Exiting UNC, Guskiewicz says he was called to Michigan State, not pushed out of Chapel Hill

After nearly five years as the chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill — and nearly 30 years as a member of the faculty — Kevin Guskiewicz will leave the university Friday.

He will become the president of Michigan State University on March 4, a move that was finalized in December after weeks of speculation about whether he would accept the job — and about what factors led him to leave UNC.

Guskiewicz, a renowned expert and researcher on sports-related concussions, first came to the university in 1995 as an assistant professor in the department of exercise and sport science. He became the university’s 12th chancellor in December 2019 after serving in the role in an interim capacity for about 10 months.

The past five years have been marked by several challenges at the university, with Guskiewicz first inheriting the university’s years-long battle over the Silent Sam Confederate monument, then being tasked with leading UNC through the COVID-19 pandemic just a few months into his tenure.

The university has also seen its share of time in the national spotlight under his leadership, including over the issue of whether journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones would be offered tenure to teach at the university. More recently, he confronted the tragedy this fall of an on-campus shooting that left a professor dead.

Guskiewicz sat down for an interview with The News & Observer Wednesday, reflecting on his time in Chapel Hill and answering questions on a range of issues, from campus safety to university governance and other challenges facing higher education broadly.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished,” he said. “We’ve built an amazing team here, and I’m really proud of it.”

Reflecting on his first days at UNC

Guskiewicz first visited Chapel Hill to interview for a faculty position over two days in 1995, while he was finishing up his dissertation at the University of Virginia.

He also had an offer to join the Virginia faculty, he said, but he “just fell in love” with UNC and the people there, particularly those in the sports medicine program. He helped developed the undergraduate program in that area and then helped the university become a leader in concussion research, with his work informing concussion protocols in the NFL and NCAA.

“I really wanted to take on some of the big challenges around health and safety for student athletes and try to find ways to protect them better,” he said. “I’m proud of that work.”

He didn’t imagine on that first visit nearly three decades ago — when he walked around the McCorkle and Polk quads, admiring campus — that he would eventually have an office in South Building or become chancellor.

“Here we are 28 years later,” he said. “It has felt just right for a long time.”

Now, though, he and his wife, Amy, are ready for a change.

“Amy and I feel a calling right now to another passionately public university in Michigan State,” Guskiewicz said. “And I think we’re going to be able to go to Michigan and make a difference, and to take a lot of the things that we’ve learned here and to help another great public university.”

Guskiewicz said he did not feel pressured — by the campus Board of Trustees, the UNC System Board of Governors or any others — to leave UNC, saying it was a decision he made and that “it’s the right time for a number of reasons.”

On shared governance and ‘interference’

The university and the larger UNC System have faced criticism in recent years — particularly since Republicans gained control of the General Assembly in 2010 — for what some faculty and others perceive as political overreach and interference in university affairs by governing board members and legislators.

Guskiewicz said he believes there has “been some blurring of the lines” over the roles various university constituents — board members, faculty, staff and students, among others — should play in university governance and “who should be in control of what.”

“Shared governance is important to me,” he said. “And making sure that everybody understands their roles — that’s what makes a great university.”

Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, in 2022 formed a commission to study university governance and suggest potential reforms, including to the process by which university governing board members are appointed. The commission released its recommendations last summer, and Cooper in December appeared to tie Guskiewicz’s departure from UNC to “meddling from legislative appointees.”

Guskiewicz, who thinks higher education broadly is currently “facing a lot of challenges,” said he appreciates Cooper’s work in assembling the commission. He said he has read the group’s recommendations and believes they could be used educate people, including board members, about higher education and the issues facing it.

“We have a responsibility ... to always be educating, and part of that is ... educating those who are in these positions of power — sitting on boards, leading boards, appointing individuals to boards — educating them about higher education, the challenges that we face, so that they’re appointing individuals who bring great value and expertise and experience to help move the institution along,” he said. “So that’s what I’m hoping might come from this.”

Guskiewicz said he thinks all members of the university’s trustee board love the university “in the same way that I do,” but acknowledged there can be “differing opinions, at times, as to what direction we should be going, or what perhaps might need to be changed or not changed.”

