Wednesday, December 4, 2024
Michigan State President Kevin Guskiewicz sits in his office located in Alice B. Cowles House on campus, on Dec. 3, 2024.
Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz shared new details about an upcoming fundraising push and campus speech guidelines in an interview Tuesday.
He suggested that the university will solicit donations for scholarships and other student success initiatives. His administration will also soon announce a policy of “institutional restraint” governing official statements on political issues, he said.
Capital campaign to focus on students
The State News reported last week that MSU will soon embark on a major fundraising campaign, the first since 2014.
Guskiewicz said the push was something he pitched extensively during his interviews for MSU’s presidency last year. His previous institution, the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, finished a record-breaking campaign of its own during his final year as president.
“I’m excited about launching one here,” he told The State News. “There are great stories to be told about Michigan State.”
The campaign will be centered around “student success initiatives,” he said, mentioning possible scholarships and other supportive programs aimed at ensuring students can afford their full experience at MSU. That will include investments in a new “first-gen center” and related programs aimed at supporting students who are the first in their families to pursue a college degree.
Guskiewicz said he sees such programs making MSU a “talent magnet or attracter.”
“We’re raising money so we can attract top, talented students, and so they will thrive once they’re here,” he said.
It could take a few years for some of the fundraising goals to be reached and for programs to begin in full, but Guskiewicz said the university is already raising money and rolling out smaller programs. One such project is the new Joseph R. and Sarah L. Williams Scholarship, which provides high-achieving students with four years of tuition, room and board, as well as a $7,500 stipend for “experimental education.”
The campaign will also fund some new units and professorships, Guskiewicz said. The university has already raised a “significant amount” for the new MSU Ethics Institute, he said. It will support research of ethics in law, bioethics, social justice, leadership, and three other “thematic ethics area(s) to be determined,” according to its website.
Guskiewicz did not name any specific renovations or new buildings that could be funded by the campaign, but did note that the funds could be used on some “tired buildings” throughout campus.
Flashy new buildings and the associated naming rights are sometimes a large part of capital campaigns. Guskiewicz, however, indicated that MSU’s campaign could monetize naming rights without breaking new ground.
A donor supporting the scholarship initiatives or other programs could become the namesake of the newly constructed STEM building, or the soon-to-open Student Recreation and Wellness Center and Multicultural Center, all of which are not currently named for a donor, he said.
“These are beautiful new facilities that are yet to be named,” he said. “During a campaign, we might spend some time with a donor or group of donors and say, ‘Imagine if, say, the Multicultural Center was named for you.'”
Policy of ‘institutional restraint’
Guskiewicz also told The State News that his administration will soon announce a policy limiting statements from the university that weigh in on contentious issues.
The State News reported in October that MSU was considering a formal commitment to “institutional neutrality,” a popular policy that stops a college from speaking out on social or political issues.
Guskiewicz said he ultimately decided to adopt a stance of “institutional restraint,” which he said differs from the pure “neutrality” policies adopted at other institutions.
“‘Neutrality’ suggests that there is no position the university may have on a particular issue,” he said. “But (restraint) is saying that we may have an opinion, but we’re gonna allow others to express themselves and to not marginalize any particular opinion.”
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“We are gonna restrain from speaking publicly on an issue,” he said.
The guidance will allow faculty and staff to make personal statements about issues, but will caution against anything that appears to represent the opinion of MSU or a unit of the university, Guskiewicz said.
That will include department statements, he said, which are usually declarations voted on by faculty in a department and then posted to their website. MSU’s removal of such statements earlier this year prompted concerns from some faculty, who felt a policy against department statements would encroach on their academic freedom if the issues discussed related closely to their scholarship.
“They can use their own personal social media outlets to express themselves,” Guskiewicz said when asked about department statements. “But, they should restrain from using university platforms to do that.”
While some universities have passed their speech policies as resolutions voted on by the board, Guskiewicz said his guidance will just be a statement from him. He has discussed it with the board and they approved of it, he said.
Board Chair Dan Kelly did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Guskiewicz said he also consulted “Faculty Senate leaders” on the policy, who he says approved. He plans to consult the undergraduate student government as well.
The guidance will be announced “any day now,” he said.
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