Yale University's long-serving president to step down

(Reuters) - Yale University President Richard Levin will step down at the end of the current academic year after 20 years at the helm of the Ivy League university, Levin said in a letter on Thursday.

Levin, 65, became Yale's president in 1993 and has served at the New Haven, Connecticut-based university longer than any other current Ivy League president.

As president, he oversaw Yale's largest building and renovation program since the 1930s and spearheaded an expansion of Yale's financial aid programs.

"It is a source of great satisfaction to leave Yale in much stronger condition -- academically, physically, and financially -- than it was when I began in 1993," Levin said.

"I look forward to a sabbatical next year, when at last I will have the time to complete a book of reflections on higher education and economic policy," he said.

Levin, who earned a bachelor's degree from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in economics from Yale, taught economics before becoming chairman of the Yale's Economics Department.

(Reporting By Edith Honan; Editing by Sandra Maler)