From the President - Spartan Alumni Magazine, Winter 2025
A talent activator for Michigan and the world
Greetings, Spartans!
This month marks my first full year as president of Michigan State University. It’s a milestone from which I look back with pride on our university’s accomplishments — and look forward to our continuing ascent as a leading global public research university.
In the last year, we’ve put more than a dozen institutional initiatives into motion to support our aspirations across our educational, research and outreach missions. As I outlined at my presidential investiture, several initiatives support students’ access to MSU and their success once they arrive. We’re working hard to ensure the relevance of our academic programs for the world our graduates will enter.
In short, we are a talent activator for Michigan and the world.
We’re also sharpening our focus on opportunities to address the great challenges facing our society by growing our research enterprise and expanding service to the public. Our inaugural Spartan Bus Tour last October took dozens of faculty and MSU leaders around the Lower Peninsula, meeting partners and residents who benefit from our\ engagement. It was a great success, and we’re expanding to two tours this year to visit more communities.
We’re building a public university for the future from a firm foundation of accomplishment. This includes recognition for our leading academic programs, high rankings for priorities like graduate employability and sustainability, and continuing support for a caring, inclusive campus culture that empowers curiosity and nurtures excellence.
Among the greatest satisfactions of my first year has been meeting engaged Spartans at events across the country.
Now, I’m excited to help launch the next step in our drive to more fully realize our shared potential to make a positive difference for our students, our communities and our world.
Our new fundraising campaign’s theme is “Uncommon Will. Far Better World.” It is comprehensive in its scope: activating talent through scholarships, experiential education and programmatic support; leveraging our synergies to make a difference through research and endowed faculty positions; and building futures through facility upgrades, building projects and new programs.
Fellow Spartans, the world is changing rapidly, and our university needs to advance alongside it — indeed, to lead it — to meet our shared challenges and realize Michigan State’s full potential as a transformational institution.
Last month, MSU passed the 170th anniversary of our founding. We first opened our doors with five faculty members teaching 63 students in three long-gone buildings in what was acknowledged to be an experiment in higher education.
Knowing the progress we’ve made over the generations — building top-ranked educational= programs, conducting world-class research and innovation, uplifting communities across the state — just imagine what we can accomplish in the years ahead. As ever, we will create a far better world as one team, inspired by our uncommon will to advance the common good and the generosity of engaged Spartans and friends like you.
From day one, I have asked our university community to continue to strive to be bolder and more contemporary, to be strategic and student-focused and to serve the public good. We have determined our true north — we are Michigan’s state university — and resolve to be a formidable talent activator for Michigan and beyond.
Thank you for your support. I can’t wait to work with you on this powerful expression of Michigan State’s vision.
Go Green!
Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D.
PRESIDENT
PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF KINESIOLOGY
