The governing board of Case Western Reserve University today announced the hiring of Barbara R. Snyder as its next president. Ms. Snyder, who will take office in July, will assume a presidency that has proved challenging in recent years. Her predecessor, Edward M. Hundert, quit in March after struggling to curb a $40-million budget deficit and facing a faculty backlash over cutbacks and over what one professor termed “a failure of governance.”

Ms. Snyder has been Ohio State University’s provost since 2003 and is also a professor of law at Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law. She began her academic career at Case Western, where she was a law professor in the 1980s. She will be the university’s first female president.

As part of the search for a new president, Case Western worked with Spencer Stuart, a search firm, to hold 21 open forums around the country with students, alumni, and members of the faculty and staff.