Guskiewicz assumed the role of MSU president in 2024 after interim president Theresa Woodruff said she would not pursue the role. Guskiewicz’s current contract was not up until 2029. 

His departure follows a trend of high presidential turnover at MSU. Since 2019, five university presidents have assumed the helm in seven years, including interim presidents and Guskiewicz himself. 

Rising astrophysics senior Madeline Edmondston said one of the first things that crossed her mind after learning the news was how sudden it felt to see Guskiewicz go from championing the Spartans to embracing the new name of the Tigers.

"I thought it was crazy because we've had such a turnaround in presidents. Especially because he left for another school," Edmondston said. "Like, what sort of commitment? Who did we hire to be president that he's committing to another school now, after saying that he loves MSU so much?"

In a campus-wide email sent late Wednesday morning, Guskiewicz criticized the MSU board’s "differing perspectives" on how to best move MSU forward. He pointed out the "discouraging behavior" of a few trustees, which aided his decision to leave the university.

"That is kind of a legitimate reason to not like MSU," said recent MSU alum Claire Ardelean. "But after they tried to get him to stay, I don't think that's a good enough reason."

In a 5-3 vote at a May 17 special meeting, the MSU board approved revisions to its code of ethics and conduct to emphasize "loyalty" to the university and bar trustees from publicly opposing majority board decisions. The board also voted 6-1 to increase Guskiewicz’s salary by $1 million in the same meeting.

Comparative cultures and social relations alum Vasily Yevseyev was "shocked" by the board’s actions leading up to the president’s resignation.

"I think that it's pretty funny that the board pretty much did a whole song and dance for him. You're raising his salary by a million dollars and also taking away their own power to criticize the board's decisions, and he still left anyways," Yevseyev said. "And now he's saying that, 'Oh, it's actually the board's fault, the board actually really made me want to leave,' when the board was actually acquiescing to all of your demands."

The MSU board voted to double Guskiewicz’s salary because he was being "aggressively pursued" by other universities, and they wanted to prevent his potential departure from MSU.

At the time the board passed the salary resolution, they didn’t know where funding for the pay increase would come from. They would have had to source money from outside of MSU’s general fund.

Ardelean said she’s mostly discouraged about where MSU’s priorities are after this week’s news.

"He makes way too much money. When I was a student, I was part of like the Free Palestine Club, where we worked to get MSU to divest from any company that supports Israel," Ardelean said. "And everyone's saying 'MSU's too poor, we're gonna lose money by divesting.' Yet we were giving a president a $1,000,000 raise. It's crazy to me how MSU is spending their money."

While debate over Guskiewicz's proposed endowment and departure from the university has fueled widespread discussion online, reactions to the news on campus were mixed. Many people The State News spoke with on campus Wednesday said they were unaware of the situation or, in some cases, of the previous raise offer from MSU. 

"With who we have on the board right now, I'm not too sure about who's gonna be the new president. There's gonna be just kind of like the same old milk toast kind of guy or gal, and we might go through this whole thing again," Yevseyev said.

"I do hope that the board maybe chooses someone a bit more, you know, like radical, who is going to say, 'no, we're going to fund these programs, we're not going to cut jobs, I'm not going to get like a million dollar raise, and no, you're not going to have your speech stifled whether or not you're a trustee or you're a student.'"

In his campus-wide email, Guskiewicz said that to support a smooth transition, he would remain as president of MSU over the next several weeks.