By Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times
James B. Milliken, the chancellor of the University of Texas who has led among the nation’s largest higher education systems and navigated GOP politics, has been named the next president of the University of California.
His appointment, announced Friday afternoon by the UC Board of Regents, comes at a tense time for the state’s vaunted system and elite universities nationwide, which are under attack by President Donald Trump’s actions to purge higher education of what he derides as “woke” and “Marxist” ideologies, while also slashing federal support for medical and scientific research critical to the universities’ mission.
Milliken’s selection culminates a six-month-long search to replace UC President Michael V. Drake, who has been in his role since 2020 and will step down July 31.
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UC 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, who goes by “J.B.,” said in a statement. “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.”
Milliken, 68, has led large public university systems for more than 25 years, pivoting to the top roles in deep red and blue states alike. He leaves the 256,000-student University of Texas system of 14 campuses, including seven medical schools — and a Republican state where political leaders are close to Trump.
“Chancellor Milliken embodies the qualities and leadership experiences the University of California community needs at this moment,” Janet Reilly, regents chair, said in a statement. “He understands how critical UC’s contributions are to the state and the country, and he has decades of experience leading public institutions during times of unprecedented change in higher education. Chancellor Milliken is simply the right person for UC at just the right time.”
In a statement, Drake said Milliken “has the depth of wisdom and experience to handle the challenges and opportunities” of the presidency and will be committed to “the university’s enduring values.”
Throughout his career, Milliken has consistently described his belief in opening access to higher education to low-income and first-generation students, spoken of the importance of immigrant students and diversity in enrollment, and promoted student success in job placement. In interviews while in Texas, Milliken has often talked about how “talent is universally distributed and opportunity is not,” with access to college being an “engine of mobility” for poorer students and immigrant families.
Before taking the Texas position in 2018, he spent four years as chancellor of the 25-campus City University of New York. A Nebraska native, he served for nearly 10 years as president of the four-campus University of Nebraska system, and six as a vice president of the 16-campus University of North Carolina. He began his academic career in Nebraska, where he worked in external affairs for the university, as secretary to the Board of Regents, and taught law and public affairs. Before entering academia, he was a Wall Street lawyer.
In August, Milliken will take the UC helm, the nation’s most prominent public university system — a $53-billion enterprise of 299,000 students, 26,000 faculty and 192,000 staff members across 10 campuses, six academic health systems and three affiliated national laboratories.
He will immediately confront a barrage of investigations and funding threats from the Trump administration that could radically reshape UC’s research, admission practices, free speech policies and diversity initiatives— while Sacramento is also proposing major budget reductions.
Milliken, who will relocate from the Dallas region to the Bay Area this summer, will receive a salary of $1,475,000, compared to Drake’s $1.308 million.
UC campuses have taken an outsize role amid Trump’s higher education targets. The UC system is under federal investigations into alleged antisemitism against employees, stemming from accusations against widespread pro-Palestinian protests and encampments last spring, including a violent melee at a the University of California, Los Angeles encampment. UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley face additional antisemitism probes, and UC Berkeley is under investigation for its use of foreign donations.
The system’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs face scrutiny as the president broadly declares such efforts to be illegal race-based discrimination. Federal lawyers are probing the selective UC admissions process, claiming it illegally considers race in admission.
California is also among the Democratic-led states that have sued the administration — with the support of UC and California State University — over cuts to higher education funding, including a slashing of billions in National Institutes of Health grants.
The UC system, which has lost $300 million in federal awards since January, has instituted a hiring freeze in expectation of further cuts that could dramatically shrink campus ambitions. About $1 billion, or roughly 10%, of the budget at UCLA comes from Washington, a figure that leaders say cannot be made up by endowments or other funds if lost.
Faculty, students and staff have also criticized the university system for not more forcefully defending itself against Trump’s attacks.
Milliken will face financial challenges that pre-date Trump. UC has met growing demands in recent years to open more seats for Californians and plans to add thousands more annually. But it probably faces hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding cuts that leaders say could prompt enrollment reductions. That, along with higher faculty and staff costs, larger retirement plan contributions and more expensive health care, led to projections last year of a UC budget hole of roughly half a billion dollars.
