Viewpoint: MSU's future depends on 'one team' working toward collective mission

One team.

That’s a maxim I strive to live by as a leader. It traces back to my experiences playing football and other sports. Although I spent more time injured than healthy, steering me toward a career in sports medicine, I’ve always remembered the camaraderie and encouragement that comes from working as a team — and how we can reach new heights of accomplishment when we stand together in unity.

I was reminded of that power on graduation day on April 26. Our graduates deserve enormous credit for all their hard work to reach this milestone. It’s also the culmination of a great community effort, including faculty who teach and mentor students, staff who provide guidance and support, alums who offer their experience and encouragement and community partners who help us offer experiential education opportunities.

As the new president of Michigan State University and a proud new resident of the Lansing region, I am committed to working as part of a team and fostering a culture of collaboration and partnerships. That’s why I’ve begun my tenure with a listening and learning tour across MSU. I want to learn about our challenges, but more importantly about our opportunities to strengthen MSU’s position as a proudly public university for Michigan.  

While I’m just “graduating” into my third month as MSU’s president, I can already tell we are well positioned for the future, beginning with an opportunity to build on a strong foundation.

First and foremost, MSU has passionate and curious students. I met, for example, a first-year finance major who founded a fast-growing zero-sugar candy company. I heard a doctoral student present research on the impact of extreme climatic heat on pollen and how that affects blueberry production in Michigan and beyond. And I spent some time with hundreds of Spartans ready to lend a helping hand on the Spartan Day of Service.

Innovative. Entrepreneurial. Engaged. These are just some of the words I’d use to describe MSU students. And with two-thirds of our recent graduates staying in Michigan to start their careers, our university is an important talent pipeline to advance our state’s economy. That’s on top of MSU’s over $3 billion economic impact in Clinton, Eaton and Ingham counties.

Second, MSU has world-class faculty and researchers dedicated to addressing the grand challenges of our time. I’ve been especially impressed with our cross-college collaborations focused on tough, multifaceted issues such as climate resilience and water quality, artificial intelligence and data science, emerging educational technologies and cancer health disparities.

Importantly, we are building facilities equal to the task of supporting MSU’s excellence and people. Construction has already begun on the new multicultural center and new Student Recreation and Wellness Center. And last month we joined partners to celebrate the groundbreaking for an updated, state-of-the-art Dairy Cattle Teaching and Research Center and the upgrading of our Plant Science Greenhouses. Both facilities will serve MSU students, scientists and stakeholders, representing our enduring commitment to Michigan’s farmers and growers. These spaces will also drive innovation, helping tackle complex local and global challenges from food security to environmental sustainability. We are grateful for funding from the state and the many forms of support we enjoy from partners and donors.

Third, and directly related, partnerships are core to the Spartan spirit. It takes the form of the colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Veterinary Medicine working with stakeholders to protect our communities from avian flu. And it manifests in the College of Education’s work supporting K-12 schools with top-notch teacher preparation and leadership development.

Where does MSU go next? While I still have more to learn about our community before articulating a vision for the future, I do have a few top-of-mind priorities.

Through servant leadership, I will strive to always be strategic, bold and people-focused. I have learned from my listening and learning tour that MSU’s most important story is its ongoing commitment to interlocking missions of education, research and outreach. Spartans deserve a leader who will facilitate their aspirations and bring people from different backgrounds and experiences to the decision-making table.

Through a culture of collaboration, I aim to build on MSU’s rich land-grant traditions while becoming bolder and more contemporary in preparing the next generation of leaders and citizens. In part, that means further strengthening our university’s commitment to interdisciplinarity because no single discipline can solve the grand challenges of our time.

We need what I call a “synergy unleashed” approach of bringing together the arts, humanities and sciences. For example, a clinician scientist, chemist and computer scientist are all critically important to solve problems around drug delivery systems. But we also need humanists and social scientists who can help us understand how people interface with the outcomes of such work. Interdisciplinarity will better prepare our students to view the world through different lenses, process all the inputs of our diverse world and exercise critical reasoning.

Finally, I aim to identify a signature initiative or two that will best position MSU as an engine that powers Michigan’s economy. As part of my listening and learning tour, I’ve been working to better understand how MSU can make even greater contributions to our state’s and region’s economic priorities through research, entrepreneurship, innovation and talent supply. Our planned Engineering and Digital Innovation Center, for example, offers an exciting opportunity to partner with the state and others to expand the talent and expertise needed for our digital future. By engaging key business and philanthropic leaders across the state, we can build on this momentum and launch other partnerships that catalyze innovation and drive statewide impact.

I still have more to learn about my new community and look forward to more engagement opportunities. What I know and can pledge now is that we will forge our future together as one team.

Kevin Guskiewicz is president of Michigan State University.