The principal of Queen's University is stepping down more than a year before the end of her term.

Karen Hitchcock announced in an e-mail to faculty, staff and students Wednesday morning that she is resigning on April 30 and will not be seeking another five-year term.

Hitchcock, 65, said she made her decision to resign with regret and after much reflection.

Queen's chancellor Charles Baillie and board of trustees chair William Young issued a statement that said they accepted the resignation with regret.

The announcement came a month after the group representing Queen's students, the Alma Mater Society, passed a unanimous motion opposing Hitchcock's reappointment for another term.

Students not surprised

Both the university's administration and the Alma Mater Society declined to comment on Hitchcock's resignation.

Katherine Laidlaw, editor-in-chief of the Queen's Journal, a weekly campus newspaper, said she wasn't surprised by Hitchcock's announcement.

"A lot of people felt she didn't engage with students on campus as much as she could have or maybe as much as they would have liked," Laidlaw said.

Hitchcock has been criticized for problems at the university that happened under her leadership, such as a cost overrun of at least $38 million on a $230 million student and recreation centre, Laidlaw said.

Fourth-year student Hannah Glow said she thinks the AMS motion was a significant factor.

"I'm not surprised at all that she's stepping down," Glow said. "If she's not appreciated, why should she stay?"

Hitchcock, a cell and developmental biologist, was appointed to a five-year term as principal and vice-chancellor in July 2004. A special committee had been discussing whether to extend her contract for another five-year term.

Before becoming principal at Queen's, Hitchcock was president of the University at Albany in New York.

Details about an interim principal and the search for a new principal are to be announced by the university in the near future.