Dick Thompson, chairman of the Board of Trustees, released a statement on Friday on behalf of the board following the news that Chancellor Nancy Cantor will leave Syracuse University at the end of her contract in June 2014.

“Clearly, Nancy brought to SU everything that we wanted and needed in a Chancellor,” Thompson said in the statement. “But her vision and leadership have exceeded all expectations.  She has enabled SU to achieve new heights by breaking down siloes that constrained us in so many ways in the past, unleashing our tremendous untapped potential.”

Thompson praised Cantor’s billion-dollar campaign initiative, citing that the lofty goal was reached despite it taking place through the biggest global financial crisis in nearly a century.

He listed, in bullet points, some of the new opportunities created abroad, both nationally and internationally, that have taken place under Cantor in the last eight-plus years. He said the university is more attractive to faculty than it has been in the past, and that Syracuse is a major partner for nonprofits and corporations “whose attention was difficult to attract before.”

With Cantor’s announcement coming a year and a half before she will depart the university, Thompson said it gives the board ample time to conduct a thorough search for her successor.

“I am deeply grateful for the total commitment to SU that Nancy has exhibited day in and day out,” Thompson said. ” True to that ethic, she is now giving us the opportunity to plan carefully for the future and continue to build on our unprecedented successes.”