As Santa J. Ono takes office as the University of Michigan’s 15th president, he reflects on recent challenges and embraces the ethos of excellence that defines U-M’s global family.

Detroit Lions defensive end Aidan Hutchinson sent Hudson Gazsi a special message to ‘keep pushing through’. The 5-year-old boy is battling pre-B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a blood cancer that affects immature white blood cells and the bone marrow that makes them.

As academic research in Ukraine ceased due to the Russian invasion in February 2022, U-M created a 12-month fellowship that offers a life-saving and intellectual home to Ukrainian scholars. Research areas vary from human rights to cyber warfare.

David Carter is one of the lucky ones: As U-M’s video game archivist for the Computer and Video Game Archive and comics librarian, he has combined his two childhood loves into a fulfilling career.

In July, the Board of Regents named Santa J. Ono U-M’s 15th president. Ono is an accomplished biomedical researcher and the president and vice chancellor of the University of British Columbia. He steps into his U-M presidency Oct. 13, 2022.

Santa J. Ono, an accomplished biomedical researcher and the president and vice chancellor of the University of British Columbia, has been named the 15th president of the University of Michigan.

In 1964, U-M students invited George Lincoln Rockwell, self-declared ‘commander’ of the American Nazi Party, to speak at Hill Auditorium, setting off a heated campus contest over the limits of free speech.

A century after a medical school alumnus gifted U-M with a collection of herbaceous peonies, the garden finally bears his name (not to mention 350 varieties of the flower). Donor W.E. Upjohn considered these blooms his ‘salvation.’ This June, they’re making music.

U-M is only the second public university to place first in the history of the magazine’s rankings. The University’s high graduation rate and strong financial aid for in-state students contributed to its top score on the 2022 list.