SU’s Board of Trustees has a chancellor opening to fill. What comes next?
Chancellor Kent Syverud will step down in June 2026 after 12 years at Syracuse University. The Board of Trustees will launch a search for his successor, seeking input from students, faculty, staff, alumni and others in the community. Hieu Nguyen | Daily Orange File Photo
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Syracuse University’s Board of Trustees will begin the search for Chancellor Kent Syverud’s successor after his Tuesday announcement that he will step down in June 2026.
Syverud, who has served as SU’s 12th chancellor since 2014, will remain in his role through the 2025–26 academic year. The board said it will share details about the search process in the coming weeks, seeking input from faculty, staff, students, alumni and other university stakeholders.
The board has not yet released a specific timeline for selecting a chancellor, though they have nearly a year to search for Syverud’s successor. After Nancy Cantor, Syverud’s predecessor, resigned in 2013, the board had expected the search to take at least a year.
Most past SU chancellors have held previous leadership roles in higher education, including deanships and vice chancellor positions. Syverud previously served as dean of the law schools at Washington University in St. Louis and Vanderbilt University.
In recent decades, SU has selected chancellors from both within and outside the university. Melvin Eggers, initially hired as an economics professor, was named chancellor in 1971, followed by Kenneth Shaw in 1991 and Cantor — the university’s first female chancellor — in 2004.
Notably, two of the previous 12 chancellors, William Tolley and William Graham, have also been SU alumni, and three other chancellors were promoted from vice chancellor positions at SU. Appointed in July 2024, Lois Agnew is currently serving as interim vice chancellor and provost.
About three months after Cantor’s resignation, the board created a 20-member search committee to find her replacement. The committee consisted of trustees and representatives from the university, including faculty, students, staff, dean and cabinet representatives.
In March 2013, the committee launched a public website to gather community input on Cantor’s successor, a model the board may replicate again. The board also held several public forums and campus-wide surveys to gather information on what academic, professional and personal credentials and qualities were considered most important for SU’s 12th chancellor.
Syverud was inaugurated in April 2014, after being selected by the committee in September from a pool of 270 candidates. The committee planned on recommending two or three candidates to the board, but Syverud was the unanimous favorite.
In a 2013 interview with The Daily Orange, Joanne Alper, chairwoman of the search committee, said the committee quickly reached a consensus on SU’s key challenges, which helped create an outline for the ideal candidate, streamlining the search process.
Alper said Syverud was a top choice from the start, earning unanimous support from both the search committee and the Board of Trustees’ Executive Committee days later.
“The timeline was ongoing until we found Kent,” Alper said in 2013.
The new chancellor will inherit several challenges amid President Donald Trump’s reshaping of higher education, which the current board may take into consideration.
Recently, the university faced backlash in July for replacing its Office of Diversity and Inclusion with the new People and Culture unit. The decision aligns with a national trend following Trump’s executive order targeting these programs, alongside threats to cut funding and restrict international student status in his crackdown on higher education.
“Leading a university today is not for the faint of heart,” Jeff Scruggs, chairman of the board, wrote in a campus-wide email following Syverud’s announcement. “These roles demand the ability to manage complex operations, respond to a vast array of constituencies and uphold core values amid significant scrutiny.”
Syverud faced scrutiny in April for not signing a letter condemning the Trump administration for “unprecedented government overreach” on higher education. The university has also faced criticism for its response to the 2024 Gaza Solidarity Encampment.
In his parting announcement, Syverud urged the campus to “fully and thoughtfully” engage with the process of selecting a new chancellor.
“Your voices, perspectives, and aspirations for the future are vital to selecting a leader who will build upon our shared accomplishments and guide Syracuse University forward,” Syverud said.
