Students have returned to Michigan State University’s campus for fall classes, and President Kevin Guskiewicz is starting his second full year leading the school. He says his goal over the next two semesters is to amplify MSU's existing excellence.
"This is a special place with incredibly talented and curious students, world-class faculty, some of the most dedicated staff I've ever seen and an alumni base that is just passionately in love with Michigan State University."
Part of that includes working with two big new hires this year: Athletic Director J Batt and Provost Laura Lee McIntyre.
"They're visionary, and they can help us focus on where we can have impact and maintain our status as a leading global public research university," Guskiewicz said.
He says he also wants to grow talent in Michigan and work to make sure students who study at MSU get jobs in the state and stay here. Guskiewicz cites the newly-formed Green and White Council which is made up of statewide business leaders to propel future job growth.
"We are thinking about jobs and careers of the future that don't even yet exist today, and how we can have new industries be attracted to the state of Michigan."
Citing financial pressures, rising health care costs and inflation, the university also mandated 9% budget cuts across all departments this year, leading to layoffs across the school. Guskiewicz called those cuts "painful," but that he didn't expect further belt-tightening measures for now.
Guskewicz does plan to return to Capitol Hill to continue lobbying against federal cuts to research funding for universities like MSU. In the past, he says he's used examples of what Michigan State University faculty and students have developed using federal support, like the discovery in the 1960s of how the chemical compound cisplatin could be used to fight cancer, to communicate the importance of ongoing funding.
"If you think about higher education as an industry, there's probably no other industry that we could say that we own, the U.S. owns, and that is higher education," he said.
"People from all over the world want to come and study in our in our great universities, and so we've got to maintain that competitive advantage and new discoveries so that we can lead as a nation."
On the topic of international students, Guskiewicz says he plans to take a wait-and-see approach to a recently announced plan from the Trump administration to limit stays by scholars from other countries to the U.S. to a 4-year maximum.
"Fortunately, we haven't seen a significant decline in the number of international students this year, as we've seen at some of our peer institutions. But I hope there will be opportunities for them to stay beyond the four years that they're here or five years whatever it takes, because I do think that they have opportunities to contribute to society," Guskiewicz said.
Interview Highlights
On Michigan's lagging K-12 test scores
When we recruit top talent, be it a faculty member or staff member, a center institute director, they have to have to be excited about coming not just to Michigan State University but to this community. And so that's one of the reasons why our new partnership that we have, our Greater Lansing partners. A roadmap that we're building out is going to be focused on that. We have one of the best colleges of education in the country right here at Michigan State. And so, I'm challenging our dean there and the faculty to think about how can we have impact and make sure that we help do everything that we can to help get those test scores up.
On university budget cuts
I don't anticipate the need for additional cuts beyond what we've already said for next year. It was painful to see that we had to have some layoffs as a part of this, and some programs merging and others perhaps eliminated. But we're staying true to our values. We're staying true to what we know we do really well and, and we want to try to be able to put more resource toward those as we hear what the needs of the community and the needs of our students.
On his goals for this academic year
There's so much excellence here, and I think it's we all have a responsibility to try to amplify, to try to close that reputational gap that should should not exist here, and I think we are closing it already, because this is a special place with incredibly talented and curious students, world-class faculty, some of the most dedicated staff I've ever seen and an alumni base that is just passionately in love with Michigan State University. And I see that and feel it every day. So, let's keep amplifying the excellence.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: Students have returned to Michigan State University’s campus for fall classes, and President Kevin Guskiewicz is starting his second full year leading the school.
I’m here with him now to talk about changes at MSU, challenges the school is facing and what’s new for the university. Thank you for joining me.
Kevin Guskiewicz: Thanks for having me, Sophia.
Saliby: We last sat down in April of last year, and you talked about how MSU had a reputational gap, and that one of your goals as president was to amplify the university's excellence. Where do you think you've made progress on that goal?
Guskiewicz: Well, first of all, we're excited now for three consecutive years to have enrollment on the first day of classes in the fall over 51,000 strong, and this is an incredible incoming class. I've had the chance to spend time at Welcome Back Week events with them, new student convocation and then first day of classes out the Sparty Statue, out at Beaumont Tower, getting to meet them. So, they're incredible.
