Eisenhower Formally Quits Columbia Chair

Dwight D. Eisenhower has resigned as president of Columbia the university said yesterday. The resignation is effective January 19, the day before his inauguration as President of the United States.

Columbia revealed Eisenhower's long-awaited resignation by making public a letter signed November 15. In it, the President-elect also quit as a trustee of the university.

Eisenhower assumed the presidency of Columbia on June 7, 1948. Since February, 1951, he has been on leave without pay. He took the leave to serve as supreme commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces, and continued it during his successful campaign for the Presidency.

Eisenhower came in for much criticism during his short tenure as Columbia president. The Daily Spectator, undergraduate newspaper, attacked him editorially on numerous occasions for being absent from the university on military matters and speaking tours not connected with Columbia.

Columbia's announcement included no montion of when his successor will be named.