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As the 16th president of the University of Michigan, Domenico Grasso joins a lineage of leaders dating to the 1800s.

The Board of Regents named Grasso the 16th president after Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud, who was expected to become Michigan’s next leader, announced last week that he could not accept the job because he is battling brain cancer. The regents removed the “interim” title from Grasso and made his presidential appointment retroactive to May 2025, when they first named him to the position following the resignation of President Santa J. Ono.

“When we asked Domenico Grasso to step in and serve as president last year, he did so knowing it was the right thing to do for his university. He has now accepted the call to serve for a second time,” said Regent Carl Meyers. “We are grateful not only for his willingness to continue but also for all he has accomplished over the past year to provide stability and true leadership at a time when we needed it most.”

Michigan was founded in 1817 in Detroit and moved to Ann Arbor in 1837. In its early years, the young institution was governed by its faculty. It wasn’t until August 1852 — two years after state of Michigan voters adopted a state constitution creating the role of president of the University of Michigan — that the Board of Regents appointed Henry Philip Tappan, a philosophy professor from New York, as the first president.

Grasso is the first Michigan alumnus to serve as president since Alexander Grant Ruthven, who earned a Michigan PhD in zoology and led the university from 1929 to 1951. Grasso holds a Michigan doctorate in environmental engineering, making him the second engineer to be president; James J. Duderstadt, president from 1988 to 1996, trained as a nuclear engineer.

Grasso serves as professor of civil and environmental engineering at UM-Ann Arbor and holds a secondary appointment as professor of sustainable engineering at UM-Dearborn.

President Emerita Mary Sue Coleman, the 13th president and the only woman to hold the position, praised Grasso’s work.

“President Grasso has provided strong, stabilizing leadership this past year, and I am confident he will continue to move Michigan forward as a great research university,” Coleman said. “I am gratified to see he is being recognized as the university’s 16th president, adding to his service as chancellor of UM-Dearborn.”

Grasso is the first Michigan leader to have served as both chancellor of a regional campus and president.

Grasso has said he considers Tappan, Coleman, Duderstadt, and President James B. Angell to be iconic Michigan leaders. One of the many reasons he said he admires Angell — Michigan’s third president — is because they share roots at the University of Vermont; Angell came to Ann Arbor from the Vermont presidency, and Grasso once served as a dean of engineering and mathematical sciences and a vice president for research there.

Angell served as Michigan’s president longer than any other, from 1871 to 1909. “The life of the president of a college or university is often spoken of as a hard and trying life. A laborious life with its anxieties it is,” he wrote at the end of his career. “But I have found it a happy life. The satisfactions it has brought to me are quite beyond my deserts.”

Grasso will continue to reside with his wife, Susan, and their dog Nola, at the historic president’s residence on campus — first occupied by Tappan and his wife, Julia, and their dog, in 1852.

Kent Syverud will begin his tenure as the University of Michigan’s 16th president on May 11, returning home to U-M’s Ann Arbor campus and marking the start of a new chapter in the university’s leadership.

Syverud, currently chancellor and president of Syracuse University, was selected in January following a national search. A distinguished legal scholar and experienced higher education leader, he brings more than a decade of presidential leadership experience and deep ties to U-M.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Syverud came to Ann Arbor, where he earned a juris doctor from the Law School and a master’s degree in economics from U-M.

He later returned to the university as a faculty member, serving as assistant professor of law, then professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the Law School.

As the university prepares for Syverud’s arrival, President Domenico Grasso will conclude his service on May 8. Grasso has led the university since May 2025, re-establishing stability and engaged leadership during a tumultuous period. Provost Laurie McCauley will serve as acting president on May 9 and 10.

The University of Michigan remains a top choice for incoming first-year and transfer students from throughout Michigan, across the United States and internationally as undergraduate applications to the UM-Ann Arbor campus reached a record high, with 115,125 prospective students applying to attend the university beginning in fall 2026.

This follows several consecutive years of record highs related to application volume, and a 29% increase in applications in the past five years.

A total of 108,666 prospective first-year students submitted applications to attend the university, with 6,459 transfer applications.

“We are proud to offer an educational experience that, year after year, appeals to so many students from across our state, our country and around the world,” said Adele C. Brumfield, vice provost for enrollment management.

“The volume of applications shows that prospective students see U-M as a great place to acquire the knowledge, skills and experiences needed to propel them forward toward realizing their dreams. And we agree, a U-M education will empower them to achieve their full potential.”

Total applications to the Ann Arbor campus have increased 29% over the past five years. For the 2026 fall term, first-year applications were down slightly from 2025, but increased among:

• First generation in-state students by 4%.
• African American in-state students by 3%.
• Students of Color by 1%.
• International students by 5%.

Among potential transfer students, applications increased 5% overall, and increased among:

• First-generation students by 9%.
• Students of Color by 7%.
• International students by 3%.
• Low-income students by 7%.

Nearly two-thirds of all applicants — 71,893 students — applied for early consideration. And this year, for the first time, prospective students interested in applying for early consideration could choose between Early Decision, which provided an initial admissions decision in December, in exchange for a binding commitment to enroll in the fall if admitted, and the nonbinding Early Action, which U-M has offered for years and provides a January release of admissions decision.

“Providing two options for early consideration allows high-achieving students to affirm their commitment earlier in the application process so they can focus on their senior year of high school,” said Laurie McCauley, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “We’re encouraged to see that so many students acknowledge that UM-Ann Arbor is where they want to be and chose to apply early.”

Students who applied by the Regular Decision application deadline on Feb. 1, as well as those postponed during Early Decision and Early Action, will learn of their admission decision by early April and, if admitted, have until May 1 to accept by paying the enrollment deposit.

Through the admissions cycle, admitted students who completed the required financial aid application received their financial aid package within a week of learning they were admitted.

“As a public institution, U-M is committed to expanding access and addressing affordability for students of all backgrounds,” said Tammie L. Durham Luis, assistant vice provost of enrollment management and executive director of financial aid. “U-M’s Ann Arbor campus is the only public university in Michigan that meets the full demonstrated need for in-state students.”

With the Go Blue Guarantee, and other institutional funding, U-M provides free tuition for in-state students from families with an annual income up to $125,000 and assets up to $125,000, and full cost of attendance for qualified students in the School of Nursing and those pursuing teacher preparation programs in the Marsal Family School of Education, and the School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

“The undergraduate admissions team is partnering with campus colleagues to showcase the U-M experience to admitted students with events on-campus and throughout the state and country,” said Erica L. Sanders, assistant vice provost and executive director of undergraduate admissions. “These events, and our ongoing outreach efforts, serve to provide students and families with the information needed to finalize their college choice.”

The fall term begins Aug. 31 on the Ann Arbor campus. Detailed fall 2026 enrollment numbers will be released in October.