I think it's being able to attract top talent to MSU. That's been one of my goals. We have our new Williams Scholars Program, the first time in the history of the university, this prestigious, merit-based scholarship program is one of many initiatives that we've put in place.
Our new Green and White Council that we launched back in April has brought together 17 business leaders across Michigan to help us better understand the workforce demands today that didn't exist a decade ago, and so we're going to be better preparing our graduates to land jobs.
Even though we were recently, as you probably know, named among the nation's top eight public institutions for employability, probably no better metric than that, as we think about the scrutiny that higher education has been under of late. So, we're making a lot of progress. Those are just a few of the things I'm excited about as we move forward.
Saliby: Speaking of new things, you made two big hires this year, with J Batt as athletic director and Laura Lee McIntyre as provost. How do they fit into your vision for MSU's future?
Guskiewicz: Well, these are individuals with a lot of credibility that they bring. They are high energy, very positive energy, I would say, and individuals that are, as I've described, them, both J Batt and Laura Lee McIntyre as our new provost, as individuals that can turn challenges into opportunities.
That's what I was looking for. I want a leadership team that thinks strategically. They're visionary, and they can help us focus on where we can have impact and maintain our status as a leading global public research university. So, I couldn't be happier with them, having just joined the team within the last few months.
Saliby: When we talked during move-in a few weeks ago, you brought up MSU's refreshed strategic plan, and a major priority being growing talent in Michigan, that leads into the whole Green and White Council as well. Why do you think MSU students, or some MSU students, might not be staying in the state after they graduate?
Guskiewicz: Well, I think that there are a number of reasons. The governor's report on Growing Michigan Together initiative a few years ago identified some of the challenges. We have to be sure that schools in Michigan, K-12 are strong, and so that students that graduate from here, they want to start a career here and have their families here in a region where their families can thrive. So, I think we have a responsibility as one of the premiere universities in the nation, but certainly here in Michigan, to be a part of building that culture.
So, we want to be sure that we are thinking about jobs and careers of the future that don't even yet exist today, and how we can have new industries be attracted to the state of Michigan. And I want Michigan State University to be sort of an anchor institution for driving the economy. And so, a lot of the efforts that we're putting forth as we think about our new Engineering and Digital Innovation Center, which we're excited about, and we're building out. That will be a talent magnet that will then in turn help us to activate talent.
Saliby: Michigan has some lagging test scores at the K-12 level when it comes to reading and math. Does that worry you as the leader of a higher education institution, you know, maybe not next year, but 10-15 years down the line about who's going to be coming to the university and how prepared they are for this type of study?
Guskiewicz: It does. And as I said, when we recruit top talent, be it a faculty member or staff member, a center institute director, they have to have to be excited about coming not just to Michigan State University but to this community. And so that's one of the reasons why our new partnership that we have, our Greater Lansing partners. A roadmap that we're building out is going to be focused on that.
We have one of the best colleges of education in the country right here at Michigan State. And so, I'm challenging our dean there and the faculty to think about how can we have impact and make sure that we help do everything that we can to help get those test scores up.
Saliby: You mandated 9% budget cuts across the entire university this year, citing financial pressures, inflation, rising health care costs. Do you anticipate further cuts in job losses across the school?
Guskiewicz: So, we were very strategic about how we were going to put budget reductions in place. We involved a lot of the campus community in making these difficult decisions, and we mapped this out over two years. So this year, we put in place a 6% budget reduction and announced at the same time a 3% for next year. Some units chose to take more of that cut this year so that they could hit a reset right now and know how they're going to move forward. Others will take that additional 3% next year.
I don't anticipate the need for additional cuts beyond what we've already said for next year. It was painful to see that we had to have some layoffs as a part of this, and some programs merging and others perhaps eliminated. But we're staying true to our values. We're staying true to what we know we do really well and, and we want to try to be able to put more resource toward those as we hear what the needs of the community and the needs of our students.
Saliby: Keeping on the topic of budget, you've been on Capitol Hill this year lobbying against federal budget cuts for research funding. Do you find the attitude among lawmakers and policymakers has changed when it comes to putting money towards universities like MSU?
