The Council was convened by MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz and tasked with bringing forward ideas to strengthen the state’s workforce, connect students to high-quality careers, and accelerate innovation across Michigan’s industries.
Launched by Guskiewicz in April, and co-chaired by Matt Elliott and Sanjay Gupta, the Green and White Council comprises more than a dozen prominent leaders, including representatives from Dart Container, Bedrock Detroit, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, ITC Holdings and Carhartt, representing a cross-section of industry and innovation that drive the economy.
Conversation Highlights:
(1:37) - Before we discuss the signature initiatives, remind us why you thought it was important to pull this group together and what you charged them to do.
(2:57) - Why did you select Matt and Sanjay to co-chair the council? And talk about the membership of the council and the variety of backgrounds you wanted to get input from.
(4:16) - Why was it important to you to co-chair council and lead this initiative? And talk about the process and collaboration of the council. How did you do your work and go about selecting these three initiatives?
(7:15) - Enhancing MSU’s current work to connect education and industry, the members of the Green and White Council used their experience, knowledge and effort, to shape three transformative initiatives:
- AI-Ready Spartans
- Career-Connected Spartans
- Spartan Catalyst
Elaborate on the initiatives, and why did you settle on these three?
(8:34) – What do you mean by AI-Ready Spartans?
(12:00) – What are Career-Connected Spartans?
(16:20) – What is a Spartan Catalyst?
(21:33) – What are your thoughts on what Matt and Sanjay have been discussing?
(23:23) - How do you envision the initiatives being implemented across campus over the coming weeks, months and even years?
(27:36) - Will the council disband or will you keep working?
(28:34) – Closing thoughts from the group.Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.
Conversation Transcript:
Russ White (00:00):
Michigan State University has unveiled the signature initiatives of the specially appointed green and white council. The council was convened by MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz and tasked with bringing forward ideas to strengthen the state's workforce, connect students to high quality careers and accelerate innovation across Michigan's industries. Launched by President Guskiewicz in April and co-chaired by Matt Elliot and Sanjay Gupta. The Green and White Council comprises more than a dozen prominent leaders, including representatives from Dart Container, from Bedrock Detroit, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, ITC Holdings and Carhartt representing a cross section of industry and innovation that drive the economy. And President Guskiewicz it’s always great to have you back on the program. Good to see you again.
Kevin Guskiewicz (00:51):
Good to see you, Russ. Thanks for having me.
Russ White (00:52):
Sanjay Gupta is the Dean Emeritus, and Eli and Edythe L. Broad endowed professor in MSU's. Eli Broad College of Business. Sanjay, great to have you on again.
Sanjay Gupta (01:02):
Always good to be with you, Russ. Thank you.
Russ White (01:03):
And Matt, you’ve got your hands into so many things. I know Bank of America, just tell us how you'd like our audience to know about your background.
Matt Elliott (01:10):
Well, I'm the former president of Bank of America, Michigan, and now I lead a group of people under the banner of Blue Lake Ideas. And what we do is we consult with companies, boards, and institutions to help them lead through a world of accelerating change.
Russ White (01:24):
Excellent.
Kevin Guskiewicz (01:25):
And he's a proud Spartan alum.
Russ White (01:26):
Kevin, before we discuss the signature initiatives, remind us why you thought it was important to pull this group together and what you charge them to do.
Kevin Guskiewicz (01:38):
Well, Russ, I've said since I got here about 22 months ago now, that I wanted to be sure that Michigan State was always leading, that we were viewed as the leaders in research, education, service to the state, but also to the nation and the world. And we're going to lead in how we redefine the way in which we can better prepare our graduates for the workforce demands of today and tomorrow, jobs and careers that don't even exist today, that our graduates will be needing to be prepared for over the next three, four decades. So we charged them with gaining a better understanding from industry leaders in about five or six different sectors as to where higher ed is not delivering, it's going to be needed for the future, and I couldn't be happier with where we are. That's sort of one of the initiatives and others really around how we can better connect our graduates to the changing landscape of the workforce around AI and machine learning, et cetera, but also connected them to our alumni base in a better way, more meaningful way so that they have those opportunities.
