Amid criticism from faculty, Virginia Tech Provost Thanassis Rikakis is resigning to accept a university role as Presidential Fellow for Academic Innovation and as a tenured professor, the school announced Monday.
Rikakis, 53, will continue to earn an annual salary of $414,100. Rikakis was named provost in the fall of 2015.
A pair of faculty-driven surveys made public last week revealed friction between the provost and faculty and had the Faculty Senate weighing a no confidence vote of a high-level Tech administrator for the first time in three decades.
Tech President Timothy Sands wrote in a prepared statement Monday that now is the appropriate time for Rikakis to step down as Tech continues its attempt to implement ambitious new programs such as destination areas and an incentive-based budget model — initiatives of which Rikakis was the prime architect.
