Mackinac Island — Republican former Gov. John Engler, a past president of Michigan State University, slammed the elected MSU university board on Wednesday for its role in the departure of President Kevin Guskiewicz.
Engler targeted three trustees for what the former governor described as a constant, “stunning” undermining of Guskiewicz’s leadership at the university. The general public does not understand how “demoralizing” those efforts have been, Engler told The Detroit News in a telephone interview Wednesday.
Engler did not name the trustees, but the board recently broke 5-3 on a vote to adopt new ethics and conduct rules, with trustees Dennis Denno, Rema Vasser and Mike Balow largely making up the opposition.
“The selfishness of these trustees, they don’t put the interest of the university or the students or the faculty or the state of Michigan first,” Engler said. “It’s petty, petty politics — and to what end? No one knows.”
If any of those trustees were on a private or nonprofit board, Engler added, they “would be bounced immediately for their behavior.”
Clemson University in South Carolina announced Saturday it would hire Guskiewicz as its next president. Guskiewicz was the sixth president in six years at Michigan State.
Engler served as Michigan State’s interim president upon the resignation of Lou Anna K. Simon in 2018 amid the fallout related to the university’s handling of allegations against serial sexual abuser Larry Nassar. Engler served in that position through January 2019.
In recent years, Engler has been working with Democratic former Gov. Jim Blanchard to gather support for a resolution to move the university board selection process from partisan nomination and election to a gubernatorial appointment system.
Watching the board’s dysfunction during that push was like watching a “slow-motion plane crash,” he said. The current configuration, he said, is “untenable.”
“Now the priority, and it’s urgent, is to make sure the board is replaced so that they play no role whatsoever in the selection of a new president,” Engler said.
Engler is not the only governor disgruntled by the departure of Guskiewicz.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, in a statement Wednesday, offered one of her strongest critiques of the Board of Trustees at her alma mater. Whitmer blamed Guskiewicz’s departure on the “antics” of a “handful of board members,” and vowed to follow the UM and MSU presidential searches closely.
“This time underscores why we need stable, accountable, and consistent leadership at our public universities,” Whitmer said.
“The way we’ve selected board members needs to change,” she continued. “The bipartisan proposal to appoint university board members would help ensure institutions have the leadership and expertise to get things back on track.”
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Engler slams MSU board after another president departs
Reporting by Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
