UH Mānoa’s top job just got an upgrade. Vassilis L. Syrmos steps in today as the campus’s newly re-established chancellor, restoring separate leadership for the University of Hawaiʻi system’s flagship campus as the change takes effect July 1.
The University of Hawaiʻi Board of Regents unanimously approved Syrmos’s appointment at a June 4 special meeting, and he officially starts the role today. As chancellor, he becomes Mānoa’s chief executive officer, reporting to UH President Wendy Hensel and overseeing an annual budget of more than $800 million and a workforce topping 5,000 employees, according to UH News.
Hensel recommended Syrmos after a nationwide search, pointing to his performance in interim leadership. He has served as interim provost since July 2025 and has been on the Mānoa engineering faculty for about 35 years. Hensel called his work “exceptional,” crediting him with steering operations through a period of fiscal pressure, as reported by Hawaii News Now.
Why the change matters
The regents re-established the Mānoa chancellor position last December after an outside study urged separating systemwide and campus leadership to give the flagship campus clearer, campus-level accountability. The National Center for Higher Education Management Systems recommended that split in an August 2025 study, and the Mānoa Faculty Senate later endorsed launching the search, according to NCHEMS.
What Syrmos says and what comes next
Syrmos said he was “deeply honored” by the appointment and that his first priority is listening to students, faculty and staff as he settles into the job, according to Hawaii News Now. In a separate interview, he described Mānoa as the system’s “800-pound gorilla,” a phrase he used to underscore the campus’s outsized role in research and state funding, as reported by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
University leaders say a provost search will follow so the new chancellor can concentrate on campus strategy and external partnerships. Syrmos’s university biography highlights decades of research leadership, including helping create an Office of Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation and contributing to growth in extramural funding, a background the university says will shape Mānoa’s priorities going forward, according to UH Mānoa.
