PITTSBURGH (TNS) — Slippery Rock University’s president William Behre plans to retire in summer 2023, and in announcing the move Tuesday — 16 months early — he became the second Pennsylvania campus president in weeks to cite the pandemic prominently in plans to step down.

Slippery Rock appointed Behre as its 17th president of the state-owned university in July 2018, and he will have served five years in the job when he departs June 30, 2023. He called the presidency and his stay in office “the proudest moment of my professional life.”

But ambitious goals and targets he initially set, in areas from inclusion and financial aid to student success, became enmeshed in COVID-19, the president said. It produced financial and other stresses as the university with 8,800 students abruptly shifted to remote learning in March 2020, shuttered its dorms and scrambled to address needs, ranging from students who lacked Internet access at home to medical supplies needed by local first-responders — themselves taxed by the outbreak.

On Jan. 3, Elizabethtown College announced that its president, Cecilia McCormick, had resigned effective New Year’s Eve. The president, appointed in July 2019 to the Central Pennsylvania college said the pandemic “reinforced for me the importance of prioritizing what’s most important in our lives. As we start a new year, and with the college on strong footing, I believe this is the right decision for me and my family.”

At Slippery Rock, Behre’s announcement Tuesday came after he formally notified SRU’s council of trustees and Daniel Greenstein, chancellor of Pennsylvania’sState System of Higher Education, of his intentions last week. Greenstein and campus trustees praised his contributions.

”The pandemic has been the greatest single disruption to higher education, and life in general, in my lifetime,” Behre said. “I imagine that the Great Depression or World War II would be the closest relatively recent comparators to the level of disruption that we experienced. And, just as our campus community came together during those crises, we came together during this one.”

Efforts included donation and distribution of personal protective equipment that were to be used in SRU laboratories, simulations and classroom instruction, to local first responders who were on the front lines of the crisis, officials said in a statement. At least three local organizations received supplies from SRU: Allegheny Health Network Grove City Hospital, Butler Health System’s Butler Memorial Hospital and the Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company and Rescue Team.

”That was a great example of SRU helping to address an important community challenge,” Behre said. “We were fortunate to have these supplies and to be able put them to good use by delivering them to local health care providers.”

”Slippery Rock University has benefited from the leadership of Dr. Behre over the last several years,” said Matthew Lautman, chair of SRU’s council of trustees, in a statement released Tuesday by the university. “He humbly came to SRU and acknowledged all our successes and was then methodical in evaluating all aspects of the University, and only after understanding this institution, did he go to work to make it better.”

In a statement released by his office Tuesday evening, Greenstein said:

{p class=”krtText”}”In the time since President Behre informed me of his decision to retire …I’ve reflected on his presidency and the very significant contributions he is making to both SRU and our system—thinking about the focus he exudes when articulating SRU’s future direction, about his ability to set and exceed goals, and about his passion for students and their success.”