Dive Brief:

• Sally Mason, president of the University of Iowa for eight years, will retire Aug. 1.
• Mason, 64, has led the university during “unprecedented construction,” according to the university, including a children’s hospital, biomedical research center, fine arts campus and residence hall.
• The university raised $1.4 billion for scholarships, research and construction during Mason’s tenure.

Dive Insight:

Mason is the school’s 20th president, joining in 2007 from Purdue University, where she was provost. She is also a cell and developmental biologist. Her tenure had a few rough spots: She made news in 2012 during a faculty-student sexual harassment controversy where the alleged offender was allowed to resign instead of be fired, and she said she would have kept the incident private if a newspaper report hadn’t made it public. Last year, she made four-minute-long apology for telling the student newspaper that ending sexual assault was “probably not a realistic goal just given human nature.” Also last year, she was criticized for signing a letter that essentially endorsed a state plan that cut funding for her school.