Michigan State's president, Kevin Guskiewicz, gives a speech to the class of 2026 during a convocation inside the Breslin Center in East Lansing, Mich., on May 1, 2026.
Two years after his arrival at Michigan State University, President Kevin Guskiewicz announced Wednesday that he would be leaving for Clemson University.
Guskiewicz's departure marks MSU’s seventh leader to hold the position of university president in ten years. When he assumed the role in 2024, the president was all too aware that the situation at MSU was far from a fairytale.
When Guskiewicz was just a finalist for MSU’s top spot in 2023, he formally asked for the Board of Trustees not to interfere with his job — something the last two presidents before him had cited in their own resignations.
Most notably, President Samuel Stanley resigned in October 2022 saying he had "lost confidence" in the board and grown tired of frequent interference by trustees. Stanley took to the helm in 2019 in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal with promises to "restore trust" in the community.
Guskiewicz inherited a university plagued by governance instability. He walked into MSU towards the end of an investigation into trustees Rema Vassar and Dennis Denno that ultimately concluded they attempted to undermine interim President Teresa Woodruff. Both trustees were censured by the board and later recommended for removal by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who declined to do so in June of 2025.
So, when Guskiewicz agreed to take the job after an arduous presidential search process in 2023, he had all trustees pledge to let him lead MSU "without undue interference." His MSU presidency would then be characterized by attempts to present the university as a unified front based off of his "one team" philosophy.
However, despite his attempts to maintain unity, the board's pledge was not kept. Guskiewicz placed the blame on current board divisions for fueling his motivations for leaving MSU in a campus wide email sent Wednesday.
"While many across this university community have embraced that spirit, it has become increasingly clear that there are differing perspectives within the Board of Trustees regarding how best to move MSU forward," Guskiewicz wrote. "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."
The dissension among the board has created an "unsustainable situation," Guskiewicz wrote.
Part of the "unsustainable situation," as evident during the board's special meeting on May 17, was the multiple public disputes between board members. The special meeting attempted to quell public infighting by approving revisions to its code of ethics and conduct.
The contention amongst the board had gone so far to impact Guskiewicz’s health, Board Chair Brianna Scott said during the meeting.
"We should be ashamed to hear that we have caused that to any individual, let alone someone who came to this university at a very horrible time in our history," Scott said.
Scott pointed to trustees publishing op-eds, appearing on podcasts and sending "email messages where he has been disrespected" as reasons for why MSU was at "risk of losing" its president.
In February, Trustee Rema Vassar published an opinion essay in Bridge Michigan protesting MSU's decision to curtail its diversity, equity and inclusion programs in response to pressures from the Trump administration, which had failed to gain the legal backing to pause federal funding at universities that continued DEI initiatives.
"It’s time for MSU to reinstate everything it destroyed," she wrote.
The op-ed was met with immediate resistance from other members of the board, including Guskiewicz, and university administrators, who said that the piece mischaracterized the efforts of the university.
Trustees Mike Balow and Dennis Denno co-wrote an opinion piece in The Detroit News publicizing their frustrations with the board in April. During the April board meeting, Balow said Denno, Vassar and himself wanted a resolution to be added to the meeting, but that it was blocked by their colleagues.
The resolution would have heightened transparency for MSU’s for-profit athletics enterprise Spartan Media Ventures, dictating that Spartan Media Ventures be subject to Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act law and allowed trustees to view organizational documents without signing a nondisclosure agreement.
The State News also reported in April that the university’s board was divided over allegations against Brian Quinn after Balow, Denno and Vassar raised what they called "serious concerns" about his conduct within the Office of General Counsel.
At the same May 17 special meeting, the board approved a $1 million raise for the president and a contract extension through 2031.
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Board members said Guskiewicz was being "aggressively pursued" by other universities and the raise was preventative in nature. Approving the raise was essential to ensuring Guskiewicz remained at the university, members of the board said.
Irrespective of the board's attempts to retain MSU's president, Guskiewicz will now serve Clemson University as its 16th president. During Clemson’s Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday morning, they said he would be present at their June meeting.
The MSU Board of Trustees will hold their next meeting on June 12.
Following the announcement of Guskiewicz’s departure, Scott said in a statement that "The board will provide information regarding a transition plan soon; in the meantime, we wish Kevin and Amy well and look forward to aligning our shared visions over a productive summer in anticipation of a busy and prosperous academic year."
