QUICK TAKES - Sept. 26, 2009

Brandeis University President Jehuda Reinharz, who acknowledged mishandling plans to close a school art museum, will resign after the current academic year, university officials said Friday.

Reinharz, 65, president since 1994, agreed to continue serving through the end of the 2009-10 academic year, according to an e-mailed statement from the school in Waltham, Mass.

Reinharz said in an e-mail to students and faculty that he expects “to be the president of a significant foundation, where I can address issues facing the Jewish community at the national and international level.”

Brandeis said Jan. 26 that it would close the Rose Art Museum and intended to sell works by artists including Andy Warhol and Willem de Kooning after the school suffered investment losses and some donors were hurt by Bernard Madoff’s fraud. Days later, students called for a sit-in protest, and the chairman of the Brandeis fine arts department said the school would lose an “irreplaceable” teaching tool.

Reinharz said in February that he mishandled some aspects of the decision and apologized for a lack of openness about the trustees’ deliberations. On Sept. 18, a school committee recommended that the museum remain open and that Brandeis take steps to “better integrate” it into the school’s mission.