Michigan State hires UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz as president, sets start date
It’s official: UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz will depart the university on Jan. 12 to become the next president of Michigan State University.
The Michigan State Board of Trustees unanimously voted to hire Guskiewicz as the university’s 22nd president in a special meeting Friday morning. Guskiewicz attended the meeting, which was held virtually. He was reported more than three weeks ago to be the sole finalist for the job and said he was “weighing” the opportunity.
He will start his new role March 4. As president, he will also hold a tenured professorship in the university’s kinesiology department, housed within the College of Education.
“Our mission in this presidential search was clear: to find, as the search prospectus specifies, an experienced leader with the intellectual vision, broad worldview and personal integrity to inspire the university community to new levels of excellence across its locations, colleges and disciplines,” Rema Vassar, chair of the Michigan State Board of Trustees, said during Friday’s meeting. “We are confident that [in] Dr. Kevin M. Guskiewicz, we have chosen the most qualified candidate to lead Michigan State University forward.”
Guskiewicz has spent almost 30 years as a faculty member and administrator at UNC and has held the chancellorship since 2019. He filled the role on an interim basis beginning in February that year, before being named the university’s 12th chancellor in December.
He has seen the university through a tumultuous four-plus years, first inheriting the years-long controversy over the Silent Sam Confederate monument upon becoming chancellor, then leading UNC through the COVID-19 pandemic and national controversies, including whether journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones would be offered tenure to teach at the university. More recently, he confronted the tragedy this fall of an on-campus shooting that left a professor dead.
“I have loved leading Carolina for nearly five years,” Guskiewicz said in a statement Friday. “We have accomplished so much together, and I am proud of where Carolina is today. We have faced challenging times, but also incredible moments of opportunity. Thank you for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me to ensure our status as the leading global public research university we have aspired to be. It has not always been easy, but as I have often said — easy is boring. We certainly have not been bored.”
He will take the helm at Michigan State at a time of turmoil, with infighting among its Board of Trustees and national controversies, including the Larry Nassar scandal, thrusting it into the spotlight in recent years. The university’s previous president resigned over actions by the university’s trustees, saying he had “lost confidence” in the governing board.
Guskiewicz wrote to Michigan State faculty in mid-November that he would only take the new job if there was no “undue interference” from the university’s governing board.
He acknowledged Michigan State’s recent “share of challenges” in his remarks to the board Friday.
“Yet I see a strong university with an inspiring historical foundation that can reach new levels of excellence through its powerful commitment to student success, knowledge, discovery and land-grant service,” Guskiewicz said.
Guskiewicz is a renowned expert on sports concussions and athletic training, receiving a MacArthur “genius grant” fellowship for that work in 2011. He joined the faculty at UNC in 1995 and rose through the ranks of the exercise and sport science department before becoming the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, the university’s largest academic unit, in 2016.
“Chancellor Guskiewicz has led UNC-Chapel Hill with grace and goodwill through some very difficult moments, and he’s leaving the University in stronger shape than when he arrived,” UNC System President Peter Hans said in a statement Friday morning. “I join faculty, staff, students, and alumni at Carolina in deep appreciation for his leadership.”
Next steps for UNC
A search for a new chancellor at UNC is expected to begin after Hans selects someone to serve in the role on an interim basis. UNC System spokesperson Andy Wallace told The News & Observer Friday that Hans plans to name that person “in the next week or so.”
A 13-member committee, selected by Hans and UNC Board of Trustees Chair John Preyer, will then lead the search for the university’s 13th chancellor, gathering input from the campus community and interviewing candidates. The Board of Trustees will submit three finalists to the system Board of Governors. Hans will make the final nomination for consideration by that board.
Preyer said in a statement Friday morning that “the trustees, the faculty, and other key members of the Carolina family stand ready to participate fully in the search.”
“My hope is that President Hans will consider interim candidates with strong Carolina ties and stellar credentials who would keep the University moving forward on all fronts until a new chancellor is appointed,” Preyer said. “Given the challenges and opportunities the University faces, a steady hand through the transition will be important for everyone involved.”
The system expects “a competitive search that will attract a wide range of great candidates from all over the country,” Wallace previously told The N&O.
The search process is confidential, but the final vote to hire a chancellor must take place in a public meeting.
This story was originally published December 8, 2023 at 8:31 AM.
