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Clemson University president Jim Clements is retiring at the end of the month, bringing an abrupt end to his 12-year tenure at the helm of the public institution in South Carolina.

He cited “health and family” as his reasons for stepping down just over a year after he signed a five-year contract extension.

“Clemson has been my home and passion, yet my greatest love is for my wife, Beth, and our children and grandchildren. Life moves quickly, and I don’t want to miss what truly matters—the major milestones and the quiet, everyday joys,” Clements wrote in a Tuesday message announcing his retirement. “Those are the moments I want to experience and hold close.”

Clements joined Clemson in 2013 after nearly five years as president of West Virginia University.

He cited a record number of applications and Clemson’s attainment of Research-1 status under the Carnegie classification system, achieved in 2013, among his accomplishments. Board of Trustees chair Kim Wilkerson also said in her own message that under Clements’s leadership, “Clemson achieved record enrollment and graduation rates, expanded research initiatives and secured historic philanthropic support.”

More recently, however, Clements courted controversy after the university fired three employees for allegedly making inappropriate remarks about the death of Charlie Kirk. The university appeared to claim in a social media post related to the firings that First Amendment rights do not “extend to speech that incites harm or undermines the dignity of others.”

Clemson also shut down faculty and staff affinity groups intended to advise leaders on how to support Black, Latino, LGBTQ+ students, veterans and others in September. At the time, Clemson officials claimed, “The commissions have successfully fulfilled their important charge.”

Now Clemson is expected to name an interim president at an emergency board meeting Wednesday. Provost Bob Jones, who was planning to retire, is expected to be named to the interim role and to “serve until a successor is named,” according to Wilkerson’s statement.