Guskiewicz: One of our jobs as a university leader, and I know many of my colleagues, other presidents and chancellors around the country have been on Capitol Hill as well, it's about educating. And I've had very constructive meetings with our Michigan congressional leaders as they've invited me in to talk about this. I'll be doing this again in a few weeks and helping to educate them and talking about the important partnership between America's leading research universities of which Michigan State is one of those, and the way in which we, when we partner with the federal government, we are, in fact, maintaining our competitiveness as a nation.
If you think about higher education as an industry, there's probably no other industry that we could say that we own, the U.S. owns, and that is higher education. People from all over the world want to come and study in our in our great universities, and so we've got to maintain that competitive advantage and new discoveries so that we can lead as a nation.
Saliby: Is there a new approach you might be taking with how you communicate this compared to how maybe you talked to legislators two years ago, or even when you were chancellor at UNC?
Guskiewicz: I give examples, and I talk about how cisplatin was discovered here at MSU in a chemistry laboratory. Cisplatin is still used today in most chemotherapy drugs, and it only has been perfected to be in the ways in which it can do this because of the partnership with the federal government, whenever NIH came in and said, "We're going to contribute to that research."
And as a result, hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved since the early to mid '60s when it was developed. We just have to continue to provide those examples, and I have found that our congressional leaders listen to that, and I do think that we're making progress.
Saliby: Many universities have faced federal pressure to change policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in order to maintain funding.
I noticed in this new strategic plan, a DEI priority has been shifted to be called Access, Opportunity and Excellence, and I will say the goals themselves within the plan are generally the same just with these different terms. So, what went into the decision-making process for that shift?
Guskiewicz: A lot of thought and work went into that across the committee that was working on the cross-cutting theme of building community together, and that is one of the cross-cutting themes as you look closely, I'm calling it our "green print." It's one figure that's in that plan that I really like. And I'm referring to it as a green print because it takes those six, what I think were viewed as isolated priorities in the original plan from four years ago, and it links them, two or three at a time, building community together.
And I think it better defines what it is that we are trying to do to provide access to as many students who can come to Michigan State and thrive while they're here, make sure we've got the success initiatives in place for them to become leaders and to go on to do great things when they graduate. So, I'm pleased with where we are, and I think it better defines exactly what it is that we're aiming for.
Saliby: The Trump administration has said it wants to limit the amount of time foreign students can stay in the U.S. to four years. How would that impact campus? Or master's students, doctoral students who plan to stay here a lot longer?
Guskiewicz: Sure. I mean, we're proud of the fact that we bring a lot of international students here. The curriculum comes to life when the different lived experiences of students from all over the world and from different lived experiences and backgrounds can help that curriculum come to life.
And fortunately, we haven't seen a significant decline in the number of international students this year, as we've seen at some of our peer institutions. But I hope there will be opportunities for them to stay beyond the four years that they're here or five years, whatever it takes, because I do think that they have opportunities to contribute to society, broadly speaking. And so, we'll see.
Saliby: How do you plan to protect international students at MSU? As, you know, we've seen earlier this summer, potential for their visa statuses to kind of shift at a moment's notice.
Guskiewicz: Our international studies programs is one of the best in the country, as I've said, and I've learned in these 18 months I've been here, we had a dean of International Studies back in the early '60s. Most institutions hadn't started putting programming in place and leadership around study abroad and international studies until the mid '80s.
So, because of that, we have a strong foundation, and that team has worked really hard over the past year to make sure that our students that have been admitted can get here, can have the resources that they need and can thrive while they're here. And I am optimistic that we'll be able to continue that trajectory.
Saliby: To end our conversation, do you have a word or theme you want to define this upcoming academic year on campus?
Guskiewicz: Amplify the excellence. We started with that, and there's so much excellence here, and I think it's we all have a responsibility to try to amplify, to try to close that reputational gap that should should not exist here, and I think we are closing it already, because this is a special place with incredibly talented and curious students, world-class faculty, some of the most dedicated staff I've ever seen and an alumni base that is just passionately in love with Michigan State University. And I see that and feel it every day. So, let's keep amplifying the excellence.
Saliby: Kevin Guskiewicz is Michigan State University's president. Thank you for joining us.
Guskiewicz: Thanks so much, Sophia.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
