One other Huge Ten president is on the transfer.
Lower than two weeks after Michigan State College provided President Kevin Guskiewicz a $1 million increase, doubling his compensation to $2 million a yr, to fend off headhunters, he’s leaving to take the highest job at Clemson College.
When MSU trustees proposed the increase, they mentioned that Guskiewicz was being aggressively recruited by different establishments and famous his frustrations with the board. Whereas trustees didn’t specify the character of these frustrations, Michigan State’s board has been mired in drama lately, accused of retaliating in opposition to college members and micromanaging prior presidents.
Now, after simply two years, Guskiewicz is heading to Clemson. In making the soar he’ll take a pay lower, reportedly incomes an annual base wage of $1.2 million on a five-year deal. (Extra incentives, resembling deferred compensation and bonuses, will push that quantity larger.) Guskiewicz will take the helm of a serious analysis college for the third time, following stops at MSU and 4 years because the chancellor of the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“I’ve identified for a few years how particular Clemson College is, and I’m honored by the chance to construct on the extraordinary custom of excellence and to assist lead the College into the longer term,” Guskiewicz mentioned in the hiring announcement. “I sit up for partaking with college students, college, workers, alumni and the various South Carolinians whose ardour and help have formed Clemson into one of many nation’s main international public analysis universities.”
On his means out, Guskiewicz additionally famous critical governance issues at Michigan State, although he didn’t elaborate on particular incidents.
In a assertion to the MSU group, he wrote that “efficient college management requires a shared dedication to collaboration, belief and a forward-looking imaginative and prescient,” however that some board members spent an excessive amount of vitality “revisiting previous conflicts and inside disagreements.”
He additionally accused MSU board members of pursuing private agendas.
“Whereas I firmly imagine we’re all higher when there’s a variety of viewpoints informing selections, our potential to make significant progress is hampered when disagreements transfer from providing various views into publicly undermining selections and placing private pursuits above the very best pursuits of the college and our college, workers and college students,” Guskiewicz wrote in his assertion. “What is probably most troubling is the actions of some to abuse their entry to privileged and confidential data to mispresent [sic] details, manipulate conditions and selectively use and leak that data to advertise private agendas.”
Regardless of the board dysfunction, Guskiewicz praised the 5 members who voted earlier this month to approve a brand new code of ethics, which he mentioned was in alignment with finest practices however has been rejected by some trustees as a gag order. (Two trustees—Mike Balow and Rema Vassar—have already confronted sanctions from the college for refusing to signal the settlement.)
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, additionally chastised the board.
“That is disappointing, but additionally no person ought to be shocked by this end result given a number of the antics we’ve seen from a handful of board members,” Whitmer mentioned at an occasion coated by The Detroit Information. She added that “the way in which we’ve chosen board members wants to alter” and nodded to a present proposal within the State Legislature to nominate trustees, which, she mentioned, “would assist guarantee establishments have the management and experience to get issues again on monitor.”
Beneath the present system, trustees are elected to staggered eight-year phrases.
In response to emailed questions from Inside Increased Ed about trustee habits and management turnover, a Michigan State spokesperson shared a assertion from board chair Brianna Scott.
“We enormously worth these previous two-plus years beneath President Guskiewicz,” Scott wrote within the assertion. “His management has set the college on a optimistic trajectory and one which we will proceed throughout this transition. Michigan State College has demonstrated resilience all through its historical past, and the establishment’s power has by no means trusted anybody particular person. The college’s mission, expertise and momentum proceed simply as they’ve for practically 175 years.”
Trustee Tensions
Guskiewicz’s departure underscores management instability at each Huge Ten establishments and MSU. Greater than half the leaders of Huge Ten member establishments have left their roles since early 2025.
Management turnover at Michigan State has additionally been excessive since long-serving president Lou Anna Okay. Simon resigned amid a sexual abuse scandal in 2018. Since then, MSU has had a revolving door of interim leaders, with two everlasting presidents lasting a mixed 5 years.
Outdoors observers famous that Guskiewicz’s departure quantities to extra than simply one other presidential transition; it alerts deeper points with governance at Michigan State.
Robert Kelchen, a professor of schooling on the College of Tennessee at Knoxville, informed Inside Increased Ed that Guskiewicz’s early exit “reveals that Michigan State is likely one of the hardest management jobs within the nation.” Past the challenges of operating a serious analysis enterprise with big-time athletics, he mentioned, presidents should navigate an elected but divided board.
With Clemson—led by a board largely appointed by state officers in a state lengthy dominated by Republicans—Kelchen argued that Guskiewicz is getting a higher sense of certainty. He added that whereas Clemson is a step down “from a status standpoint,” it supplies extra day-to-day stability.
Kelchen famous, too, that Guskiewicz’s parting message was “terribly uncommon” for a president in underscoring his strained relationship with the board because the impetus for his exit.
Now, as Michigan State begins its subsequent presidential search, it should achieve this with a status for persistent board dysfunction that may doubtless complicate the search and drive up wage calls for.
“They’re going to must pay the following president some huge cash,” Kelchen mentioned.
