Guskiewicz announced on Monday that he would stay at MSU after initially announcing his hiring as Clemson University’s next president in May. In an interview with The State News Tuesday morning, Guskiewicz said that the amount of “alumni, faculty, students, staff, legislators, trustees and business leaders across Michigan” that reached out following his departure announcement influenced his decision to remain at MSU. 

In a May letter, Guskiewicz pointed to dissension with MSU's Board of Trustees as reasoning for his departure, saying the board created an "unsustainable situation.” He now insists they can work together.

“I think we've had productive conversations about how the board can operate more strategically, more effectively and, that really means functioning as a whole board and trying to get us sort of rowing together in the same direction," Guskiewicz said. “I do believe that we're going to continue to have conversations with all eight of our trustees working together so that we're all hearing the same thing at the same time, and allowing opportunities for any trustee to voice their concern or opposition to something but in a respectful way.” 

Still, he said trustees should express opinions at work sessions and during public comment at board meetings, but then move on. 

“But once a decision is made, a vote is cast on a particular issue, we move forward together and there's not a trustee undermining a decision or the administration publicly,” Guskiewicz said. “That's something that became a frustration for me and many on our leadership team. And that begins to erode some of the trust that is so important as we work together as one team.”

Guskiewicz will remain in his position with a salary of $1 million now and with an expected $500,000 raise in October. The raise will be funded by “non-university resources.”

Men's basketball head coach Tom Izzo urged members of Spartan Nation to "stand up" to the successive departures of the university president and Athletic Director J Batt in June. 

Izzo's comments followed existing public criticism of the Board of Trustees on social media, where students and alumni jointly championed petitions, mass email campaigns and spreadsheets doxxing trustees' personal information amid calls for the immediate resignation of the trustees. 

Izzo said on Monday that Guskiewicz's decision to remain at MSU is a moment for “unity.”

Guskiewicz said Izzo’s comments helped people “understand the decision that I had made.”

“I've always said that one of the first steps following a problem is to acknowledge that there was a problem — and that was done publicly whenever I sent a letter to the community in late May,” Guskiewicz said. "I think it was an important step in getting us to a place where we could advance the university."


Guskiewicz said that both Izzo and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer played a “role" in publicly acknowledging the problem. 

During May’s Mackinac Policy Conference, Whitmer criticized the way members of the Board of Trustees are selected — through statewide elections held every two years instead of being appointed by the state's governor — saying it “needs to change” to "ensure institutions have the leadership expertise to get things back on track." Whitmer previously had the opportunity by law to remove two trustees, but chose not to.

As for MSU Athletics, Guskiewicz could not share much about the future of Athletic Director J Batt’s impending departure to the University of Kentucky, but did say the two had a planned conversation for later today.

“I anticipate that we'll be in a better place in the next few days, but that's the extent of what I want to say,” Guskiewicz said. 

Guskiewicz did share that he believes that Batt is “preparing to announce a start date at Kentucky.”

If Guskiewicz were to have left MSU, Batt’s buyout would have been reduced from $5 million to $2.5 million. 

At the time of publication, Batt is listed on the staff directories of both MSU and Kentucky.