University administrators breathed a sigh of relief Friday when University President-elect Mark Yudof announced he would not seek the presidency of the University of Texas.
Yudof, the provost at Texas’ Austin campus, reaffirmed his intention to come to the University one day after his current school’s top post was vacated by Robert Berdahl.
Berdahl accepted the chancellorship of the University of California at Berkeley Thursday, fueling speculation that Yudof might reject Minnesota and vie for the Texas presidency he lost to Berdahl in 1992.
Yudof, a professor of law at Texas-Austin since 1971 and the school’s provost since 1992, extinguished that speculation via a press release, but University administrators knew his intentions several days earlier.
Board of Regents Executive Director and Corporate Secretary Steven Bosacker said he spoke with Yudof on Wednesday.
“He told me not to worry and that he was coming to Minnesota,” Bosacker said.
Yudof will be on campus this week attending meetings with University administrators. The trip will is his third to Minnesota since his December appointment as the successor to University President Nils Hasselmo. Yudof will take office July 1.

— Joel Sawyer