EAST LANSING, MI (WTVB) – — Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz is leaving the university to become the 16th president of Clemson University, officials from both institutions confirmed on Wednesday.
The announcement came during a morning meeting of the Clemson University Board of Trustees, where members voted unanimously to hire Guskiewicz.
His abrupt departure comes just ten days after the MSU Board of Trustees voted 6-1 in a special meeting to double his base salary to $2 million annually in a desperate, preventative effort to shield him from being poached by outside universities.
In a bittersweet farewell letter distributed to the MSU campus community on Wednesday morning, Guskiewicz explicitly cited governance fatigue and persistent, public division within the Board of Trustees as the driving forces behind his exit.
He explained that the continuous inner turmoil created an “unsustainable situation” that ultimately compromised his health, though he will remain in his role for several weeks to assist with a smooth leadership transition. Having only stepped into his role in March 2024 after a tenure as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Guskiewicz’s exit forces MSU back to the drawing board to search for its seventh university leader in just eight years.
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