Russ White (02:47):
Talk about why you selected Matt and Sanjay to lead this important initiative and talk about the membership of the council and the variety of backgrounds you wanted to weigh in on this.
Kevin Guskiewicz (02:57):
Well, in terms of leadership, this is a dynamic duo right here sitting next to us. I mean, we've got a leading educator researcher in Sanjay Gupta who's been at MSU for many years and understands the way faculty think about these issues and the way that our career services has excelled in some areas and perhaps needs to be rethinking the way it functions in the future. And then you have a business leader with Matt Elliot, as I said, a proud Spartan alum, but somebody who has led Bank of America here in Michigan and is well connected across the state with business leaders as is Sanjay. So again, I think couldn't be happier with the leadership of the council and then in these different areas from finance and banking to healthcare to agriculture, to the automobile industry, advanced manufacturing. And I'm probably missing a few of the sectors that Sanjay and Matt can fill in, but we wanted leaders in these areas that we knew would be able to answer that important question about where we're delivering and where we're not.
Russ White (04:04):
And Matt and Sanjay, why was it important for you to be on this council and accept Kevin's invitation and talk a little bit about the process, the collaboration of the council, and how you work through and selected these initiatives?
Matt Elliott (04:17):
Sure. Well, for me, it's a privilege to be able to do something for an organization that you just love. And I love MSU. I grew up here. Basically I'm from the Lansing area. So when Kevin brought the opportunity my way, I raised, I raised two hands. And it's also an area that I'm really passionate about. How do we help drive Michigan forward? I'm a long lifelong Michigander as well. And so those two things, and also a belief in Kevin's leadership are what did it for me,
Sanjay Gupta (04:44):
Russ, My reaction to Kevin's ask is very similar to Matt. I've been at MSU since 2007 in the Broad College in various leadership roles, and I had the privilege to make an impact in the Broad College for business students. This was an opportunity that Kevin offered how we can expand that impact across the entire university. And so to me, this is a huge privilege. Student experience was at the bottom of everything that we did in the Broad College. It was at the heart of it, and to be able to extrapolate that for the university. And then the other thing is Kevin said this was his signature initiative. So I like that. That means it's really important for MSU and to Kevin. And so I'm all on board.
Russ White (05:36):
So how did you collaborate as a council? How did you get together and work and come up with these initiatives that will highlight in a moment?
Matt Elliott (05:44):
It's a classic case of running a good project. And so Sanjay and I and a small team meet every week. And then as we started to shape the council membership, we thought how do we be representative of the state and get a good round 360 degree view of what the state needs? And then also people who are really close to MSU, they care about it. And I think we landed in a great place.
Sanjay Gupta (06:08):
Matt and I have known each other that made things easier as well.
Matt Elliott (06:12):
Very true
Sanjay Gupta (06:13):
That it was not as if starting from scratch with an unknown person. I think we collaborate and help each other complete sentences almost the way of thinking is aligned. And also Matt brings a great deal of industry experience. And as Kevin said earlier, he is so well connected in Michigan at the policy levels, I was able to bring the university background, the faculty perspective, the administration and leadership perspective to our conversations so that we could triangulate what is it that we need to do in order to make this a success.
Russ White (06:53):
So enhancing MSU's current work to connect education in the industry. The members of the Green and white council use their experience, knowledge, and effort to shape three transformative initiatives. AI Ready, Spartans, career Connected, Spartans and Spartan Catalyst. Could you elaborate on these initiatives and why you settled on these three first, Kevin?
Kevin Guskiewicz (07:16):
So I'm going to again ask Matt and Sanjay to talk a little bit more about the specifics of each, because I'm very excited about them. I talk often about needing to be strategic, bold and student focused. And I'll say that the three that we ultimately landed on, I think each of them is in fact us being strategic, us being bold, and us being student focused. And you can ask anybody that hears me talk. I've been using strategic bold and student focused for a decade. We could have had, I think there were probably eight to 10 different ideas that were under consideration at one point, but I said, we've got to narrow this down. Even these three is an ambitious endeavor, but I think these are the three that really are going to have impact. It's going to showcase really what we charge the council to do, and it'll show great impact. So I'll let Matt and Sanjay talk a little bit more about the specifics, and then I might come back and tell a story if we have time about the AI ready when in a conversation I had with Bill Ford back about a year ago.