In Texas, Milliken is not known for significantly challenging Trump and the state’s GOP initiatives to reshape campuses. In recent interviews, including one published by Gallup last summer during the presidential campaign, he has delicately handled questions about Trump, opting instead to tout his belief in the unifying role of education.
Under his leadership, the Texas system — which has a budget of roughly $18 billion — has achieved record enrollment, increased transfers from community colleges, and set up a $300-million endowment to cover full tuition for in-state students from families making under $100,000.
The system has also launched a $16.5-million mental health initiative to address student needs and created a partnership to provide free professional certificates to students from Microsoft, Google and other major companies. Milliken also championed the launch of UT’s Education and Research Center at Laredo, an academic health research hub in south Texas.
In 2024, the year after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs at state colleges, Milliken testified at the state house that UT closed 21 DEI offices, removed 311 DEI-related jobs and canceled more than 600 contracts connected to diversity issues. The moves allowed for $25 million that was shifted to other programs, he said.
“You may not like the law, but it is the law,” Milliken said at the time.
During the same May 2024 hearing, the UT chancellor also answered a question from a state senator who asked whether pro-Palestinian protests were “anti-Jewish in their very nature.”
Milliken replied that there were “elements” of protests that were “fairly anti-Jewish and antisemitic” but said protests were not all antisemitic.
The system’s flagship Austin campus is battling accusations that it illegally considers the race of applicants in admissions. The university is being sued by Students for Fair Admissions, the same group that won its affirmative action case against Harvard at the Supreme Court in 2023. A federal appeals court held a hearing on the UT case Thursday.
In a statement, UC Regent Carmen Chu, who chaired the selection committee, nodded toward Milliken’s experiences amid challenging political terrains.
“As the University evolves, it is critical we engage leaders adept at navigating change and positioning the institution for long-term success,” she said.
UC Faculty Academic Senate chair Steven W. Cheung added in a statement that Milliken’s “talent for building consensus serve him well as we enter a time of great change in higher education.”
Milliken is a lawyer by training who rose through university ranks not via academic credentials but by developing a reputation for skilled government relations and management, working at times with competing constituencies — students, parents, faculty, taxpayers and politicians.
Speaking to Texas Monthly shortly after beginning his University of Texas role in 2018, Milliken also addressed his take on his new home when an interviewer asked, “What does the UT System need to do to catch up with UC?” The journalist cited UC campuses regularly appearing in top national rankings.
“I don’t look at the world through the UC prism. In my view it isn’t about catching up with UC — there are many things going on in Texas that I much prefer to California,” Milliken said.
“You measure success by looking at what you want to achieve. Which elements of those highly rated California institutions are meaningful to Texas? Do we want to increase our research productivity? Do we want to enhance our programs to attract the best scholars and give the best education. Yes, we certainly do. Do we want to measure ourselves by the percentage of students that we reject? I have a bit of a problem with that,” he said.
In the same interview, the incoming chancellor addressed another subject familiar to California: looming budget cuts. “I do firmly believe that we need to offer public higher education in Texas that will allow students to succeed and allow the state to thrive,” Milliken said. He described college as “one of the best investments that states can make. It’s an investment in the future of their people.”
During Trump’s first term, Milliken was at CUNY, where the diverse population includes a significant number of immigrants with and without legal documentation.
Shortly before the president’s first inauguration, Milliken released a statement urging Trump to “retain the humane and beneficial Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” program and said the university would “take any steps available under the law to protect and support its undocumented students.”
The theme of educating immigrants also rose during Milliken’s tenure in Nebraska. Writing to state legislators in 2011, Milliken defended a state law that was under attack for giving undocumented students in-state tuition.
He also spoke out against a 2008 Nebraska ballot initiative that won approval and banned affirmative action in public education and employment.
“If we are to prepare our students to be successful in a global economy, we should offer an educational environment that reflects the diversity of the world,” Milliken said at the time.
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