff was previously dean of Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, among other posts. Dr. Pollack’s resignation means that four of the eight Ivy League universities — Harvard, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell — will now be in various stages of leadership transition, three of them with interim presidents already in charge or presidential searches underway. The presidents of Harvard and Penn resigned in the last six months, in part because of fallout over their testimony at a December congressional hearing investigating campus antisemitism.

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Persons: Martha E . Pollack, Cornell, “, ”, ” “, —, ” Dr, Pollack, Kraig H, Kayser, Michael I, Kotlikoff, Pollack’s, Cornell —, Penn Organizations: Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, Ivy League, — Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Harvard