Russ White (08:23):
We will certainly have time, sir. And so Matt and Sanjay, why don't we start with AI ready? Spartans AI is ubiquitous and pervasive in the world these days. What do we mean by AI ready Spartans?
Matt Elliott (08:34):
Sure. So let's start off with the three big pillars that we worked with. The first one was prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow. The second one was to connect them with great opportunities, mainly here in the state. And then the third was how do we help bring our research thinking and resources to catalyze the state's economy? So the AI Ready Spartans piece really drives towards preparing students for the jobs of the future. And the insights that we really came down with as a council, and also Sanjay and I talked a lot about was the fact that almost every job has a technology component to it these days. In fact, 89% of jobs already have a technology component to them. So we needed to make sure that all of our students have a very deep competency in technology regardless of what college they're in right now.
(09:21):
The technology that matters most obviously is ai. And what we heard very loud and clear from our council members was there's a gap currently behind the promise of AI or between the promise of AI and where skill sets actually sit, not just with college students, but with everyone. So that was an obvious place that we could train on it, and I'm thrilled with where we're landing. What we're going to do is make sure that 100% of our students graduate with some competency in AI and technology. We're going to start off with some general programming and then create pathways for each of those students in their college to follow to make sure that they graduate with a good deep understanding of how to use AI in their space. And we're going to also work with third parties like our Apple Partnership to help bring that to life for those students who want to do it. So the way that we're going to make sure that everything that we do in AI is connected to what's informed by industry is that we're right now beginning to form an AI advisory board, which will help us stay current on the AI issue of the day. So that's the first one. They're starting with this ai, Spartans and Sanjay, you and I have had lots of conversations around this, anything you'd add there?
Sanjay Gupta (10:32):
Yeah, the thing about AI and digital literacy competency is the terminology that is being used everywhere. We were very intentional about saying we are going to focus on competency. So I want to double click on that. This is, and it is not just ai, but digital competency. AI being the current tool of the trade, right? This may or may not last forever. There might be something else that comes up, but it is digital competency. We are in a digital world whether we like it or not. And the notion that there is not just awareness or literacy or fluency, but competency implies that our students are going to be able to actually use this skillset, this knowledge base in whichever job or occupation they're in, whatever organization they're a part of. That was really important to us. And it came through very clearly from the green and white council members as well, talking in terms of this digital competency. And so really good place that we are in. And I think the aperture around what can be done is really wide, but our eye sights are set on a goal and an ambition that is laudable if we can deliver for everybody.
Russ White (11:56):
And what about career connected Spartans?
Matt Elliott (11:59):
One of the things we heard loud and clear from the council was that MSU students have a reputation for being very well prepared academically and in many cases ready because they've got some career experience. But that was a bit uneven. And by the way, that's not a unique observation about just MSU students. A lot of students are that way. And so what we wanted to do is try to narrow that gap, make sure that everybody, every one of our students has some real world experience that connects learning to life basically. And so one of the things we wanted to do was make sure that our students were getting exposure to careers earlier. So we call that the explore pillar of career connected, meaning we're going to give opportunities for students to explore what a career path might look like, and they're going to do that by building relationships and mentoring and job shadowing, things like that.
(12:48):
And then we will need to provide them with some real experience so a student can walk into a job having the context of what it's like to work actually in a professional multi-generational environment. And so that is not only providing more access to things like internships, but things like micro internships, case competitions and capstones. And there are a lot of digital tools now that are just coming into being and being used more widely by universities across the country that we want to tap into. The other thing that we want to do is make sure that our students actually show their work. So for example, if you spend time doing work like my son did where he worked here on campus for two years, he actually was a manager. And by putting that on his resume, that mattered. And so what we're doing is creating something called the Spartan Experience record. It already exists, but we're going to scale it up. So think of it as their non-academic transcript. So that will be, those are the key elements of career connected. And a lot of it was pioneered by my wingman here who did a lot of these things inside of the Broad College. And what we're going to try to do is take best practices from say broad and engineering and other places and scale them across the university.
