MSU President leaving for Clemson amid contention among trustees, just after salary increase

Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz is leaving the university to take the helm at Clemson University in South Carolina. Clemson’s Board of Trustees voted Guskiewicz into the position at a meeting on Wednesday morning, which will make him the university’s 16th president. 

Guskiewicz made it official during a livestreamed meeting of the Clemson University trustees.

“I am deeply honored and incredibly grateful to accept the opportunity to serve as Clemson University’s 16th president. To be entrusted with leading a university as respected, ambitious, and beloved as Clemson is both humbling and inspiring, and over the course of my career in higher education, I have always believed that universities have the power and responsibility to transform lives and to shape the future of communities, locally, nationally, and abroad,” Guskiewicz told the Clemson board after accepting the offer.

He also addressed his time at MSU, saying he “inherited both significant challenges and extraordinary opportunities” and had been focused on “rebuilding trust, strengthening transparency,” as well as reaffirming the university’s commitment to students, faculty, and the people of Michigan.

“And during that time, we achieved the most successful years of philanthropic giving in the university’s history, and we will do that at Clemson,” he said.

Guskiewicz’s departure comes just days after his contract with Michigan State was extended through 2031 and his salary was doubled to $2 million — a move that the State News reported was “preventative in nature” and “essential to ensuring Guskiewicz remained at the university,” according to board members, as he was being “aggressively pursued” by other universities. 

Guskiewicz’s departure also comes amid controversial changes to Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees code of conduct, which would implement potential sanctions or removal for speaking out against their fellow trustees’ decisions under an amendment to their code of ethics and conduct approved Sunday evening. 

The new rules were approved in a 5-3 vote and include a ban on divulging confidential information to unauthorized individuals, as well as barring trustees from undermining decisions made by the majority. 

MSU Board Chair Brianna Scott wished Guskiewicz well in his new position and said the board would release details on a transition plan in the near future.

“We greatly value these past two-plus years under President Guskiewicz. His leadership has set the university on a positive trajectory and one that we can continue during this transition,” Scott said. “Michigan State University has demonstrated resilience throughout its history, and the institution’s strength has never depended on any one individual. The university’s mission, talent and momentum continue just as they have for nearly 175 years.”

Clemson’s last president, Jim Clements, resigned abruptly in December 2025 — citing a focus on his health but in the wake of controversy after the university fired three employees for allegedly making inappropriate remarks about the death of Charlie Kirk. The South Carolina Gazette, a States Newsroom affiliate of Michigan Advance, reported Clements’ abrupt retirement also followed after conflict-of-interest questions about a seat he held on the corporate board of a homebuilding company pursuing a major development that included a satellite Clemson campus.

Clemson maintained Clements’ position on the corporate board in no way influenced his decision to leave his post after 12 years on the job.

Guskiewicz began his tenure at MSU in March of 2024 after leaving the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he had served as the dean of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and then chancellor in 2019. Guskiewicz was the fifth person to lead the East Lansing-based university since former President Anna Lou Simon resigned in 2018 following the conviction of the college’s sports doctor Larry Nassar for sexually abusing female gymnasts.