Michigan State University alumni and supporters have started a campaign to thank President Kevin Guskiewicz for his short-lived tenure as the school’s leader.
The campaign, called “We Heart Kevin,” launched on social media Monday morning and was boosted on social media by the Izzo Legacy Foundation, which is led by Michigan State head basketball coach Tom Izzo’s wife, Lupe.
The campaign’s website offers downloadable signs and a space to post messages in support of Guskiewicz. The calls for support came nearly two weeks after Guskiewicz was announced as the next leader of South Carolina’s Clemson University. In his goodbye letter to the MSU community, Guskiewicz said the university’s board’s dysfunction was his main reason for leaving.
Guskiewicz remains MSU’s president after the announcement, and no interim leader has been chosen yet. Clemson leaders said a start date for President-elect Guskiewicz hasn’t been finalized.
The campaign is taking a different approach to the shocking news of Guskiewicz’s departure. Instead of reacting with negativity, the campaign is a chance to thank Guskiewicz for his time at the university, said Pat Gillespie, a prominent Lansing-area developer who, along with other Michigan business owners, organized the campaign.
“This is about trying to send off Guskiewicz on a good note,” Gillespie told The Detroit News Monday afternoon. “We’re trying to be positive about (Guskiewicz’s departure). We think MSU could really use it.”
Gillespie said he and a group of about 25 others were on campus and downtown East Lansing Monday afternoon, placing signs reading “We (heart) Kevin.” He said the group planned to paint the rock on campus at 3:30 p.m., and a plane carrying a banner is expected to fly over campus at 4 p.m.
“I had such a hollow feeling in my stomach when I heard the news he was leaving,” said Gillespie, who was slated to be the developer on MSU’s Spartan Gateway District. “I and the other people I talked to realized we never had a chance to thank him or show him support while he was here.”
Although some posts on the campaign’s website called for Guskiewicz to change his plans and return to the university, Gillespie said the campaign was not meant to bring Guskiewicz back.
“We wish it would’ve worked out, he was a great fit,” Gillespie said. “But this way he goes out on a good note.”
Guskiewicz expresses frustration as he prepares to depart MSU
Guskiewicz said in a May 27 letter to the campus community that while he was proud of the work he and his administration had done at MSU, he couldn’t stay because of his frustrations with the board.
“While I firmly believe we are all better when there is a diversity of viewpoints informing decisions, our ability to make meaningful progress is hampered when disagreements move from offering alternative perspectives into publicly undermining decisions and putting personal interests above the best interests of the university and our faculty, staff and students,” Guskiewicz’s letter read.
“While I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished these past two-plus years, I have always said that your health, family and faith must come first above all else,” the letter read. “The ongoing and continuous nature of the aforementioned actions has created an unsustainable situation. So after thoughtful reflection, I have made the difficult decision to leave Michigan State University and accept an opportunity to lead Clemson University as its next president.”
Guskiewicz was the sixth president in six years at Michigan State when he started in March 2024 and just the second permanent president since Lou Anna Simon resigned in the wake of the sentencing of serial sexual abuser Larry Nassar in 2018. The Michigan State board will now be searching for its seventh leader in eight years.
satwood@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Campaign starts to thank departing MSU President Guskiewicz. Who’s behind it?
Reporting by Sarah Atwood, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Sarah Atwood, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
