The state of Michigan, ravaged by unrest, appoints UNC chancellor as president
Michigan State University confirmed a new president on Friday, an effort to introduce a permanent leader after years of turnover, scandals and infighting.
Kevin M. Guskiewicz, a neuroscientist who has been chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 2019, was unanimously elected president by the board of trustees on Friday and will begin his term in March.
Dr. Guskiewicz is the sixth president of the state of Michigan in six years. The university was rocked by a sex abuse scandal when Larry Nassar, a doctor who worked with gymnasts at the school, pleaded guilty in 2017 to molesting girls under the guise of providing medical treatment, and school officials came under fire for did not quickly intervene to stop the abuse.
Since then, Mel Tucker, a football coach, has been fired found it by university investigators who violated the university’s sexual misconduct policy. In a separate incident, during a football game this fall, Michigan State displayed an image of Adolf Hitler on its video screens during a pregame quiz, prompting a apology.
The Michigan State Board of Governors has had an audience mutual struggle months about governance, ethics and allegations of bullying.
The accumulation of disagreements and embarrassment even led Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a college graduate, to denounce the state of Michigan in October for a lack of “clear unified leadership or guidance and, tragically, no accountability.”
In an interview on Friday, Dr. Guskiewicz, who spent 28 years at the University of North Carolina, said one of his first goals was to increase transparency at Michigan State and reassure the university community after years of tumult.
“It’s a place that craves stability,” he said. “There have definitely been some challenges over the last five to seven years. And I know I will bring experience and expertise from UNC Chapel Hill. We have had our own challenges. And you know, for some of these things, there’s no playbook for it. And you have to trust your instincts and surround yourself with really good people.
Dennis Denno, chairman of the university’s Presidential Investigative Committee, said in a statement about Dr. Guskiewicz: “We are confident that he has the intellectual vision, broad worldview and personal integrity to inspire our university community to new levels of excellence. And we look forward to working with him to foster a climate of community, engagement and mutual respect.”
Dr. Guskiewicz, a native of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, first visited Michigan State in November on a campus visit with his wife, Amy, before interviewing for the president’s job in Detroit. He went jogging around the sprawling campus and attended a football game, he said, “an important step for me because we believe we are part of the campus community and we want to be in a place where it feels good.”
Dr. Guskiewicz moves from one politically charged job to another. In recent years, North Carolina Republicans, who control the state legislature, have wielded enormous power over the state university system, providing the board with allies who have shaped campus staffing decisions, changed research ambitions and influenced the fate of a Confederate statue at the university. campus in Chapel Hill.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said Friday that Dr. Guskiewicz to leave UNC – one of the nation’s most academically renowned public universities – for Michigan State was an indictment of North Carolina’s recent approach to higher education.
“UNC boards with extreme appointees who are completely controlled by legislative Republicans appear to prefer chaos and meddling over sound and stable leadership, and these actions will ultimately damage our state’s economy and reputation,” said Governor Cooper, who is a bachelor’s and law degrees from UNC Chapel Hill. , said a statement.
The UNC System did not comment on the governor’s statement.
Alan Blinderreporting contributed.