Rutgers U­niversity President Robert Barchi confirmed Tuesday he intends to retire on June 30, 2020, when his current contract expires.

“My most important contribution to Rutgers is not the buildings,” Barchi said Tuesday at a board of governors meeting. “My most important contributions were recruiting a cadre of academic leaders that are second to none. They are unbelievable and outstanding.”

Barchi holds the title of university professor and will return to the faculty in that capacity during the 2020-2021 academic year. According to the board of governors, Barchi began his tenure at Rutgers leading one of the largest integrations in American higher education to form Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences and later oversaw the partnership with RWJBarnabas Health to create New Jersey’s largest and most comprehensive academic health system.

According to the board of governors, since Barchi joined Rutgers in 2012, honors colleges in New Brunswick and Newark have been built to attract New Jersey’s best students, and endowed professorships increased from 41 to 89 to attract world-renowned faculty.

More than $2.5 billion in construction provided new facilities for chemistry, nursing, engineering, life sciences and student life, the board of governors said, and more than $1 billion in fundraising in the last five years alone set records.

“Under Bob Barchi’s leadership, Rutgers’ national rankings have risen, research at Rutgers has expanded overall and in critical areas, our student academic profile has enjoyed dramatic improvement, and the physical face of Rutgers has been forever changed,” Rutgers board of governors Chairman Mark Angelson said. “We are delighted with his leadership and we are grateful that he will lead Rutgers for an eighth and final year.”

“President Barchi is an exemplary leader who has worked tirelessly to improve the student experience and to make Rutgers an ever-better place to learn, teach and do research,” board of trustees Chairman James Dougherty said.

“We look forward to welcoming a new president who shares our commitment to a diverse, equitable Rutgers that serves the people of New Jersey,” Todd Wolfson, president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT and an associate professor of journalism media studies said. “We hope the board of governors will prioritize faculty, student and staff engagement in the search for a new president who is committed to our values.

“We expect that President Barchi will complete his unfinished business, including finally settling the contract and equalizing policies for the hundreds of unionized medical school faculty on the Biomedical and Health Sciences campuses who have been working without a contract for over a year now,” Wolfson added.