LIU president Steinberg to step down

Long Island University's president is stepping down in August, ending a 27-year tenure in which the university rescued one campus, sold another and embraced technology as a learning tool.

David Steinberg, 75, said he'll leave after the university gets reaccredited, allowing him to scratch off another career goal.

"It's a logical exit," said Steinberg, who plans to move out of the president's house on the Brookville campus and into a Manhattan apartment. "I have spent my whole life hustling, to make sure, do and accomplish, and now maybe it's time to read a book or two and see what emerges."

Edward Travaglianti, chairman of LIU's board of trustees, said Steinberg's commitment "has served as the driving force behind our advancement and achievement."

A committee of trustees will mount a national search for a replacement, an effort led by trustee Eric Krasnoff, retired head of Pall Corp. in Port Washington.

Steinberg, a former history professor and Brandeis University administrator, was tapped to lead LIU in 1985, a time when its campuses operated like "separate institutions."

In one of his proudest accomplishments, he integrated the campuses over the years, including a major re-branding of their names along with new logos this year.

Under Steinberg, enrollment at LIU's six campuses and online has grown from 19,000 students to more than 24,000. Endowments have jumped from $4.8 million to nearly $80 million.

Early on, he helped turn around the flagging Brooklyn campus, but in 2006 he lost the Southampton campus, selling the deficit-ridden facility for $35 million to the State University of New York and its Stony Brook campus, amid faculty calls for his ouster.

Through the decades, Steinberg focused on bringing the future of education to LIU, using technology to allow students in one campus to study under professors in another, and giving 6,000 free or discounted iPads as educational tools to students two years ago.

"Ultimately, we're in the retail business of education," he said.

Steinberg, whose last day will be Aug. 31, called his LIU years "a life-affirming experience."

But he joked: "You certainly want to be out before people say, 'He's still around, and he's losing it.' "