To the U-M community:

Great universities need great leaders to evolve and thrive. So, it is never easy when we lose people from our three-campus community of scholars who are so essential to our collective success.

Today, I write to share the news that UM-Flint Chancellor Deba Dutta will leave this fall to pursue his career aspirations at the University of Illinois.

Chancellor Dutta has been a strong advocate for the UM-Flint campus even before he was appointed chancellor in the fall of 2019. He accepted this key position knowing the challenges that lay ahead – even before the pandemic disrupted everything.

He has maintained that commitment and strongly advocated for the transformation of the UM-Flint campus to better align the academic programs with the skills sought by employers throughout mid-Michigan. I applaud him for this essential work that seeks to create new opportunities for UM-Flint students and the entire Flint community.

In the coming weeks, I will work with the university’s leadership team to identify an interim chancellor while we carefully consider the next generation of leadership for the Flint campus. In the coming months, we will launch a national search to select the next UM-Flint chancellor.

This transition also will require a pause in the transformation work that so many UM-Flint faculty, staff and students have helped to develop. The Board of Regents and I remain firmly committed to a brighter future for the Flint campus. I want to assure you the transformation work will move forward once we have a new campus leader in place.

Please join me in offering best wishes to Chancellor Deba Dutta as he takes this next step in his distinguished career in higher education.

Santa J. Ono
President