ISU Provost Elizabeth Hoffman announced in an email Monday morning she has been “exploring other opportunities,” and will remain on staff no later than Dec. 31, 2012.

Hoffman said she will remain on staff until new President Steven Leath finds her replacement or she accepts another position.

The email reads:

Dear Colleagues:

Last week I asked President Leath to begin a search for a new executive vice president and provost. As many of you know, I have been exploring other opportunities, including being a public finalist for the presidency of the University of New Mexico. I appreciate that many of you have asked me to stay, but I understand that President Leath needs to be able to search for my replacement while I am looking at other opportunities. Therefore, I have agreed to stay in my current position until December 31, 2012, unless I accept another position or a new executive vice president and provost is able to start earlier.

As I convey this decision to you, I want to thank everyone at Iowa State for five wonderful years as executive vice president and provost and, before that, for four wonderful years as dean of liberal arts and sciences. I know the past three years have been particularly difficult as we have weathered the worst financial challenge since the Great Depression of the 1930s, but we have all worked together to build a stronger university in the face of this challenge. I can’t tell you how much I have appreciated how hard everyone has worked to maintain the outstanding Iowa State experience for students, faculty and staff.

Moreover, we have accomplished much together. We developed, implemented, and are now evaluating the success of the Resource Management Model. Due in part to the incentives of the Model, our enrollment and sponsored funding have both increased by about 25%, allowing our budget to stabilize in the face of a more than 25% decline in state funding. We remain a destination university for Iowa residents, as well as for students from around the country and around the world. And, we have won a number of major research awards and built a stronger research enterprise overall, while strengthening our land-grant extension and outreach enterprise. We have an outstanding and unusally diverse group of deans and vice presidents.

Please work with President Leath to recruit an outstanding new executive vice president and provost. I will continue to serve all of you and Iowa State as long as I am here. And, I will always remain a Cyclone.

My best to all,

Betsy Hoffman.