UC President Michael Drake Plans to Step Down

University of California (UC) System President Michael V. Drake is stepping down after the 2024-25 academic year.

Drake announced his plans to step down July 31, ending his five-year tenure as the 21st UC president. After 50 years in higher education, he plans to take a sabbatical and then return to a UC faculty position.

It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as president of the University of California these past several years, and I am immensely proud of what the UC community has accomplished, Drake said in a UC press release.

At every turn, I have sought to listen to those I served, to uphold our shared UC values, and to do all I could to leave this institution in better shape than it was before. I’m proud to see the university continuing to make a positive impact on the lives of countless Californians through research, teaching, and public service.

Just a couple weeks earlier, California Polytechnic University, Humboldt President Tom Jackson Jr. announced his plans to step down this month. He’ll continue as a faculty member at the university.

Drake began his tenure as UC president in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading the university system to transition to remote instruction.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University. He received his doctor of medicine (MD) degree and did residency training at UC San Francisco (UCSF). Drake was a faculty member at UCSF for 25 years before becoming chancellor at UC Irvine. Right before his UC presidency, he served as the 15th president at The Ohio State University from June 2014 to June 2020.

I am immensely proud of what our students, faculty, and staff have accomplished these past several years, Drake wrote in his letter to the community.

You have weathered a global pandemic and historic natural disasters, dealt with international conflict and domestic political uncertainty, navigated the stresses and opportunities of daily life, all while making our university stronger, more resilient, more impactful, and more inclusive than ever before.

“It has been my honor to serve as your president.

During his time as UC president, Drake helped boost the university system from a declining enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic to its largest incoming, in-state class. UC also began several programs for underrepresented students and handled a weekslong academic workers strike.

Despite negative enrollment trends in higher education, the UC system is thriving. This year, the system admitted its biggest and most diverse in-state undergraduate class: 93,920 students, up from the previous record in 2023.

According to UC, 45% of this year’s first-year population are from underrepresented groups.

In 2023, UC partnered with the National Education Equity Lab to bring two free online college credit classes to high school students from low-income backgrounds.

In 2022, Drake helped create the UC Native American Opportunity Plan, a tuition and fee-free education for undergraduate and graduate California students in federally recognized Native American tribes.

The University of California is committed to recognizing and acknowledging historical wrongs endured by Native Americans, Drake wrote at the time. I am proud of the efforts the university has made to support the Native American community … and appreciate our conversations to date on all the ways in which we can better support Native American students.

In 2022, 48,000 UC researchers, postdoctoral scholars, and teaching assistants across the system’s 10 campuses held a weekslong strike for improved wages, improved childcare and paid leave, a nondiscrimination and anti-bullying contract article, and reasonable accommodations and accessibility needs.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg served as a mediator during negotiations between UC and the workers represented by the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW). Drake endorsed the decision.

I believe Mayor Steinberg is uniquely positioned to help facilitate a fair and reasonable contract that allows us to support our students as they work toward their degrees, he previously said.

This year, UAW went on strike for two weeks over UC’s response to pro-Palestinian protests before an Orange County Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order against the academic workers’ union.

The court ordered the workers to cease all strike activity including picketing and withholding labor, until June 27, just three days before the end of the authorized strike.

UC Board of Regents Chair Janet Reilly will soon put together a committee of students, faculty, staff, board of regents representatives, and alums to search for the next president.