On Friday, May 2, the UC Board of Regents announced that it approved the appointment of James Milliken, current chancellor of the University of Texas system, to be the new president of the University of California system.
Milliken will take office on Aug. 1 as the 22nd UC president with an annual salary of $1,475,000. Current UC President Dr. Michael Drake — who has held the position since 2020 and was the first Black UC president — will step down in July 2025.
In a UC Office of the President press release shared to UC student newspapers, Milliken gave the following statement.
“The University of California is universally regarded as the preeminent public research university in the world, and I am deeply honored to have an opportunity to join the many talented faculty, staff, and campus leaders in their vital work,” Milliken said. “It is more important than ever that we expand the education, research, health care, and public service for which UC is so widely admired and which has benefited so many Californians.”
The 68-year-old Nebraskakan previously served as chancellor at the City University of New York, president of the University of Nebraska, and senior vice president at the University of North Carolina.
Milliken inherits a UC system facing massive federal research budget cuts from the Trump administration and cuts from the state. Though he did not name these issues directly, Milliken alluded to his plans to address them.
“We need to do everything we can to right that ship, to address those challenges head-on,” Milliken said to Regents at UC San Francisco, following the announcement of his appointment. “But, at the same time, the rest of the evolution of technology and knowledge is not going to wait for us to do that. AI will tremendously change how we offer education, how we do healthcare, how we do many of the things that we do every day.”
The new UC president is selected by a special committee of several Regents, including the Student Regent, who is currently UC Merced Ph.D. student Josiah Beharry. The committee settled on Milliken following a six-month search process that began in November 2024. According to UCOP’s press release, the search process sought the input of stakeholders such as “faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community partners.”
As Milliken gears up to take office, The UCSD Guardian will continue to cover exiting president Drake’s final actions.
