ANN ARBOR, MI — Reactions from students and faculty are pouring in about Kent Syverud, the University of Michigan’s new hire for president.
While some students and faculty expressed optimism, there were some concerns about some of his previous comments from his time at Syracuse University.
Eric Veal Jr., president of UM Central Student Government, is pleased that Syverud will be the 16th University of Michigan president starting this summer.
Veal Jr. described Syverud, 69, as the candidate “for right now and for the future of our institution.”
“We’re very excited to welcome a president who is dedicated to students across our campus and dedicated to keeping the vision of our institution for public good and taking it farther,” Veal Jr. said.
Syverud, the chancellor at Syracuse, will replace interim President Domenico Grasso, himself a past chancellor of the Dearborn campus. Grasso took the job on an interim basis after former President Santa Ono stepped down in an attempt to become president of the University of Florida.
Syverud will begin his five-year presidential term by July 1.
Read more: Kent Syverud formally picked as next University of Michigan president
Veal is excited for him to build off of Grasso’s work and continue building relationships, especially with students.
“One thing I look for in the next president, as a member of the search committee, is looking for someone who has a steady hand and who is going to make sure that leadership is something that isn’t still from the top-down,” Veal said.
“I think he is going to be the person that leads our institution into the next phase and into the passing lane to be seen as the best institution in the world,” Veal said.
Derek Peterson, chair of the UM Faculty Senate, researched Syverud during his previous years at UM and found that he was a “faithful participant in faculty government,” citing his previous participation in various committees.
“We want to have a president that who knows what faculty government is about, who values the voice of faculty in the administration of the institution,” Peterson said.
He also applauded Syverud’s appreciation for racial diversity and noted his support for affirmative action.
Syverud was a witness for UM in the Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger during his time as dean of Vanderbilt Law School from 1997 to 2005.
The 2003 case upheld UM Law School’s limited use of race in admissions, as the majority held that admissions policies that favored underrepresented minorities did not violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause as long as other factors were taken into account on an individual’s application.
Read more: Despite SCOTUS affirmative action ban, University of Michigan still seeks diversity
State of Michigan voters barred public universities from considering race in admissions in 2006.
However, Peterson was concerned that Syverud may lack sympathy for pro-Palestine protesters at Syracuse University.
UM, like other colleges and universities in the country, is part of a national wave of pro-Palestine protests against the war in Gaza launched in response to an October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
As of November 2025, more than 70,000 Palestinians have died in the war, launched in response to an October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, according to the Associated Press.
Student protesters erected an encampment for about two-and-a-half weeks in spring 2024 at Syracuse University. This is similar to UM’s protests, which saw a weeks-long encampment broken up by university police, resulting in arrests and charges for protesters and subsequent lawsuits from pro-Palestinian activists.
Read more: FBI raids follow string of pro-Palestinian incidents around Ann Arbor
Syverud alleged last October that Iran influenced pro-Palestine protests at U.S. colleges and universities, and that Syracuse students were not involved.
“When things happened, that I really believe were encouraged from Iran, it did not have the involvement of very many, if any, of our own students,” Syverud said in an October 2025 panel in Washington, D.C.
Pro-Palestine protesters at UM have demanded the university divest from companies that support Israel. The university says any investment is far smaller than opponents contend and they will shield the endowment from political pressures.
Tarana Sharma, co-president of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, a prominent pro-Palestine activist group at UM, criticized Syverud’s previous comments that foreign countries have funded the pro-Palestine movement.
“Trying to indicate that these protests are foreign funded is deeply problematic … trying to paint these countries as if they’re fueling radical violence here in the U.S., that is not the case,” Sharma said.
She is confident that pro-Palestine movement at UM will hold Syverud accountable once he is president.
Dan Viderman, president of the UM chapter of Students Supporting Israel, wrote in a Jan. 13 message that he is “incredibly excited” for Syverud to come to the university.
“(UM), especially in the past years, has been at the forefront of standing up for those who need it most,” Viderman said, “and we look forward, not only as a collection of students standing up for the only country in the world where Jews are able to live without discrimination, but also as a collection of students who have been harassed, attacked, and condemned for solely being Jewish.”
Read more: University of Michigan must ‘protect Jewish students on campus,’ federal agency warns
Viderman added that the UM chapter of Students Supporting Israel is ready to listen to Syverud’s advice on “the perpetual betterment of Pro-Semitic life on campus.”
Peterson, despite his reservations, said he is open to dialogues with Syverud once his presidential term begins.
“We want the president who will fight for free expression, who will value protest as an intrinsic part of education and of the public life of the institution,” Peterson said. “It falls to us, faculty, students and staff, to shape his presidency into what we want.”
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