The chancellor of the North Dakota University System announced last night at a meeting of the state’s Board of Higher Education that unless it resolved questions about his authority, he would step down. The ultimatum followed months of public tension between the chancellor, Robert L. Potts, the board, and North Dakota State University’s president, Joseph A. Chapman, who the chancellor told the Associated Press “basically thumbs his nose at me.”

“I can’t have one president not following the policies and procedures of the board and all the others expected to do so,” Mr. Potts said in an interview today with The Chronicle.

In a statement at last night’s meeting, Mr. Potts asked the board to amend his contract to define more explicitly the scope of his duties and authority as chancellor. If that failed to happen, he said, he would stay on only long enough for the board to choose an interim chancellor, “whose administrative philosophy and understanding of his or her role and responsibility more closely accord with the board’s current practice.”

Despite the threat, the evening ended inconclusively. According to one board member, Beverly Clayburgh, it will not respond until hearing from a committee that is studying the roles and responsibilities for the chancellor and board. That group’s report is due by July 11. Until then, Ms. Clayburgh said, “we’re just standing there not doing anything.” Mr. Potts said today that, meanwhile, he will carry on with his duties as chancellor.