UC Santa Barbara’s New Chancellor Taking $620K Pay Cut

Following a year-long, nationwide search, UC Santa Barbara has a new chancellor. On Thursday, Dr. Dennis Assanis, former president of the University of Delaware (UD), was named as Chancellor Henry Yang’s replacement, marking the official end of Yang’s 31-year tenure.

To take on the role, however, Assanis is taking a pay cut. He also ended his tenure at the University of Delaware early — a year before his contract was set to expire.

UD tax returns from 2023 reported his salary to be a little more than $1.5 million (making him the third-highest-paid president of a public university), so his $880,000 salary at UCSB will be a considerable drop in compensation. However, it is still a $60,000 increase from Yang’s pay.  

The former UD president also reportedly resigned from his position in May amid scrutiny from faculty about how he handled the university’s finances coming out of COVID, during which the university faced a $250 million budget shortfall. 

According to multiple sources — such as Spotlight Delaware and The Review, UD’s campus newspaper — Assanis faced criticism around the university’s spending, which seemed to prioritize administration and construction over academics. 

Despite this, Assanis himself told reporters that his early resignation came out of his desire for a “break,” and in his farewell letter to the campus community, he stated that the goals he set at the beginning of his tenure were accomplished and he believed he had made all the “meaningful contributions” he set out to achieve during his nine-year presidency.

University of California regents likewise credited Assanis for the university’s growth in “research, scholarship and innovation enterprises,” noting his transformation of UD into a “hub of innovation” as a primary reason for selecting him. 

Assanis was born in Athens, Greece (his real name is Dionissios), and he served as the president of UD — Delaware’s largest university — since 2016, according to the UC announcement. He oversaw the school’s $1.35 billion budget — which is in line with UCSB’s annual expenses — as well as ushered in a record number of applications and enrollments for the university. He also worked to improve access to financial aid for students, with undergraduate financial aid increasing from $94 million to $185 million under his leadership.

Similar to Yang, who transformed UCSB into a scientific powerhouse, Assanis focused on research initiatives during his time at UD. Under his leadership, research expenditures at the school climbed from $176 million in 2016 to $466 million in 2024.

He also oversaw the creation of the university’s 1.2-million-square-foot Science, Technology, and Advanced Research campus that houses the partially private National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, which researches vaccines and pharmaceuticals.

Assanis received his bachelor’s degree in marine engineering from Newcastle University in England and has three master’s degrees — including mechanical engineering, a discipline he shares with Yang — and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

By selecting Assanis, the regents put an end to the skepticism and mystery shrouding the extended search for Yang’s replacement. To UC President Michael V. Drake, Assanis is the “right person” for the job, thanks to his “deep understanding of the power of interdisciplinary work combined with his energy, insight and strategic vision.” 

Assanis will begin his new role on September 1, nearing the first day of instruction for UCSB’s fall quarter. Yang will be returning to the classroom to teach courses on undergraduate mechanical engineering.

Interim Chancellor David Marshall, who is leading the school in the meantime, said in a statement that he has “already spoken with [Assanis] a few times,” and he was “impressed by his insight and engagement, even in the questions he has asked.”

“I will be working on providing a smooth transition so Dr. Assanis can hit the ground running in September,” Marshall said. “The campus is ready to build on the strong foundation of Chancellor Yang’s legacy. We have momentum and a sense of purpose.”

But while UCSB’s new captain is inheriting Yang’s legacy of innovation, he is also adopting the challenges wrought by Yang’s relative inattention to Santa Barbara’s housing crisis (beyond plans for Munger Hall, or Dormzilla, which ultimately fell through) and the Trump administration’s attacks on higher education via federal funding cuts that has locked the university into a hiring freeze. 

However, despite these inheritances, at the Regents’ Thursday meeting — speaking via video from Greece, where he was on vacation — Assanis called the chance to lead UCSB a “profound privilege,” and vowed to “work tirelessly” at “fostering a culture of academic and research excellence, supporting student success, and strengthening a bold commitment to access and affordability.”

“What a thrill it is to welcome a scholar and leader of Dr. Assanis’s caliber to UC Santa Barbara,” said Janet Reilly, chair of the UC Board of Regents. “His commitment to academic excellence and his penchant for collaboration will steer a bold new era of growth and innovation, serving the campus and all of UC well.”

Assanis told the UC that he’s “particularly excited about UC Santa Barbara’s exceptional academic reputation, amazing students and boundless potential to be recognized among the top public universities, building on the celebrated achievements of its distinguished faculty and dedicated staff. Fostering a culture of innovation, academic excellence and student success has been my core focus as a public university leader. My wife, Eleni, and I are excited to join the vibrant and welcoming Santa Barbara community.”