The New Prez

James Milliken, who took over as UC president, got a glowing review from EdSource as a kind of Zelig (Google it!) who adapts to the needs of whatever position he assumes. Let's hope:

When describing James Milliken’s legacy as chancellor of the University of Texas system, his supporters point to a plan that, starting this fall, allows many additional undergraduate students to attend tuition-free if their families earn $100,000 or less annually. Milliken, who on Aug. 1 will become president of the University of California system, pushed through the policy to fully cover tuition and fees for those in-state students, greatly expanding a previous version that gave the benefit to students with families who earned up to $65,000...

Early on, as the University of Nebraska system’s president, Milliken launched a fundraising campaign that sought to raise $1.2 billion. The university ended up raising about $1.8 billion by the time Milliken left the system in 2014, including $265 million for student scholarships, fellowships and other supports. Among the campaign’s most significant initiatives was a $370 million project — a combination of private and public money — to create a cancer research and treatment center, which eventually opened in 2017, the likes of which the state had never seen. “We’ve got one of the top cancer programs in the world and much of our state now has access to that health care,” said Clare, the Nebraska trustee. “And it was through JB’s leadership and his relationship with the governor that we were able to put that together.” ...

CUNY also has a unique funding model, getting dollars from both the state and New York City. That further complicated the job, particularly because Andrew Cuomo was governor and Bill de Blasio was mayor, two politicians with a history of feuding with each other. Milliken came under some fire in 2016 when faculty leaders were frustrated with what they felt was a “muted” response to a proposed $485 million cut to CUNY’s budget by Cuomo, said Jen Gaboury, the vice president of the faculty union, though the cut was ultimately restored. Gaboury acknowledged, though, that Milliken is credited with improving graduation rates at CUNY. His crowning achievement was expanding an initiative that gives students in two-year associate degree programs extra support toward graduation, including textbooks, tutoring and even MetroCards for subway and bus rides. Participants graduate at a rate of more than double that of students not in the program, according to the university...

In addition to growing the University of Texas system’s free tuition program, Milliken helped establish a program to provide campuses with more funding for research. For the system’s El Paso campus, the program is allocating $12 million annually for the campus to hire 69 new researchers, a mix of tenured faculty, research faculty and postdocs. Heather Wilson, the campus president, called it “a significant investment in research here.” ...

Full story at https://edsource.org/2025/james-milliken-university-california-president-trump-research-funding/737154.