Carol Tomlinson-Keasey, UC Merced's founding chancellor and a former UC Davis administrator, announced that she will step down as leader of the newest campus in the UC system.

"I am ready to pass the baton," said Tomlinson-Keasey, 63, adding that she will continue her association with the Merced campus by teaching psychology there starting in the fall of 2007, after taking a yearlong sabbatical.

Her announcement last week came a little more than six months after the Merced campus's official opening. But her association with UC Merced goes back seven years, during which time she guided the project from planning to construction, and from faculty hiring to the first admissions.

Along the way, the project overcame political and financial hurdles, not to mention environmental obstacles. Fairy shrimp and vernal pools kept UC from its preferred construction site, and the planning process started anew for adjacent property in the foothills east of Merced.

The campus opened Sept. 5 last year with nearly 900 students — and a plan for eventual enrollment of about 25,000 within 30 years. It is the 10th UC, the first in the San Joaquin Valley and the first research university to open in the United States in the 21st century.

"UC Merced provides another educational avenue for the state's burgeoning student population, brings a research faculty to address the issues of our era, and shines a beacon of opportunity to students in the region," Tomlinson-Keasey said.

She noted "seven very intense and demanding years" that went into establishing the university.

But, she added, "It has been the opportunity of a lifetime. I am extremely proud of this new campus, its world-class faculty and the pioneering group of students whose diversity reflects the future of California."

The Los Angeles Times noted that Tomlinson-Keasey was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 and underwent treatment. But she said health concerns did not factor in her decision.

"This is a very intense and demanding position, and over the years one tends to put family priorities down the list," she said, according to the Times. "I'm looking forward to having my family move up the list a couple of notches."

Tomlinson-Keasey, a developmental psychologist, said she is looking forward to a return to teaching and scholarship. She said she will vacate the chancellor's office on Aug. 31. During her sabbatical, she said, she plans to document UC Merced's early history.

She was a professor and administrator at UC Riverside for many years before coming to UC Davis as vice provost for academic planning and personnel in 1992. She served as dean of the College of Letters and Science in 1994-95.

She left Davis in 1997 upon being appointed the UC system's first vice provost for academic initiatives.

In 1998, then-UC President Richard Atkinson named her to direct planning for UC Merced. She was named founding chancellor the next year — and joined the university's two other employees in temporary quarters at Merced College.

Robert Dynes, who now serves as UC president, said: "All of us at the University of California owe Carol Tomlinson-Keasey a debt of gratitude for the tremendous energy, skill, enthusiasm and devotion she has brought to the creation of UC Merced."

The president's office announced that a nationwide search for Tomlinson-Keasey's replacement will begin shortly.