Sanjay Gupta (14:01):
Really well said. And he's covered all of the ground. The one context I'll add to this from the conversations we had with the council members, one of the council members for example, told us that I really don't care about the official academic transcript of the student. What I want to know is what else did they do during their time at MSU? And so the career connected Spartan may come across as being very narrow in some sense, but really is very broad. What we are trying to think about is how best do we prepare the students to be ready day one, when they join an organization such that they understand how work is done, who do they report to, how do they behave, all of those kinds of things. And this notion is also tied to something that we talked about a lot, and that is experiential learning.
(14:56):
I know that is really important to Kevin, and we want to bring this alive for the entire campus. That's the goal. So right now, it is being done really well in some disciplines, in some sphere. So Matt mentioned the broad college and engineering and some of the other college comm arts. They do a really good job on experiential learning, but it is not evenly handled across the campus. And what we want to be able to do is 100% of our students are developed and prepared in that way. We talk about learning by doing. That's a common way to describe how best knowledge will be retained, how best skills will be owned by the individual. It is by doing. And so that's the underlying message in this career connected Spartans. And we are fortunate to draw on over 500,000 Spartan alumni to be able to help us make this a reality. So even though we are 50,000 strong on campus, we have 10 x that number that are outside the campus. And so that's the power that we hope to be able to leverage in order to deliver on this career connected Spartans promise.
Russ White (16:13):
And the third signature initiative from the Green and White Council, a Spartan catalyst. What is a Spartan catalyst? Sanjay?
Sanjay Gupta (16:20):
True. So for this, let me just first mention that Kevin had two main goals for the green and white council, and that is amplifying MSUs role in workforce development and economic development. The first two that we just talked about, AI competent, digitally competent Spartans that are ready for that career, connected Spartans, those if you will, are concerned about the workforce development aspect of it. So now if you think about economic development, the best, the most valuable asset that MSU has is our intellectual capital and the physical resources that we have in the form of labs and research facilities and so on, that many of businesses and organizations can only dream about, right? They don't have that investment made. How do we leverage these assets, both the intellectual and the physical assets in order to spur innovation in Michigan? That's the catalyst idea that we can catalyze the research and innovation in the economy by leveraging the assets that are most valuable.
(17:38):
And that reside here at MSU. And there we discussed how would we go about this? And the approach was more along the lines of thinking, well, what are the biggest pain points of businesses and organizations that we, with our expertise, our intellectual pros can help solve, ease that burden? So we started out by saying, okay, let's talk about what are the major sectors of Michigan's economy? And those are not surprising. It'll roll off everybody's tongues. I mean manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, maybe tourism. We focused on three because Kevin has been very focused on saying, few bold, but we need to work. I think we are fortunate that we've landed on three really promising initiatives. So the Spartan catalyst is probably the one that can make the biggest difference if we can get it right and if we can get enough engagement with our corporate bodies, because at the end of the day, what is it that will make Michigan succeed and prosper is if it becomes a hub for talent for innovation, then we are going to have the economic activity that we want in here.
(18:59):
We are starting out by saying, let's try to narrow down by providing a real good test of a value proposition that is co-created with the help of our corporate partners. And we are able to actually present a solution as to how that pain point can be removed. So we are working on that. We've identified an area where we have a lot of expertise, but this is not something that we identified council members brought that up again and again, that what was the biggest pain point was around supply chains. And we have the world leading supply chain program within business where we have great expertise in the college of engineering, in the college of Nat Sci. They are all able to think in terms of supply chains from different perspectives. And that's the team that is working on as well as in agriculture. So we have a team of faculty that are working on presenting this proposal. It has already been presented to a couple of our partners on the green and white council. And we are excited to see how we are able to specifically talk about a research problem that we can solve with our assets at MSU.
Matt Elliott (20:18):
There's another element to the economic development piece, and that is the innovation economy. So when you look at what drives income growth, what drives in a lot of cases population growth, especially in attracting, in retaining the best talent, the innovation economy plays a huge role. Michigan State plays a huge role in the innovation economy in the state of Michigan through the research foundation, through partnerships with Henry Ford, through the work that we do in Grand Rapids, for example, in the medical mile. All of that research is really important. So the wrapper that is going to go around this innovative and resilient supply chain work will include startups and other work to help enable all those supply chains be more effective. Supply chain sounds a little abstract to a lot of people, but when you think what really matters to a farmer is getting their product to market, when you think about what a manufacturer cares about, is coordinating a global supply chain so that we can manufacture things and then ship. So the supply chain is the connective tissue between all of it. And that's why it's so important for us to start in a position of strength that really matters for the state and build out from there. And that's what we're going to do.
