The future of two of the nation’s highest-profile public universities, both with recent histories of leadership turmoil, now hinge on one person’s decision.
If Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill decides to take the presidency at Michigan State University, where he is the sole finalist, he will move from a governance structure colored by partisan political conflict to one marked by its own brand of toxicity.
Thanks to tensions with the board, Guskiewicz has been looking for an escape from his current job for several months, three current or former trustees from the two institutions told The Chronicle. The sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media about the issue.
Guskiewicz and the University of North Carolina system leadership have informally agreed that he will move on before or at the end of this academic year, those sources said. Guskiewicz and UNC did not respond to requests for comment.
Michigan State has repeatedly said it wants to hire a president by Thanksgiving. As of Tuesday afternoon, no meeting to make that hire had been scheduled. Michigan law requires such a vote to be conducted in public, although interviews can happen behind closed doors. Board members could not be reached for comment. An MSU spokesman told The Chronicle on Tuesday morning that there were no updates on the search.
Guskiewicz said last week that he was carefully weighing the Michigan State job after various media reports named him the sole remaining finalist. Another finalist, President Taylor Eighmy of the University of Texas at San Antonio, dropped out shortly after MSU’s student newspaper sent messages to him seeking comment on his candidacy for the job, the newspaper reported.
In a statement issued last week, Guskiewicz said he was “focused” on serving Chapel Hill. “Through the years,” he added, “a variety of professional opportunities have been presented to me. My family and I must weigh each one, and we are weighing this one.”
Michigan State has been through two permanent presidents and three interim presidents since the Larry Nassar scandal erupted into public view in 2017. Lou Anna K. Simon was forced from her 13-year presidency over her handling of the Nassar case. Interim President John Engler was then forced out after he made derogatory comments about the Nassar survivors.
The next permanent president, Samuel L. Stanley Jr., lasted three years before departing early, saying he had lost confidence in the board. Teresa K. Woodruff, the current interim president, was seen as a possible successor to Stanley but eventually said she wouldn’t seek the presidency. Board members have also fought among themselves, including in a recent public letter in which one board member called for the board chairwoman to either resign or be removed from office.
At UNC, Guskiewicz has been involved in battles with his board, including the firestorm over the botched hiring of Nikole Hannah-Jones, but has held onto his post amid persistent rumors that the state’s Republican power brokers would like to see a different leader in Chapel Hill.
In 2022, the American Association of University Professors released a report on political meddling of boards that was particularly harsh in its look at UNC.
The report called out “overreach by the board of governors and boards of trustees into specific campus operations,” and “outright disregard for principles of academic governance by campus and system leadership.” The report also said the amount of such meddling and the intensity, along with “constant mismanagement” by the system and campus boards, is “unique to UNC.”