Kevin Guskiewicz’s untimely exit from Michigan State on Wednesday is a blow to progress, to the university’s momentum and stability, to its reputation, its sense of direction, and to the alignment of its leadership. And it’s a setback that could have ramifications beyond who holds the top office at MSU.
While not all of Guskiewicz’s decisions and ideas were universally embraced, he recognized the need for bold ideas and tough calls at a time in higher education and in major college athletics when spinning your wheels with the status quo isn’t a wise option. Guskiewicz has a presence about him, a professionalism, a temperament that makes him approachable and allows him to lead without being a bully. And he’s someone with vision, whether you share that vision or not. He’s what you’re looking for in a university president in 2026.
And MSU’s Board of Trustees, he said, all but ran him off, even as they tried to entice him to stay in recent days by doubling his salary. In a letter to MSU explaining why he’s leaving for the same job at Clemson in South Carolina, Guskiewicz said Wednesday that the actions of several Board members made for an “unsustainable situation.”
That’s where the blame starts — with a Board that, for ages, hasn’t understood how to be a university steward without creating a mess and hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt.
RELATED: Guskiewicz takes pay cut to go to Clemson, cites board dysfunction
“At times, too much energy has been spent revisiting past conflicts and internal disagreements rather than focusing collectively on the opportunities and aspirations ahead of us,” Guskiewicz wrote in the letter. “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. What is perhaps most troubling is the actions of some to abuse their access to privileged and confidential information to misrepresent facts, manipulate situations and selectively use and leak that information to promote personal agendas.”
That’s a pretty blunt call-out of three of MSU’s eight trustees: Mike Balow, Dennis Denno and Rema Vassar, each of whom voted against changes to the Board’s Code of Conduct during an emergency meeting on May 17, and have been voices of dissent to varying degrees, including concerns over transparency with the new revenue-generating arm of MSU Athletics — Spartan Ventures and its subsidiary, Spartan Media Ventures LLC.
Guskiewicz, though, is also leaving a lot of folks in the larger university community who were counting on him, some of whom he hired in prominent roles. He put a lot of things in motion at MSU and then walked away. This isn’t middle management. If you’re going to lead the charge to reshape how a campus looks and operates, you should probably see that through, instead of pushing a new stadium district to the 1-yard line and leaving it there.
On the other hand, that he walked away from the Board’s recent offer to double his salary to $2 million annually and then took $800,000 less at Clemson, gives credence to the notion that working with MSU’s Board was untenable and misery not worth spending his 60s in East Lansing.
And so MSU begins yet another search, which will take who knows how long, to find a president who may or may not have a similar vision and priorities, who may or may not last another two or three years.
The only good news is that, in offering Guskiewicz $2 million annually, MSU showed it’s prepared to compete for talent. In this age, when a star point guard in the Big Ten can cost $3 million-plus a year, there’s no excuse for going cheap in hiring the person who runs point for the entire university.
It’s time to stop electing board members
The Guskiewicz era at Michigan State looked for a little while like it might bring with it some alignment at the university.
It might have in one respect — perhaps never have folks been more aligned in the opinion that Board of Trustees members should not be elected by the voting public. That change could wind up being Guskiewicz’s MSU legacy. Not exactly statue worthy, but perhaps a sliding doors moment that allows the next person at the top of the university to see out their ambitions.
Because as Guskiewicz exited the stage in East Lansing on Wednesday — leaving MSU after just 2 1/2 years — he put his departure squarely on MSU’s Board. A familiar story, no matter the decade.
By the middle of the day, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had weighed in, backing proposed legislation that would ask voters to amend the Michigan Constitution so that the boards at MSU, Michigan and Wayne State would be appointed by the governor.
“This is disappointing, but also nobody should be surprised by this outcome given some of the antics we’ve seen from a handful of board members,” Whitmer said in a statement.
Whitmer, though, has largely stood on the sidelines until now. She had the chance to remove Vassar and Denmo for separate incidences of misconduct and decided not to.
This should be a call to action. If we continue to elect Board of Trustees members as we do in statewide elections — with almost no one knowing who any of these people really are, often just choosing a name on a ballot we’ve never seen, perhaps based simply on whether there’s an R or D next to the name — then this volatility is partly on all of us.
Gubernatorial appointments could come with other issues. But what we’re doing now isn’t working, for MSU especially.
What’s the collateral damage — especially to athletics?
The question is the collateral damage from Guskiewicz’s departure — including what it means for athletic director J Batt, who reiterated to a group of donors recently that he came to MSU because of Guskiewicz.
With Guskiewicz leaving, Batt’s buyout, if he were to take another job, is half of what it would have been. That clause in his contract is telling, even if not unusual. For example, former MSU football coach Jonathan Smith’s buyout dropped when former athletic director Alan Haller was fired.
Oversight of Spartan Ventures and Spartan Media Ventures has been at the center of some of the trustee grumbling. Those initiatives are Batt’s creation — and they’re set to begin July 1. There’s no turning back now. That’s in motion. And it’s his magnum opus. I’d be surprised if Guskiewicz’s departure alone has Batt looking for an exit. But if the next president doesn’t share or support Batt’s vision, MSU could have a problem. And that’s a possibility. Because MSU no longer has the alignment Guskiewicz, Batt and football coach Pat Fitzgerald touted on the day Fitzgerald was introduced.
“We are fully committed to providing the resources and infrastructure required to compete (in football) at the highest level,” Batt said that day. “To reach that level of success requires alignment at every level.”
That’s in doubt now.
Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on X @Graham_Couch and BlueSky @GrahamCouch.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Couch: Kevin Guskiewicz’s departure an unnecessary blow to MSU, which loses momentum and maybe more
Reporting by Graham Couch, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
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