Academy of Arts and Sciences President to Step Down Leslie Cohen Berlowitz, the embattled president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, will depart her post at the end of the month, the academy announced on Thursday. Ms. Berlowitz has been on paid administrative leave since early June after reports that she had falsely claimed on grant applications and other documents that she held a doctorate. In a letter to members, Louis W. Cabot, chairman of the academy's board, said that Ms. Berlowitz would resign effective July 31, with no severance. She will receive a one-time payment of $475,000, reflecting vested retirement benefits to which she was contractually entitled, as well as "deferred compensation," the letter noted. She will also receive supplemental health insurance for five years "at a cost not to exceed $3,500 per year." Electing a successor to lead the 233-year-old honorary society, which is based in Cambridge, Mass., will probably take "some months," Mr. Cabot wrote. The letter also announced that Mr. Cabot's term as board chairman, which began in 2009, would end in October. He is to be replaced by Don M. Randel, a former president of the University of Chicago and of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The letter did not comment on the credentials controversy, which is subject to a continuing independent investigation, according to an academy spokesman. But the information about financial terms seemed to be a response to anger among many of the academy's more than 4,000 members about Ms. Berlowitz's compensation (more than $598,000 for the fiscal year ending March 2012), which was noted in a Boston Globe article that first reported on the résumé issue. In the letter, Mr. Cabot wrote that the board had appointed a special committee to examine how Ms. Berlowitz's compensation was determined, and make recommendations for "any changes in the compensation process going forward." Thomas Bender, a historian at New York University and an academy member, called the letter "a more direct response to the issues than expected." But he asked the board to do more to address governance issues, including changes to the bylaws that may have allowed Ms. Berlowitz to become president, a position previously held by distinguished scholars. Mr. Randel, the new chairman, he added, "is a very good choice to take the responsibility of rescuing this place and getting it back to what it should be, a significant honorary society."