Russ White (21:27):
Well, Kevin, you must have some thoughts after hearing Sanjay and Matt elaborate on these signature initiatives. What are you thinking at the moment?
Kevin Guskiewicz (21:34):
Yeah, I think they've done a great job of talking about the way in which we landed on these three signature initiatives. I believe that Michigan State University is Michigan's state University, as you've heard me say, needs to be the anchor institution in the state for driving the economy. And I think we can do that. We're doing it already in some ways, but I think this is going to better prepare our newer graduates to participate in that endeavor. It's going to help us become a talent attractor, as I like to say, a talent magnet, to have people want to come and study here, but then land their first job in the state of Michigan. 63 to 65% of our graduates already do start their careers here. And that's much higher than any other, well, lemme just say it's much higher than an institution down the road from here in terms of placing our graduates in careers, starting their careers here in state.
(22:33):
And I think that if you think about metrics, which I do often is I do a lot of benchmarking. How do we compare against our peer institutions, not just in the Big Ten, but among our other AAU partners. Employability is one that Michigan State ranks eighth in the country among all universities for employability ranking. The came out in the Times higher education rankings about nine months ago. And so this is just going to continue to, I think, showcase the incredible talent of our students and showing how they are ready for the careers of the future.
Russ White (23:14):
Spartans will and they do.
Kevin Guskiewicz (23:16):
Absolutely.
Russ White (23:17):
How do you envision the initiatives being implemented now across campus over the coming weeks, months, and even years?
Kevin Guskiewicz (23:23):
I mean, I'll just take a quick stab at, I mean, I think that we have got to engage, I think as Sanjay said, some of those departments and colleges that are just primed and ready and to engage, we've got to think about modernizing the curriculum, which is part of this. I already have a committee that's working on modernizing the general education curriculum. I talk often about a great curriculum is when a student comes to Michigan State, I want them to get their, it's about the breadth across the disciplines. We still offer up a liberal arts education, general education curriculum where students are exposed to the social sciences and natural sciences, the arts and humanities through their electives. And then there's depth within their chosen disciplines. The majority of our students at Michigan State double major or they have a major and a minor. That's really important. So that's the depth part. And then the third piece that only until probably the last decade, I would say that higher regimen talking about the practice component. So it's breadth, depth practice. The practice is this work-based learning, experiential learning that happens in directed research opportunities, internship opportunities, study abroad, service learning. Michigan State leads in both study abroad and in service learning. So this is this practice piece that both Matt and Sanjay have talked about, I think is what'll set us apart and best prepare our graduates.
Sanjay Gupta (24:54):
I'll add one perspective around this, and this is I think a perspective that Kevin shared early on. I've heard him talk about this and that is that we are able to do at a scale that nobody else has been able to do what we've just described. So when you talk about a 50,000 student body and we have these initiatives where the goal is set at 100% of our students will go through this, that is an ambitious task. It happens in pockets in a variety of institutions for sure. But to be able to do it at scale and with a quality that we can all be proud of, that is also uniquely MSU uniquely Spartan. I think that is what is going to set us apart in this competitive landscape for higher education.
Matt Elliott (25:49):
Mobilizing this in the business community is going to be fantastic because there's a hunger for this kind of talent. I mean, the number one issue that all business owners face and all business leaders face is how do I attract and retain the best people? It's the people that are really the differentiator. So being able to train and deliver human capital, if you think of it that way, is important. And then to Kevin's point around being Michigan's state University, being able to deliver for the economy of the state of Michigan and do it at scale is something that we're uniquely positioned to do. The thing that we have to do to make that happen both on campus and off, is work across functions, work across regions, work across industries. And if we can do that really united by this vision of Spartan's will, that's what's going to make a difference for us. And the good news is, is that we've had astonishingly high engagement both from among the council. They've given Sanjay and I a lot of their time. We figured it out the other day. I think we've done 40 one-on-ones, something like that easily over the last few months.
