Michigan State President Receives $1M Raise

As many Big Ten institutions struggle to hold on to their leaders, Michigan State University’s Board of Trustees voted to raise President Kevin Guskiewicz’s salary from just over $1 million to $2 million.

The board also raised his deferred compensation from $200,000 to $250,000 a year.

The move comes as Guskiewicz faces mounting frustrations with the board, The Lansing State Journal reported. Though the newspaper did not specify possible matters of contention with the board, Board Chair Brianna Scott said in a Sunday board meeting that “our president is frustrated.” Another trustee, Sandy Pierce, said Guskiewicz was being “aggressively pursued” and Michigan State didn’t want to lose him.

Trustees said they would seek outside funds to support the raise.

Guskiewicz has been at MSU since March 2024. He was hired after former president Samuel Stanley Jr. resigned in late 2022 after three-plus years on the job amid a conflict with trustees over Title IX issues. Board members alleged that Stanley failed to properly certify Title IX compliance reports as required by state law; he maintained it was the trustees who made missteps.

Michigan State’s board has been defined by drama in recent years; trustees were accused of bullying interim president Teresa Woodruff and retaliating against a critical faculty member. Two trustees were also found to have violated university ethics rules, according to a 2024 report.

In the same Sunday meeting, trustees also voted to revise their ethics policy to allow members to punish individual trustees who speak out publicly against decisions made by a board majority. That change passed 5 to 3, with some trustees expressing concerns about restricting free speech.

Judith Wilde, a research professor at George Mason University who studies presidential searches and contracts, told Inside Higher Ed by email that she believes the raise is unprecedented. She said it is the largest raise for a president she has seen in her time studying the subject.

She also questioned the board’s revision to the ethics policy, suggesting that such changes to restrict members from speaking up “pretty much guaranteed that the vote would be positive.”

Wilde was similarly skeptical about the timing of the board vote on Sunday evening, which, she pointed out, overlapped with a Detroit Pistons game in the widely watched NBA playoffs.

“That timing certainly didn’t happen by accident,” Wilde wrote.

Guskiewicz’s raise will put him among the highest paid public university presidents. It brings his salary into line with what cross-state University of Michigan planned to pay Kent Syervud when it tapped him for the top role earlier this year. While Syverud bowed out of the job following a brain cancer diagnosis, he will continue to earn $2 million as a faculty member.

Guskiewicz’s massive raise also comes against the backdrop of the Big Ten’s revolving door. Purdue University president Mung Chiang was hired away by Northwestern University on Monday, meaning that 10 of the 18 member institutions have lost their leaders since early 2025.