SPRINGFIELD -- The announcement on Monday by Missouri State University President Mike Nietzel that he will resign from his job by the end of December 2010 continues to stun the community. On Tuesday, in a room full of cameras, Nietzel met with reporters, co-workers and students to talk about his decision.

"It did take a lot of time to think about it, and there are some mixed feelings,” he said.

After four years as president, he says the decision to leave came this summer.

"It was a matter of reflecting on how much longer I would be prepared to do the job the way I've done it, and devote time and particularly be involved in all the public aspects of the job, the way that you have to be, and it was hard for me to see it more than a year,” Nietzel said.

A member of the school's Board of Governors says the president's wife is battling throat cancer, and that likely played a role in the decision, although Nietzel won't say that.

"When a person says his reasons are personal, it means that they're private, and so I don't intend to elaborate any more,” he said.

Nietzel ensures students and staff that his last year won't be a lazy one.

"Whenever we talk about time, we don't look at the calendar, we look at the watch, in terms of how much to get done in a day, so I intend to be busy,” he said. "As I said to the campus, I love the job but I'll love something else, too."

Nietzel says he's looking forward to another busy year with the university, unless his successor is found sooner than that. Afterward, Nietzel says he may want to teach but, regardless, he's ready for something different.

Nietzel say he has not received or accepted any job offers. Most likely, he says he'll end up teaching in the university's psychology department.

Nietzel says he made and announced this decision with staff in mind. He wants to give the university plenty of time for the national search for a new president.