James Milliken (academic administrator)

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates James Bennett Milliken (born 1957) is the chancellor of the University of Texas System. He is the former chancellor of the City University of New York, the largest urban university system in the U.S. from 2014 to 2018, after serving as president of the University of Nebraska from 2004 to 2014, where he was also a professor at the School of Public Affairs and at the College of Law. He served as senior vice president of the University of North Carolina's 16-campus system from 1998 to 2004. Before his career in academic administration, Milliken practiced law in New York City. Effective July 31, 2025, Milliken will become president of the University of California replacing Michael V. Drake, UC's Board of Regents announced on May 2, 2025. He is the second UT System chancellor to be recruited to become the next UC president, after Mark Yudof.

Early life and education

Milliken was raised in Fremont, Nebraska. His father and grandfather both served as president of the Fremont National Bank. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, in 1979. While at Nebraska, Milliken was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

After graduating from UNL, he spent a year working in Washington, D.C. as legislative assistant to Congresswoman Virginia D. Smith, R-Neb, who represented Nebraska's 3rd congressional district from 1975 to 1991. Milliken earned a J.D. degree in 1983 from New York University School of Law; he was a Root-Tilden Scholar and research assistant to Professor Norman Dorsen, then-president of the American Civil Liberties Union.

After graduating from NYU Law, Milliken worked for the Legal Aid Society's Civil Division in New York City, then as an attorney at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.

Career

Milliken was named President designate of the University of California in May 2025. He will assume that office in August 2025. Milliken served as Chancellor of the University of Texas System from August 2018 to May 2025. When he was announced as Chancellor, the UT System Board of Regents touted Milliken's rich higher education experience over three decades and his track record of success in creating and executing strategic plans.

In a radio interview with KUT in October, 2022, Milliken announced that the UT System had exceeded enrollment of 244,000 students, system-wide, for the first time in history. Milliken credited the system's enrollment growth to improved access through the UT Regents' Promise Plus endowment. Promise Plus launched in 2022 as a $300 million endowment that was created by the UT System regents to reduce the cost of higher education for lower income students. In 2024, Milliken and the regents expanded this need-based financial aid program to provide free tuition at any of UT’s nine academic institutions for in-state undergraduate students whose families have an adjusted gross income of $100,000 or less.

Under Millken's watch as UT Chancellor the board of regents also invested in student well-being, approving a $16.5 million investment to "expand and improve student mental health services, student safety and alcohol education resources" at UT's 13 institutions. Milliken also prioritized workforce development at UT and oversaw the launch of the nation’s most comprehensive industry-recognized microcredential program in higher education, offering free access to more than 45 professional certificates for students, faculty, staff and alumni across all UT institutions.

Prior to his arrival in Texas, Milliken returned to his native Nebraska in 1988 where he accepted the position of executive assistant to the president of the University of Nebraska, and he was subsequently appointed Secretary to the Board of Regents and Vice President for External Affairs.

In 1998, Milliken was appointed by then-president of the University of North Carolina, Molly Corbett Broad to lead university-wide strategy, institutional research, state and federal relations, public affairs, and economic development. In 2000, Milliken helped pass a statewide referendum for a $3.1 billion bond issue for university and community college facilities.

Milliken was appointed president of the University of Nebraska in 2004. He worked to expand access and launched CollegeBound Nebraska, which provided free tuition to Nebraska Pell Grant recipients, University of Nebraska Online Worldwide, and Nebraska Innovation Campus, a public-private research and development park located on the former state fair grounds next to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus. He subsequently led a $1.8 billion capital campaign, funding new institutes for early childhood (Buffett Early Childhood Institute), global food and water sustainability (Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute) and rural sustainability (Rural Futures Institute). Milliken also helped lead the Nebraska P-16 Initiative to improve primary education and increase college preparation. He expanded the university's global reach, establishing new programs, with universities, the private sector and government, in China, India, Brazil and Turkey.

Milliken became Chancellor of the City University of New York in 2014, and held the position through 2018. While at CUNY, Milliken was lauded for improving access to higher education and expanded an initiative called ASAP, or Accelerated Study in Associate Programs, that provided financial help, including free MetroCard fare, and tutors. CUNY's graduation rates climbed and gained national recognition for the ASAP program. In November 2016, an interim report of an investigation conducted by the office of New York State Inspector General found "financial waste and abuse", citing shoddy oversight and mismanagement that created a system ripe for financial waste and abuse, and criticized Milliken and CUNY General Counsel Frederick Schaffer, among others. The 2016 report was based on findings that pre-dated Milliken's time as chancellor of CUNY and a group of New York city council members suggested New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo was using the report to politicize the system. During the year preceding Milliken's resignation due to health concerns, Cuomo replaced CUNY Board of Trustees chairmen Benno C. Schmidt Jr. with a new chairmen Bill Thompson, and nearly all of the members of CUNY's board of trustees with a new politically prominent bloc.

In 2023, Milliken was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for his professional accomplishments in leadership, policy and communications. Milliken is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Business Higher Education Forum, and on the executive committee of the Council on Competitiveness. He formerly served as a director on the board of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and led the Commission on Innovation, Competition and Economic Prosperity.

Personal life

Since 1989, Milliken has been married to Nana Graves Hilliard Smith, a graduate of Yale University and New York University School of Law who also worked as an associate at the Cadwalader law firm. They have three grown children.

See also

• List of Phi Delta Theta members