University of Michigan regents elect Kent Syverud new president

FOX 2 - The University of Michigan Board of Regents is holding a special meeting to elect the next president of the school.

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The new president is Syracuse Chancellor Kent Syverud, it was announced - by unanimous vote.

Syverud, a Michigan alum, is the university's 16th president and earned J.D. and a masters in economics from U-M in the early 1980s.

He was a former law professor and U-M regent Mark Bernstein said that he was the first instructor he ever had in law school. 

"In May of 1978 I arrived on campus off a Greyhound with one suitcase," he said. "By helping steward this place now is the greatest honor I can imagine."

He acknowledged that these are challenging times for Michigan, higher education, and the whole world.

"We can curl into a ball and say ‘woe is me’ or we can do what Michigan has always done - lead," he said. "Not by arrogantly lecturing others, but by modeling each day in small ways and in big ones, the values, ideas, innovation and civil engagement that this world so badly needs. I want to help us do that."

He was asked if he had any plans to fire Athletic Director Warde Manuel following recent scandals with the football program, including the criminal case ex-coach Sherrone Moore is embroiled in. Moore had an affair with a staffer, leading to domestic charges after they broke up. 

"It would be wrong for me to comment on that, because there is a process going on within the university, and I'm not part of that process because I won't be president until the end of the semester," he said. 

College athletics are 'a mess':

Syverud shared he does have plenty of opinions on college athletics.

"I can tell you that athletics in many places, is a mess," he said. "And that the whole system of governing athletics in the United States, remains a mess."

He added that he thinks collective bargaining with student athletes is going to be an essential part of success, "as it is currently for all successful professional sports."

Syverud spent time with a think tank involving members of private equity in hopes to create a model for a national college sports league with regional divisions.

"And also with collective bargaining like they have with professional sports, so that student-athletes had a seat at the right table to create rules uniformly across all institutions."

That proposal "went down in flames" due to those invested in the current structure. 

He said he believes the current state of athletics "needs to get worse - before it can get better."

Thankful for U-M Medicine:

Syverud said he met his wife Ruth on the campus, married her and both years later returned to teach. His voice cracked when adding that U-M medicine saved his son's life.

He said his son was born with his ribs concave instead of convex. 

"It got so serious that they had to operate long before anyone in the world had operated and he had to have all his ribs taken out and replaced," he said. "It was a very risky and unprecedented surgery. But because the University of Michigan has the best people - and the most innovative people in the world, it worked out."

Syverud said that the credit in his son's care not just went to the doctors, but the entire University of Michigan health system.

"The nurses, the decency of everyone from the people who worked in the parking garage, it was an amazing experience," he said. "I know it's something they do every day, but we have tremendous respect for those folks."

He replaces Dr. Santa Ono who stepped down in May 2025 in an effort to get the same position at the University of Florida.