Black OSU alums took to social media to hail the appointment of Dr. Michael V. Drake—the chancellor of the University of California, Irvine (UCI)—as “bold, audacious and historic.”
The national news media wanted to know more about the 63-year-old Black medical doctor who beat out other candidates to become the first African-American to lead the public land-grant university founded in 1870.
While Drake says that he was “very flattered and honored” to have been chosen by OSU’s Board of Trustees to preside over one of the nation’s largest universities, he doesn’t give much thought these days to the historical significance of being the school’s first Black president.
