Michigan State University’s newest president Kevin Guskiewicz is coming to East Lansing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He’s served as chancellor of the school for nearly five years but had been a longtime faculty member before that.
WKAR's Sophia Saliby spoke with Liz Schlemmer, an education reporter at WUNC in Chapel Hill who has covered Guskiewicz’s tenure at the school.
Interview Highlights
On Guskiewicz's background at UNC-Chapel Hill
Chancellor Guskiewicz has been at UNC-Chapel Hill for 28 years. He actually started off as an assistant professor coming from the Department of Exercise and Sports Science. He's also a researcher on concussion research and received a MacArthur Genius Grant for that. And then he was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, then he became the interim chancellor, and then from there was picked to be the chancellor of the university.
On his leadership style
I think that he has been known as a listener and as a very diplomatic person. And being the chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill is a very difficult job. Some would say nearly impossible because he is listening to students and faculty and he's dealing with a very partisan environment with the University's Board of Trustees and the UNC system's Board of Governors being political appointees, and sometimes being at odds with the faculty on major issues.
On leaving North Carolina
It'll be interesting to see how that transfers to a new environment and one that he does not come from initially. You know, he came out of this faculty. He has been at UNC-Chapel Hill since 1995, and I think has had that time to build all those roots in this community.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: Michigan State University’s newest president Kevin Guskiewicz is coming to East Lansing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He’s served as chancellor of the school for nearly five years but had been a longtime faculty member before that.
Liz Schlemmer is an education reporter at WUNC in Chapel Hill who has covered Guskiewicz’s tenure at the school. She joins me now. Thank you for being here.
Liz Schlemmer: Thanks for having me.
Saliby: Can you tell us more about who Guskiewicz is and his background at UNC?
Schlemmer: Chancellor Guskiewicz has been at UNC-Chapel Hill for 28 years. He actually started off as an assistant professor coming from the Department of Exercise and Sports Science. He's also a researcher on concussion research and received a MacArthur Genius Grant for that. And then he was the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, then he became the interim chancellor, and then from there was picked to be the chancellor of the university.
Saliby: What has his leadership style been like in his role as chancellor?
I think that he has been known as a listener and as a very diplomatic person.
Schlemmer: I think back to when he was first chosen to be chancellor, and members of the search committee spoke at that welcoming ceremony and talked about how he was such a great listener and that's why they liked him, that was what they valued in him as a candidate. And I think that he has been known as a listener and as a very diplomatic person.
And being the chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill is a very difficult job. Some would say nearly impossible because he is listening to students and faculty and he's dealing with a very partisan environment with the University's Board of Trustees and the UNC system's Board of Governors being political appointees, and sometimes being at odds with the faculty on major issues.
Saliby: What would you say he's been most celebrated for by the campus community?
Schlemmer: Again, I'd say I think for that diplomacy and for listening to students and listening to faculty. He's also had a number of major contributions, I think, have been overshadowed by many of the controversies.
Looking at his statement to the university community, he talks about how the university is still being ranked very high by U.S. News and World Report. They had a major fundraising campaign that was more than $5 billion. He's always been a champion for research at the university. Those are some of the accomplishments that he highlighted in his kind of farewell email to the community.
He was negotiating things, maybe less publicly, maybe a little bit more behind closed doors. but the outcomes were that he didn't necessarily win a lot of those fights.
Saliby: You mentioned controversies. Some of his decisions have not always been well received. And the first ones that I've heard are about during the COVID-19 pandemic and the country's racial reckoning in 2020. But I'm sure you might have some more to share, but can you talk more about his reputation among those decisions?
Schlemmer: Chancellor Guskiewicz started this position right after the university system's Board of Governors brokered a deal to give a Confederate statue to a pro-Confederate group along with $2.5 million of the university's own money. So, that's just how he had to start. I remember him being at a faculty meeting and having to describe that, kind of defend that and explain that he was not involved in that.
The pandemic has been a really big issue. UNC-Chapel Hill had to send students home and close campus because the infection rates were so high. And the former faculty chair Mimi Chapman recently said in an opinion piece at NC Newsline that he "begged" the UNC system to reduce the number of students that were in the dorms, and then had to beg them to close the campus.
I think there are all of these issues where he was negotiating things, maybe less publicly, maybe a little bit more behind closed doors. But the outcomes were that he didn't necessarily win a lot of those fights. And so, the university has made decisions or there have been outcomes for students and faculty that have been really based on decisions by either the university's Board of Trustees or the UNC system's Board of Governors who are political appointees.
The Nikole Hannah-Jones controversy is another example where the former faculty chair says that Guskiewicz actually negotiated to help get Nikole Hannah-Jones a tenure vote. In the end, she decided not to come to UNC-Chapel Hill because there was so many obstacles to getting that tenure vote that would have been more pro forma to have in the start. So, I think there are all these examples where he was negotiating things less publicly but he lost those battles.
It'll be interesting to see how that transfers to a new environment and one that he does not come from initially. You know, he came out of this faculty. He has been at UNC-Chapel Hill since 1995, and I think has had that time to build all those roots in this community.
Saliby: I spoke to him last week andhe described himself as an "inclusive servant leader." Do you think most members of the UNC-Chapel Hill campus community would agree with that description?
Schlemmer: I think that many members of the UNC-Chapel Hill community would agree with that. And we can see that in the comments that folks have made since he announced that he's leaving. The current chair of the UNC faculty Beth Moracco told WUNC that she has received many messages from faculty praising Guskiewicz's steady leadership:
Beth Moracco: Steady leadership, particularly during a period of many crises and upheaval and the fact that he has been a steady and thoughtful leader during that process, the fact that he has been open to differing points of view that he's kept the lines of communication open has been much appreciated as well.
Schlemmer: WUNC also heard from student body President Chris Everett about his thoughts on how Chancellor Guskiewicz is viewed:
Chris Everett: Overall, I would say that Chancellor Guskiewicz is very, very loved. I mean, he's dedicated so much of his life and professional career to Carolina, even as a professor and just other things. So, I think I will say that it also was a very interesting experience for me, because kind of in this position, I am privy to a lot different conversations and a lot of different things.
And leading a university is very, very difficult, especially one like Carolina when we are, one, in a battleground state and two, as the flagship university in many ways, partisan politics are always at play. And so, the job of the chancellor is very, very, very complex. So, I will say, overwhelmingly, there's more support for Chancellor Guskiewicz than anything.
Schlemmer: And as you hear from the student body president, I mean, he really points out the partisan atmosphere that Chancellor Guskiewicz has experienced in his tenure at UNC-Chapel Hill. And so, it'll be interesting to see how that transfers to a new environment and one that he does not come from initially.
You know, he came out of this faculty. He has been at UNC-Chapel Hill since 1995, and I think has had that time to build all those roots in this community.
Saliby: Liz Schlemmer covers education at WUNC. Thank you for joining me.
Schlemmer: Thank you.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
