A University Walks as One: Community Rallies Around Chancellor Kent Syverud
Sixty student organizations. Gray ribbons. Handwritten letters. A prayer. On Tuesday, April 28, the University community will rally to respond to Chancellor Kent Syverud’s recent cancer diagnosis with an unmistakable show of community and solidarity.
(SGA), in partnership with 60 recognized student organizations, will host a Go Gray in May: Brain Cancer Awareness Month Walk. The event will begin at noon in the Schine Student Center with a walk to Crouse-Hinds Hall at 2:30 p.m. There, the Rev. Devon Bartholomew, Christian Protestant chaplain at Hendricks Chapel, will lead those assembled in a prayer.
Chancellor Syverud announced on April 15 that he has been diagnosed with a form of brain cancer. He is currently undergoing treatment at University of Michigan Medicine.
“After the news broke, our SGA executive team came together to ask ourselves one question: ‘How do we respond?’” says German Nolivos ’26, SGA president. “Chancellor Syverud has been there for all of us—through every hard moment this University has faced. This is our chance to be there for him and his family.”
May is Brain Cancer Awareness Month, and the event will raise funds for the . Organizers are encouraging members of the University community to consider making a monetary donation. “The most powerful thing we can do in this moment is fund the fight,” Nolivos says.
Those who donate $15 or more and submit a screenshot of their donation to , the SGA’s home on Instagram, can claim a free T-shirt at Schine at the April 28 event.
Participants in the walk are encouraged to wear gray and pick up a gray ribbon at Schine that day. There will be a community poster wall for students, faculty and staff to leave messages of support for Chancellor Syverud and anyone in the community affected by brain cancer. There will also be a letter-writing station where individuals can write personal letters of support to Chancellor Syverud and Dr. Ruth Chen.
Participating organizations span every dimension of campus life: fraternities and sororities, cultural and identity organizations, pre-professional societies, advocacy groups, athletic clubs, honor societies and more. Nolivos says this will be the largest coalition of student organizations ever assembled for a single awareness event in recent University history.
“When 60 organizations come together, that’s not just coordination—that’s conviction,” Nolivos says. “Every single one of these groups is choosing to show up. That means something. That tells you something about who we are as a university.”
Additionally, the SGA Assembly passed a formal resolution on April 15 extending formal gratitude and support to Chancellor Syverud.
“Chancellor Syverud has given this institution 12 years of transformational leadership,” says Nolivos. “He has shown up for students, for faculty, for staff and for this community through its hardest chapters. April 28 is our opportunity, all of us, to show up for him.”