Guskiewicz wrote to faculty at Michigan State before he accepted the presidency that he would only take the job “without undue interference” from that university’s governing board.

“I’m confident that I’m going to a place where the trustees understand their roles and responsibilities and the faculty understand theirs,” Guskiewicz said.

Challenges and accomplishments as chancellor

Among the several challenges and controversial moments UNC faced under his leadership, Guskiewicz said the COVID-19 pandemic — particularly as the university prepared to bring students back for the fall semester in 2020 — “was probably the most challenging time” for him.

After shifting to remote instruction for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester, the university opted in the fall semester — despite warnings from health officials and pleas from faculty — to bring students back to campus, with modifications due to the pandemic.

The plan lasted only one week. Citing rising case numbers on campus, the university pivoted back to remote instruction for undergraduate students for the remainder of the semester.

Guskiewicz said campus leaders “certainly underestimated some things” that fall, but that it was a “tough” and “very difficult” situation to navigate, even with guidance from the university’s infectious disease experts contributing to the effort.

“A pandemic that we hadn’t seen in over 100 years shows up, and we were all working with an untested playbook,” he said.

Guskiewicz confronted another challenge last August, as the university experienced the fatal on-campus shooting of a professor, which sent the campus into lockdown for several hours. Less than three weeks later, the university went into lockdown again after a man allegedly brandished a gun in the student union.

Guskiewicz said he thinks the university “had a good plan” in place for such emergencies, but said the response “absolutely” could have been better.

Despite being urged to do so in a 2020 audit, the university does not require active shooter and emergency training for faculty and staff. More than four months after the August shooting, such requirements have still not been implemented.

Guskiewicz said he supports requiring such training and that he has discussed the idea with faculty, staff and students.

“It’s just a matter of how that would ultimately be implemented,” he said.

Guskiewicz said he’s proud, though, of emergency response improvements that the university had implemented prior to the gun-related incidents, including installing QR codes that link to classroom-specific emergency information.

He’s also proud of how the university’s research enterprise has grown during his tenure, with funding for those efforts climbing to more than $1 billion. The university has also implemented a new general education curriculum, which he said was a collaborative effort among faculty and offers more opportunities for students.

Those accomplishments and others over the past five years have been largely guided by the university’s most recent strategic plan, which was implemented under Guskiewicz’s leadership and includes eight key initiatives for the university to strive toward, from promoting democracy to improving student success to becoming a more global university.

Advice for his successor & what he’ll miss about UNC

Guskiewicz said much of the strategic plan can serve as a road map for his interim successor, Lee Roberts.

Roberts, a former state budget director under Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and a member of the UNC System Board of Governors, comes from a professional background in the private sector, primarily in finance. He does not have leadership experience in higher education.

Guskiewicz has met with Roberts a handful of times since UNC System President Peter Hans named him as interim chancellor in December, Guskiewicz told members of the Faculty Council executive committee Monday.

Guskiewicz has encouraged Roberts to “ask a lot of questions” and “go on a listening and learning tour” across the university as he begins his new role.

“I’m confident that he’ll hit the ground running next week, and I think we’ll be in good hands,” Guskiewicz said Wednesday.

Roberts will likely face challenges, Guskiewicz said, many of which are felt in higher education broadly, from conversations around student debt and affordability to making accessibility and infrastructure improvements on the aging campus. Among other suggestions, he has encouraged Roberts to advocate for funding from the General Assembly and “to be bold” in testing new ideas or approaches to issues at the university.

“If we’re going to be the leading global public research university, you have to be bold and put yourself out there occasionally and test some things,” Guskiewicz said. “And then always be student-focused. That’s why we’re here.”

Just outside the chancellor’s South Building office Wednesday, the first day of classes for the spring semester, a steady line of students formed at the Old Well, hoping for the luck and 4.0 GPA that campus lore says a sip on that day can bring.

Those gathered for that moment represent what he will miss most about UNC: the people who love the university.

“There’s an irrational love for Carolina that I hope will remain, during the good times and the not-so-good times,” Guskiewicz said. “There will always be challenging times. It’s about finding the opportunities on the other side of the challenges that we’re responsible for as a leader of a great public institution like this.”