Board of Trustees Remarks

It’s been a little over a year since I stepped into the president’s office — 403 days, to be exact.  

I started last spring with a 52-stop listening and learning tour, and it’s been an exhilarating and rewarding experience, one that reinforces my optimism for our work building a bolder, more contemporary Michigan State University. 

Facing the future 

But as you know, our work toward realizing our vision has been complicated by recent federal actions. Most recently, we learned that some of our international Spartans had their visas canceled while others were removed from the government’s database authorizing residency here. 

These developments are understandably creating anxiety among our international Spartans on campus and raising concerns across our university. I’ve met with a lot of students and groups over the past few weeks, and their concern is palpable. We hear it, too, from faculty and staff members. 

As Interim Provost Jeitschko and I shared in a campus message Wednesday, MSU is a university not only for the people of Michigan but for the world. For more than 150 years, international Spartans have reinforced our position as a leading global research university through their excellence and cultural contributions. 

To support them, we are responding across multiple fronts — aiding visa students through the Office for International Students and Scholars and consulting with our peer university, legal and governmental networks. 

On Wednesday, I joined other MSU leaders in Washington, D.C., and between us we attended 23 meetings with congressional offices.  

I personally was especially honored to meet with Representatives Barrett and Walberg to exchange views. And my thanks to our Government Relations team and all the others for representing Michigan State so well. 

To help further communicate the importance of this work, we’re launching our “research for you” website, featuring stories about our work and its positive impacts on people, our communities and the environment. 

I’m grateful to everyone who worked to create such a valuable resource that so clearly demonstrates how Spartan research makes life better. 

We will continue monitoring, assessing and responding to the government’s actions and will communicate significant developments to the university community.  

The road ahead offers great challenges, but navigated thoughtfully as one team and backed by our Spartan will, I remain confident for our long-term future. 

But we must find new approaches to sustaining our model of a proudly public research university in the land-grant mold. That includes broadening our partnerships with our stakeholders, from employers across our Michigan communities to our more than half a million alums across the world. 

With growing uncertainty at the federal level regarding research funding and recent executive orders, I want to reaffirm what I wrote in my guest op-ed for the Detroit News earlier this week: A powerful research ecosystem — one that prioritizes discovery and progress — is essential to America’s future. 

To that end, Michigan State University is committing $5 million per year over the next three years from a restricted endowment fund designated for advancing university strategic initiatives.  

In this moment, few initiatives are more strategic — or more essential — than sustaining our research enterprise and protecting educational opportunities for our students. While these funds are not intended to replace lost federal funding — and could not fully do so — they represent our deep commitment to MSU’s research mission, which continues to improve and save lives.  

Our world-class faculty are leading these efforts, and we recognize the stress and uncertainty the past few months have created on them and their work. 

Given the fast-moving federal landscape, we will share additional details as we prioritize the most high-impact areas for investment. But the message is clear: MSU is standing behind its researchers. We are acting now to protect progress, support discovery, and ensure our university continues to lead in service of the public good. 

And I want to thank our University Advancement office and everyone who joined us last month to launch our multiyear, $4 billion comprehensive campaign. 

This fundraising campaign will help us keep pace with students’ needs and society’s challenges, which is especially important now, given the headwinds we are facing. The campaign focuses on support for talent activation by investing in Spartans’ success; on synergies imagined, for boundary-crossing research collaborations; and on futures built, by investing in the spaces and programs that turn our potential into progress. 

Thanks to all who have, or will, help us build the MSU of the future. 

Graduation and celebrating excellence 


I want to turn now to what is really a season of celebrations — of our students, faculty, academic and support staff. 

We have a lot of great events coming up, and I’m excited to host our commencement speakers — all of them MSU alums. 

Mat Ishbia — business leader, philanthropist and owner of the NBA Phoenix Suns and WNBA Phoenix Mercury — will address our bachelor’s degree convocation. 

Deirdre O’Brien, senior vice president of retail & people at Apple Inc. — who was named by Fortune magazine among the most powerful women in business — will speak to our master’s degree recipients. 

And James Spaniolo, a former MSU dean, president of the University of Texas at Arlington, newspaper executive and editor-in-chief of the State News, will address our doctoral graduates. 

And I hope to see a lot of graduating students this month at a tradition I initiated last year for them: Climbing Beaumont Tower. 

We’ve been celebrating Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week this week, and I had a great time on Tuesday morning serving pancakes at an appreciation event and getting to know many of these students better. 

Graduate students are a key link between undergraduate students and our faculty and within our research programs, making them a vital part of the university’s success. 

There are so many recent accomplishments and accolades to mention I can only mention some briefly today. 

We recently learned that five STEM undergraduates earned the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, a university record giving us 60 Goldwater Scholars since the award’s inception. 

MSU was again named a Top Fulbright Producing Institution, a prestigious international exchange recognition. 

Four MSU graduate programs in the College of Education were ranked first in the nation in the latest U.S. News & World Report ranking. 

It was a pleasure to again help celebrate some of the best of our scholarship, research, teaching and service at our All-University Awards on Monday. 

And at different events this coming Monday, we will recognize outstanding support staff members and salute employee service milestones and retirements, as well as academic achievement by our student-athletes. 

It was also great to help salute faculty members and students last week at our annual Innovation Celebration and Burgess New Venture Challenge. 

I continue to be impressed with the work our faculty members are doing, turning discoveries and innovations into companies, as well as the start-ups being formed by our student entrepreneurs.  

So, congratulations to all those earning recognition this season for their accomplishments. 

Innovation and engagement in Detroit 

While we’re on the topic of innovation, Michigan State will be supporting technology adoption and business competitiveness through a new program in Detroit, where our Apple Developer Academy is preparing to salute its fourth graduate cohort. 

Building on that success, a new Apple Manufacturing Academy — like the Developer Academy, currently unique in the United States — will open this summer in downtown Detroit’s First National Building. Through in-person and virtual programming, Apple, MSU and others will help small and mid-sized companies transition to advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence and machine learning. 

I’m looking forward to visiting the Apple Developer Academy next month when the next Spartan Bus Tour takes faculty and staff members to the Detroit area to learn more about our research and service impact in the region. 

Here at home, the board today will consider a resolution to proceed with the Spartan Gateway District, a project that will be transformational for our campus. 

I mentioned the need to seek new approaches and partnerships earlier, and the Gateway District will include opportunities for public/private partnerships for features including a hotel, housing, retail, restaurants and future academic or health care facilities. 

The district will also include an Olympic sports arena to become the home for our volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling programs and to host a variety of campus, community and state events. 

This area will support our work as a talent activator through engagement with the School of Hospitality Business, health sciences and other colleges. And through its facilities and programming, it will enhance the community’s economic health and quality of life. 

Congratulating gymnasts 

Speaking of the gymnastics team, I want to send them our best wishes for the upcoming NCAA national tournament. This will be our program's first championship appearance since 1988! They will travel to Fort Worth to compete in the NCAA Semifinals on April 17.  

Go Green! 

Let’s turn now to the rest of today’s agenda.