Major challenges await C. Cybele Raver, Michigan's next president

DETROIT — The University of Michigan's regents are expected to appoint the university's second female president in its history at a special board meeting in two weeks, hoping to cap a turbulent year for the university while presenting Raver with major challenges to tackle.

Vanderbilt University Provost C. Cybele Raver was announced Tuesday as the UM Board of Regents' pick to be the 17th leader of Michigan's largest university. The formal vote to approve her is expected on Sept. 1, the board said in the announcement.

Raver's appointment comes as Athletic Director Warde Manuel said he would leave the university in late December after a series of scandals. The university also has been a target of President Donald Trump's administration's crackdown on campus antisemitism, gender-affirming care and investigations into foreign students, while dealing with leadership instability.

In May 2025, former President Santa Ono resigned in a failed bid for the top job at the University of Florida. Shortly after, Domenico Grasso was named interim president, where he was expected to serve a brief stint while the university hunted for their next leader. In January, the board approved Syracuse University's Kent Syverud as its next leader but had to relaunch the presidential search after Syverud was diagnosed with brain cancer and stepped down.

The university's athletic department and director, which Raver will oversee, have been in a state of turmoil. The latest incident came when former football coach Sherrone Moore was fired for having an inappropriate relationship with his direct subordinate and then was arrested for breaking into her home and threatening her and himself. The circumstances around his firing sparked an investigation into the culture of the athletic department, and the same day the university-summarized findings were released, Manuel said he was leaving.

Raver's contract has already been signed, Board Chair Michael Behm said. Her compensation is similar to that of her predecessor, Syverud, which at $2 million was the highest presidential salary in Michigan, but Behm could not provide a specific number and said he had not seen the final contract.

Founding Chief Operating Officer of the Schar School at George Mason University Judith Wilde said the roughly two weeks between Raver's appointment and the board meeting was "unusual," especially if a contract was already signed, but wasn't necessarily questionable.

When asked, Behm said it was because August is a popular month for academics to take vacation before the school year, and Sept. 1 was the soonest everyone would be in the same place for the "ceremonial meeting."

Raver's insights, experience show she can handle UM job, chair says

Like Syverud, she comes from a background in private universities. She was a deputy provost at New York University and taught and researched at the University of Chicago and Cornell University.

Behm acknowledged Raver had never served in the top leadership role of any university, but he was confident she would excel at Michigan.

"Wherever she has been, she has made impressive and measurable change occur," Behm said. "When she was at NYU, she was put in charge of a lot of things where she made lasting and impactful change. When she went to Vanderbilt, the chancellor recognized her abilities and gave her a lot of control and decision-making ability and capacity. She has done some really impressive things in a short amount of time."

Raver was appointed as Vanderbilt's provost in 2021. In the five years there, she advanced initiatives that included the launch of the College of Connected Computing, recruiting five new deans, strengthening the research infrastructure and leading "Discovery Vanderbilt" — an initiative that invested in resources that increased faculty, student and staff engagement and pursued new research, Vanderbilt said.

Also under her leadership, the university expanded to New York City and West Palm Beach, Florida, approved a new interdisciplinary science building and surpassed $1 billion in annual research expenditures, Vanderbilt said. The university is expected to have students at its satellite New York campus starting this fall.

Raver’s soon-to-be former boss, Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, indicated he thought the provost was up to the new job.

“This is an extraordinary opportunity for Cybele and a fitting recognition of the vision and impact she has demonstrated throughout her career — and especially during her five years at Vanderbilt,” Diermeier wrote on X. “While she will be deeply missed as a trusted partner and colleague, I am tremendously proud and grateful for all she has done to advance our university.”

All of the candidates for the presidency were asked about the "scope and scale" of UM, Behm said. He pointed to the institution's highly rated programs, health system and enrollment, and said a president should be prepared to manage and grow the institution. And he was happy with what he heard from Raver.

"In talking with her, it was readily apparent that she could handle it, and she was chomping at the bit to get at it," Behm said.

Raver's private university background shouldn't be too much of an issue, but there were specific things the university could do to ease the transition, said George Mason's Wilde, who is an independent higher education consultant. She pointed to the training and consulting UM offered Syverud before he stepped down.

"I would hope the university offers her the opportunity to work with someone or some organization to help her learn how public universities operate and give more assurances to the contract," Wilde said.

Positive response from UM community

UM Faculty Senate Chair Kentaro Toyama said in an emailed statement he was "delighted" the university's regents chose someone with an academic background to lead.

"We congratulate Dr. Raver on her selection as the 17th President of the University of Michigan!" Toyama wrote. "I'm delighted that our Regents selected a renowned scholar with deep experience in university administration — those of us involved with faculty governance at the university look forward to welcoming her to Michigan and working with her to advance the university's collective mission."

Board of Regents candidate Michael Schostak said he "welcomed" Raver in an X post Tuesday afternoon, adding that she was taking on the responsibility at a "crucial" point for the university.

"The next president will need to move quickly to build a strong executive team, restore integrity, accountability, and trust to our athletic department, and navigate the University’s Title VI settlement with the federal government," wrote Schostak, one of two Republicans running for two board seats currently held by Democrats. "I look forward to working with Dr. Raver as a Regent. But I will hold the administration accountable for delivering the changes Michigan families expect from their university."

Regent Sarah Hubbard, also a Republican, posted that she looked forward to working with Raver and added she would be an "incredible leader."

Rebuilding a troubled athletic department

Raver will step into an athletics situation markedly different from Vanderbilt's and is likely to hire the next athletic director after Manuel's last day on Dec. 31.

Vanderbilt is led by Athletic Director Candice Storey Lee, who is the first Black woman to hold the position in the Southeastern Conference. She was honored by the Sports Business Journal as the 2025-26 Athletic Director of the Year. Lee helped a struggling athletics program make a historic upward surge, highlighted by a breakthrough 10-win football season, a trip to the SEC tournament title game in men's basketball and a Sweet 16 run by the women's basketball team.

Michigan has also seen major success. The men's basketball team won its first national championship since 1989 in April, and the university led the Big 10 with nine total team and program championships across varsity sports.

But Michigan spent $12 million on an investigation into the culture of the athletic department, a university summary of which was released to the public in July. No comprehensive report by the law firm, Jenner & Block, was written or released, but the findings showed a lack of transparency and accountability within the department.

With Manuel's departure, the university has a chance to start fresh and move forward. Although Raver does not have direct experience with athletics, according to her Vanderbilt biography, she will be tasked with finding a new AD. Traditionally, when a university is searching for a president and an AD, a president is in place before an athletic director is hired.

“I would probably recommend that because there has to be synergy,” said David Ridpath, a professor of sports business at Ohio University. “... If you hire somebody from Texas, they may have somebody already in mind to be an AD. That has to be taken into consideration.”

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