The University of Minnesota’s College of Design dean, Thomas Fisher, will step down from his current position this summer.

 He’s leaving the college after leading it for nearly two decades. He plans to take on new positions as the director of the University’s Metropolitan Design Center and the Dayton Hudson Land Grant Chair in Urban Design.

An interim dean will replace Fisher starting in June and will head the college next school year, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Karen Hanson wrote in a letter posted on the college’s website last month.

The temporary leader will be responsible for helping complete the college’s strategic plan, which is currently being drafted. The plan will affect the future of the college, which has more than 1,900 faculty, staff and students.

“I must say that it has been a privilege of a lifetime to work alongside our faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends,” Fisher wrote in a letter posted on the college’s website last month. “I’m pleased to be leaving my deanship with the college in great shape, financially strong, and with abundant opportunity and promise on the horizon.”