UT System Chancellor Bill McRaven Stepping Down

AUSTIN, TX — Bill McRaven, chancellor of the University of Texas System, plans to step down for health reasons, he told the board of regents Friday.

In his message to regents Friday afternoon, McRaven said he would stay on through the academic year before stepping down. Saying the decision was one of the most difficult in his life, McRaven said health issues forced his decision. Categorizing the health concerns — stemming from a chronic form of leukemia — as not serious ones, he nonetheless said they prompted his decision and a need to spend more time with with family.

In November, McRaven was hospitalized after a “perfect storm” of bad health, he told media outlets at the time. He earlier acknowledged his cancer diagnosis during a 2015 commencement speech at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, noting the initial diagnosis was given in 2010 while he served in Afghanistan battling against terrorism.

Before being named UT system chancellor, McRaven served in the U.S. Navy overseeing the Navy SEAL operation that killed Osama bin Laden a decade after the 9/11 terrorist attack that claimed nearly 3,000 lives in New York, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. He's also a UT-Austin alum, earning a degree in journalism before embarking on a distinguished military career.

“I informed Board Chairman Sara Martinez Tucker of my intentions, and I was moved by her support of me, both professionally and personally,” McRaven wrote in a prepared statement. “I cannot adequately put into words how much I have enjoyed working with the Regents and the brilliant minds of faculty and students across The University of Texas System. And I will forever be grateful for the lifelong friends I now have with generous individuals across our state and country who have served the UT System and its institutions through engagement and philanthropy.”

During his tenure as chancellor, McRaven has led the hiring of six new presidents for UT institutions, and he worked to drive equal opportunity and fairness in hiring and promotion processes, including closing the gender gap in compensation, university officials said in a statement.

"Additionally, he worked with the Regents to invest in areas in which UT institutions will have an opportunity to assume national leadership roles, such as the neurosciences, national security, student success, health care, and others," UT officials added.

McRaven has voiced interest in considering an advisory role in the management and operation of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, if the UT System is successful in its bid, officials said. The bid is being reviewed by the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

>>> Photo of Bill McRaven via University of Texas at Austin