CLEMSON — Clemson University’s governing board selected former University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz as the college’s 16th president.
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“To be entrusted with leading a university as respected, ambitious, and beloved as Clemson is both humbling and inspiring,” Guskiewicz told the board during a virtual meeting Wednesday. “Clemson is a university with tremendous momentum. It’s already considered an outstanding public research university, but what excites me most is its potential for what comes next.”
Guskiewicz comes to Clemson from Michigan State University, where he has been president since March 2024.
Clemson’s board voted unanimously to hire Guskiewicz, following a five-month search, at a salary of $1.2 million. That means he’s giving up nearly $1 million to take the helm of the nearly 30,000-student university in the Upstate.
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“You are the right person to lead Clemson to into the future, and we know you are going to make tremendous impact,” board Chairwoman Kim Wilkerson said.
The decision comes just three days after Michigan State trustees doubled his salary to $2 million and extended his contract through 2031 in hopes of keeping him, reported the Michigan Advance, a States Newsroom affiliate of the SC Daily Gazette.
He replaces former President Jim Clements, whose compensation package totaled $1.5 million when he left.
Guskiewicz’ pay will roughly match that of University of South Carolina President Michael Amiridis, who took the helm in 2022 and received a $300,000 raise last June.
Clements abruptly retired in December amid conflict-of-interest questions about a seat he held on the corporate board of a homebuilding company pursuing a major development in nearby Oconee County, including a satellite Clemson campus.
Clemson maintained Clements’ position on the corporate board in no way influenced his decision to leave his post after 12 years on the job.
And an investigation by South Carolina’s inspector general found no wrongdoing in Clemson University’s interactions with the developer, though he recommended changes to prevent future conflict of interest concerns, according to his report released in April.
As part of the search process for Clements’ replacement, the committee spoke to faculty, students, alumni and local leaders about what they wanted to see in the college’s next president. Board member Cheri Phyfer, who led the search committee, said it was Guskiewicz’s track record of groundbreaking research, commitment to students’ success and record-breaking fundraising that made him the college’s choice.
Clemson is in the middle of a $1.889 billion fundraising campaign, which the college launched in February 2025. The odd amount of the goal is to reflect the school’s 1889 founding as a land grant university.
“Higher education is changing rapidly, and students and families rightfully expect both excellence and value,” Guskiewicz said. “We must continue investing in academic support, career readiness, experiential learning, mental health resources and pathways to meaningful careers and meaningful lives.”
College controversies
Guskiewicz, who grew up outside Pittsburgh, started his career in higher education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1995. It was there that the neuroscientist helped develop protocols used in assessing concussions in high school, college and professional football players.
He worked his way up through the ranks, becoming dean of the Colleges of Arts and Sciences and then chancellor in 2019, until he left for the college presidency in Michigan’s capital city.
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“Over the course of my career in higher education, I have always believed that universities have the power and responsibility to transform lives and to shape the future of communities locally, nationally and abroad,” Guskiewicz said.
Guskiewicz leaves a college that’s spent the last several years mired in controversy and a board plagued by infighting.
He was the fifth person to lead the 52,000-student land grant university since former President Anna Lou Simon resigned in 2018 following the conviction of the college’s sports doctor Larry Nassar for sexually abusing female gymnasts.
Former president Samuel Stanley Jr. resigned in late 2022 amid a conflict with trustees over compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws under Title IX. And board members accused one another of bullying interim president Teresa Woodruff, who held the seat before the college hired Guskiewicz.
In his remarks, Guskiewicz acknowledged the “significant challenges and extraordinary opportunities” faced by Michigan State.
“Together, our community has been focusing on rebuilding trust, strengthening transparency, and reaffirming the university’s commitment to students, faculty and the people of Michigan,” he added. “During that time, we achieved the most successful years of philanthropic giving in the university’s history, and we will do that at Clemson. This is about storytelling, and I know for a fact there are great stories to be told.”
Guskiewicz also faced some turmoil when he was at the helm in Chapel Hill.
He was interim chancellor for 10 months after his predecessor, Carol Folt, resigned following the removal of a Confederate monument on campus.
Guskiewicz was drawn into the controversy when it was discovered a member of his administration had been involved in a $2.5 million legal settlement that gave the Silent Sam monument to the North Carolina division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Then in 2021, Guskiewicz found himself at the center of a tenure fight related to the hiring of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones.
Hannah-Jones is the author of the “1619 Project,” a New York Times initiative that reframed American history and society with slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the center. Published in 2019, the 400th anniversary of what’s believed to be the first arrival of African enslaved people, the project also created materials for schools to use. Amid criticism, including from historians, the Times in 2020 clarified its interpretation that the American Revolution was fought to protect slavery while defending the premise and the author.
As for Guskiewicz, he faced criticism from faculty, students and alumni for not being supportive enough of Hannah-Jones, while the colleges’ trustees were angered over how the hire was handled.
After the board of trustees refused to vote on tenure for the position, Hannah-Jones took a position at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
And in July 2023 Guskiewicz butted heads with trustees and members of the board of governors over a plan to cover tuition and fees for students whose families make less than $80,000 per year. The plan followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action programs and the consideration of race in college admissions, a case in which UNC-Chapel Hill and Harvard University were defendants.
This story was originally produced by SC Daily Gazette, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes NC Newsline, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
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