Clemson Picks UGA Provost as President After Guskiewicz Reversal

The Clemson University Board of Trustees has selected University of Georgia Provost Benjamin C. Ayers as Clemson’s next president.

Thursday’s voice vote to hire Ayers came just days after Kevin Guskiewicz announced he wouldn’t take the job but would instead stay on as president of Michigan State University. Clemson named Guskiewicz as president on May 27, and he visited campus in June before reversing course.

Ayers will start Aug. 1 at a base salary of $1 million. If he gets good performance reviews, that will increase to at least $1.2 million by the fifth and final year of his contract, according to a “term sheet” Clemson provided. The document also says he’s eligible to receive $1.2 million total over the five years in deferred compensation.

Furthermore, Ayers can earn up to $225,000 annually “for achievement of agreed upon goals and metrics,” but the term sheet doesn’t say what those will be. It also provides golf club memberships, two vehicles for business use (personal use is allowed but taxable), $50,000 for “transition expenses” and a tenured faculty position that he could move into upon leaving the presidency.

Clemson board member Cheri M. Phyfer, the search committee chair, said during Thursday’s board meeting that the university didn’t start a new search after Guskiewicz backed out.

“We continued the rigorous process already underway, revisiting a candidate we’ve already evaluated against the same high standards and with the same careful deliberation,” Phyfer said. She added that “because of the strength and the depth” of the work during the search, “the board was able to respond thoughtfully when circumstances changed.”

In his Monday message to the Michigan State campus, Guskiewicz said, “This is where Amy and I are meant to be.” Clemson Board Chair Kim A. Wilkerson said Thursday that “one of the truest tests in life is knowing with total clarity where you belong. It reveals itself in its own time to each person in its own way, and when it does that clarity deserves respect. We have watched that kind of clarity play out over the past several days. It is exactly what a search process of this rigor should surface.”