Kent Syverud speaks Monday at a University of Michigan Board of Regents meeting after the board unanimously approved his nomination to become the university’s next president. (Screenshot, via Michigan Advance)

The University of Michigan Board of Regents unanimously voted to formally approve Kent Syverud as the school’s next president, with his term set to start on July 1.

Syverud had served as the chancellor and president of Syracuse University for more than a decade, but announced in August that he would be stepping down from his role at the end of the 2025-26 academic year.

“I do believe Michigan has been, is now and must remain, the best public research university anywhere,” Syverud said just after the vote. “That has been my experience of Michigan.”

Mark Bernstein, the chair of the Board of Regents, highlighted Syverud’s experience as a former Michigan Law School professor and holder of two graduate degrees from the university, as well as his personal ties to Ann Arbor — having met his wife while at Michigan and marrying her on campus.

“He is a true Michigan success story, and his leadership will enable many more stories of growth, discovery, transformation and impact at Michigan,” Bernstein said.

Regent Denise Ilitch agreed in her statement at the meeting, applauding Syverud’s “deep roots of Michigan.”

“I was so impressed by his love of the university, which is second to none. He has the highest integrity, is extremely experienced, very well respected by all walks of life,” Ilitch added. “He really does define a Michigan man.”

Syverud will assume the position from interim President Domenico Grasso, who has held the position since former university President Santa Ono left Michigan in May 2025 to pursue a position leading the University of Florida.

Ono was unanimously elected to that position later that month, but the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state’s public universities, voted down his nomination, citing his prior support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at Michigan.

“Like many, I supported what I believed to be the original intent of DEI — ensuring equal opportunity and fairness for every student. That’s something on which most everyone agrees,” Ono wrote in a May 2025 op-ed explaining his decision to pursue the position in Florida. “But over time, I saw how DEI became something else–more about ideology, division and bureaucracy, not student success.”

Syverud referenced the attacks on the University of Michigan and higher education more broadly from the Trump administration in his remarks during the meeting.

“These are not normal times. Our regents have had to step up in so many more demanding ways in recent years to keep this school going forward,” Syverud said, adding that he hopes the university will lead by “modeling each day in small ways and in big ones, the values and the ideas and the innovation and the civil engagement that this world so badly needs.”

Bernstein said that “American higher education faces more challenges now than at any point since World War Two,” similarly citing Trump’s attacks, which include federal investigations into certain university scholarships, and the school’s decision to end many DEI initiatives after executive orders from the Trump administration.

“Given our position in the nation and in our state, it is imperative for us to have a leader who is prepared to meet these challenges, we need a leader with integrity and character and conviction,” he added. “We need a leader with experience who will provide stability and vision. We need a leader who understands our university, who knows this university firsthand, who knows what Michigan means to our students, to our faculty, to our state, to our society.”

Syverud’s election also comes as Michigan’s athletics department is under investigation for a series of scandals within the university’s athletics programs, most recently the firing of head football coach Sherrone Moore, who is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a staffer and for lying during the investigation into that affair. Former assistant football coach Matthew Weiss is also facing felony charges related to a computer hacking scheme that allegedly targeted student athletes.

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