By Colin Young, News Staff

Vice President for Student Affairs Ed Klotzbier will resign from his position at the end of the month, Senior Vice President Philomena Mantella announced in an email to members of Northeastern faculty and staff Monday afternoon.

Klotzbier served in his role as vice president for student affairs for eight years and director of university communications for two years prior. He will carry out his tenure as vice president until the end of the month, transitioning to a short-term special assignment until he leaves the university fully later this year, though he said there is not yet a specific timeline.

“I’ve been here for 10 years and it’s been 10 great years, but I have other career goals and I’m not getting any younger,” he said. “While Northeastern is a great place to work and I could see myself working here for the rest of my career, I wanted to be able to branch out and see what’s out there.”

Klotzbier, a New Jersey native who graduated from Northeastern in 1987, said Northeastern’s transition from a commuter school to a modern, residential university was one of the best parts of the job.

“I spent five years here working for President [Richard] Freeland and five years working for President [Joseph] Aoun,” Klotzbier said. “When you look at working for President Freeland and the build up of the residential Northeastern, there was a lot of fun in that. Then, what got even more exciting was when we started doing the international Northeastern efforts.”

As a vice president at Northeastern, Klotzbier was on the job 24/7 and said he didn’t have time to consider opportunities that would allow him to more effectively use his skill set.

“What really led me to this decision is that in the past year, I have been approached a few times for different opportunities and I just did not have the time,” he said. “In fairness to the university, I needed to say, ‘Look, I need to do something more and I want to move on and so I’m giving you notice so we can have a seamless transition.’”

While still an undergraduate student Klotzbier began working full time as an aide to then-Governor Michael Dukakis, a position he was first exposed to while on co-op. After working on Dukakis’ failed presidential campaign, Klotzbier received his law degree from the New England School of Law and worked at Boston law firm Palmer and Dodge for the next 10 years. Before returning to his alma mater, Klotzbier also worked at Mellon Financial.

When he got the call about the director of communications position, Klotzbier said he was intrigued by the possibility of returning to his roots and helping further the university’s growth.

“The Northeastern opportunity was like ‘Welcome Back Kotter,’ it was back to the place it all began,” he said. “I thought this could be a lot of fun because I saw where Northeastern was going. When I first got here, I was watching it change, but it wasn’t there yet.”

When the position of vice president for student affairs opened up, Klotzbier saw it as an opportunity to work directly with students and promote an intimate feeling of community on campus.

“Now I’m in this job trying to build community, trying to make this a residential Northeastern. We needed to care more about our students, we wanted to know your name, we wanted to know about you,” Klotzbier said. “We wanted you to be able to walk into an office and be comfortable and know that people are here to help you.”

Before leaving Northeastern, Klotzbier will work with Mantella on special projects while overseeing a smooth transition with the student affairs office.

“I think it’s a matter of making sure everything is in place, that I can feel confident the staff are ready to go, they know what’s going on,” Klotzbier said. “Then I can really start doing what I want to do, which is spend some time thinking about what is next.”

A frequent presence on campus, Klotzbier also wrote Ed’s Blog, a forum focused on campus events. Executive Director of University Health and Counseling Services Madeleine Estabrook will serve as interim vice president for student affairs while the university conducts a nationwide search for Klotzbier’s replacement, who should start in the fall.

– News Staff Rachel Zarrell contributed to this report.