(26:54):
But also I've been really impressed with the engagement on campus and really grateful for that. The number of department heads of deans of colleges who have leaned all the way in, I've been really impressed by, because in corporate America, very often you'll see a situation where, hey, you're in my sandbox, and this has been the exact opposite. People have been inviting us into the sandbox, or how do I make my sandbox more available? And that is fantastic. So I'm really excited. This is the easy work's done now. We've done all the thinking and now we're going to start the doing, and that'll be a lot of fun.
Russ White (27:31):
So the council's work is really not finished, then you'll continue at least advising, right?
SAnjay Gupta (27:36):
Absolutely. I mean, we have to continue this work till such time as it gains enough momentum on its own that it becomes repetitious. Because unless and until that happens, it can't be just once and done. It needs to repeat for all subsequent generations of Spartans as well. So in that sense, yes, we are going to need the council's input support on an ongoing basis, what kind of work they end up doing and who else we include in the council's initiatives. That remains to be seen. And we'll certainly think through that, expand, have this ripple effect, but expand out into these concentric circles that bring in more and more influencers to help us deliver on this promise.
Russ White (28:26):
So let me just ask each of you as we close sort of some key takeaways. What would you like those joining our conversation to really take away from it?
Kevin Guskiewicz (28:34):
Well, I'll just say that, and I'll give sort of a short story here, but I was at a Business Leaders of Michigan meeting, I think Matt Elliot was there by my side at this meeting, in fact, last November. And Bill Ford, who serves as executive chairman of Ford Motor, was on a panel discussion doing a little q and a, and he was asked a question about ai. And he said, well, I'll tell you, half of my workforce at Ford Motor is concerned about losing their jobs because of ai. And he said, my response to that was that it's only those who will choose not to retool themselves who will be at risk for losing their job. And he looked at me and he said, we're counting on the Michigan States of the world to make sure that we're able to do that and to retool. And I looked at him and I said, you can count on me and Michigan State because it's not just our new engineering digital innovation center that's going to help to sort of modernize the way in which we train engineers of the future and those that work in those spaces. But it's through the work we're going to do with the Green and White Council, which was then later launched about, really about six months later, October the 21st, I remember the day.
(29:50):
And I think those are two examples of how Michigan State's going to continue to lead in this space.
Russ White (29:55):
Matt, final thoughts?
Matt Elliott (29:56):
Well, as not only a business leader but also a former Spartan parent, my wife and I, our oldest son went here. One of the things you think about as a parent and any college student is what is the value of this experience going to bring me? And I feel like we've really leaned into that question. We've leaned into that question by making sure that our students are going to be prepared for those jobs of the future, that they're going to have the opportunity to be connected to an employer or at least have a greater level of employability. And so we're answering that question. The other one as a business leader that I care a lot about is, all right, how do we drive growth for the state of Michigan? Population growth, economic growth, placemaking, all of that. And I feel like we're doing our part by leveraging our resources and our unique strengths and talents to be able to make that happen. So I feel like we've leaned into the big questions that the state of Michigan has, and as I said earlier, we're just getting started and I'm really looking forward to seeing how we get turns on this flywheel until these things become habit and we get escape velocity.
Sanjay Gupta (31:00):
I feel that aligning education and industry is the key to not only Michigan's future, but the nation's future. And the green and white council represents a wonderful example of how this is happening right here at MSU. It can become an exemplar for many other institutions to follow, and I invite all of our Michigan employers but beyond to join us in this effort by providing our students rich opportunities so that they can learn. By doing that, these employers can also help us think about what it is that we need to do to prepare our students better for the jobs of the future.
Russ White (31:49):
Well, thank you all three of you for this thoughtful and important conversation. We've been discussing the signature initiatives in MSU President, Kevin Guskiewicz's signature Initiative, the Green and White Council, and you can find out much more by visiting president.msu.edu. Also, co-chairs Matt Elliot and Sanjay Gupta have joined us on the conversation. And I'm Russ White. This is MSU Today,
Speaker 5 (32:14):
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