Batt’s tenure as MSU athletic director lasted 376 days, just over a year after he was hired into the role in June of 2025 by Guskiewicz on a $1.85 million salary. 

For MSU, Batt was the third athletic director in five years, while Guskiewicz was the seventh president in 10 years. 

Rising human biology senior Rylee Schlaud said that following the two departures, her biggest worry is the quality of future leadership amid potentially rushed hiring decisions. 

“I worry that it's gonna have to be a rush decision to try to find new hires and that they won't necessarily be able to take the time to find the best candidates,” Schlaud said. “So I just kind of worry that it's going to be this cycle of trying to find somebody on the fly because everyone keeps  leaving and we only have two months before school starts again.”

It is unclear what the timeline will be for the rehiring of the university’s president and athletic director. In a press release sent Monday afternoon, Guskiewicz said he would appoint an interim athletic director in the “coming days.”

Schlaud said that as a member of Spartan Marching Band, she felt like Batt and Guskiewicz’s leadership brought “so many great changes” to the game day experience, such as light shows.

“Little differences like that can really separate game days between schools, and his (Batt’s) support for the band and athletics and the university as a whole was really awesome,” Schlaud said. “Seeing him (Batt) and President Guskiewicz leave is really disappointing because they were bringing so many great changes just in the year they had together.”

Last fall, the board approved a myriad of capital and infrastructure initiatives that sought to dramatically change MSU’s revenue streams and its campus. Nonprofit Spartan Ventures, with its for-profit counterpart Spartan Media Ventures, was founded by Batt and Guskiewicz to modernize MSU’s fundraising efforts through corporate sponsorships and philanthropic support. For Sparta, a $1 billion capital initiative aimed at athletics was later announced in December. The enterprise was jump-started by a $400 million donation from Greg and Dawn Williams. 

Earlier this year, the board approved big changes to MSU’s campus with the Spartan Stadium District. The new project would erect hotels, retail, community spaces and student housing along Shaw Lane, nestled between MSU’s athletic buildings. Now, questions mount over the future of such programs without the leadership pair who championed it all.

Journalism freshman Andrew Singler said the executive shake-up comes at an “incredibly unfortunate” time for athletics. 

“We just lost our president over some nonsense. As for athletics, we're in a rebirth with football, and basketball is seeking to go to the national championship,” Singler said. “While I understand his decision, it’s kind of dumb to commit yourself to something so big, just for it to be a short stint and ultimately leave after one year.”

1992 alumnus Keith Koeppen said he’s not concerned Batt is leaving; rather, it's the successive departures that are concerning. Koeppen added that he has no faith in the board choosing its next leadership.

“It was apparent he wasn't committed to MSU, so he can go. It was the chain reaction of President Guskiewicz leaving that led to him leaving,” Koeppen said. “The root cause of our Board of Trustees creating instability is what concerns me.”

In a hastily scheduled special May 17 meeting, the Board of Trustees revised its code of ethics and gave Guskiewicz a $1 million raise in a last-ditch attempt to retain the president, acknowledging that other universities were pursuing him for the same role.

2026 graduate Yousef Melai said the changes at the top reflect how the board invested too much in Guskiewicz without giving the proper effort to retain him. 

“Unfortunately, we are going into a downward spiral after losing a semi-good president and a good athletic director,” Melai said. “Kevin wasn’t that good, but the fact they offered him $2 million, and he still left, tells you a lot about our board.”

In a campuswide email sent the day of his departure announcement, Guskiewicz pointed to issues among the Board of Trustees that had created an “unsustainable situation.”

“The Board of Trustees does not seem to be collectively operating in the best interests of Michigan State University,” Koeppen said. “ The fact that this is becoming the overwhelming opinion of alumni and stakeholders should send a message that we need a change in the board.”

First-year electrical engineering PhD student Chakradhara Pemmasani said that Batt’s resignation speaks to the university culture and the pattern of the Board of Trustees “getting in the way of what the university is trying to do,” and that changes within the board may be necessary moving forward. 

“It is kind of a shame that we haven't had that stability in a while, so it'd be nice to have someone and have a change from the ground up that would serve us,” Pemmasani said. “As a student, it's nice to have some kind of stability, even in terms of just programs in general. I feel that affects everything, not just the athletics.”

Former AD Mark Hollis resigned in 2018 amid fallout from the Nassar scandal. He retired just days after former MSU and USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to prison for sexual misconduct after sexually assaulting hundreds of young women under the guise of medical treatment.

Then, the former Vice President and Secretary of the Board of Trustees, Bill Beekman, took over. Although Beekman stepped down from previous roles to assume the AD position, it was still highly scrutinized for hiring an internal candidate. 

Batt’s predecessor, Alan Haller, was dismissed in May 2025 following NCAA sanctions and underperforming seasons. 

Rising communications senior Ezra Williamson said the legacy of such turnover may send the message that MSU “isn’t worthy of having good leadership.”

“It's just sad seeing how much bad press we've gotten with the athletic field and athletic department in the past like 10 years and when we finally start to get good people in, it feels like they're leaving,” Williamson said. “I want our school to represent all of the best values that we have, and if we have people keep leaving, I feel like that's just showing to the world that we're not who we say we are.”

Williamson said the turnover may deter prospective candidates, but that "it gives good opportunities for people who might have been underrepresented in certain areas to step in and fill those positions.”

“So I think that while it's disappointing, there's definitely a hopeful note," Williamson said.