NIU President John Peters has announced he will retire from NIU.

Peters, who was appointed in 2000, has served NIU for over a decade and has seen the university through glory and hardships: he worked to obtain a $4.2 million federal grant for NIU’s Physics Department; has worked with the state government to fix the SURS pension program NIU faculty and staff uses; saw the community through the Feb. 14, 2008, shootings; and, in recent years, has combated declining total enrollment. During today’s State of the University speech, he said, “I cannot express in words my love for this university.” The announcement of his retirement received a standing ovation, and Peters said he believes a search committee to find a replacement will be in place by November. He will step down in June.

Peters, NIU’s 11th chief executive officer, was unanimously voted in to replace former NIU President John La Tourette by the Board of Trustees in March 2000.

“I am very happy with the appointment,” La Tourette said, according to a March 24, 2000, Northern Star article. “I am very pleased that the board came forward with such a strong candidate.”

Peters was viewed as a strong fundraising candidate while going through the NIU presidential search process. In a March 24, 2000, Northern Star article, Andy Small, DeKalb 1st Ward alderman, said Peters would come to NIU “with a lot of background [in] bringing cash back home.”

Peters had plans to deliver on those hopes, as well.

“Show me the funding and I’ll find you the money,” he said during a public forum, according to a March 6, 2000, Northern Star article.

During an open forum that was part of the hiring process, Peters said “as president, you have to set high goals and be an agent for change,” according to a March 6, 2000, Northern Star article.

NIU did see various changes under Peters, and, in recent years, many of those changes have fallen under the Vision 2020 initiative. NIU has seen the construction of the New Residence Hall Complex, the remodeling of Gilbert Hall and an increasingly large Honors Program, among other things. At his State of the University speech, Peters said NIU has also put more than $10 million toward merit scholarships for incoming and current students.

However, Peters does not intend to rest on his laurels as he waits to step down.

“I have eight months left on the job. And I intend to make every day count,” he said.

Peters earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at John Carroll University, a master’s degree in government from Ohio University in Athens and his Ph.D. in political science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Before coming to NIU, Peters was provost and chief operating officer of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and worked in teaching and various administrative roles for twenty years at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.