Remarks as prepared for delivery
This is a season of recognitions and awards, and my favorite time of year to celebrate our many accomplishments.
And we started celebrating VERY early this morning at Beaumont Tower as the sun was rising, alongside Provost McIntyre, Dr. Travis and others, when we inducted academically excelling Spartans into the MSU Tower Guard.
Tower Guard members are wonderful examples of Spartan engagement in the well-being of our community — supporting our Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities by tutoring, scribing for exams and generally building a more inclusive campus environment.
This is the time of the academic year we like to recognize and celebrate honorees representing a wide array of academic departments.
It was a thrill recently to join fellow university and college leaders in a surprise visit to Dr. Gabe Ording’s insect sustainability lecture, to announce his selection as this year’s President’s Distinguished Teaching Award honoree.
He has made a huge impression as an inspirational science instructor and an innovative and supportive partner to his colleagues.
We recently learned that nine MSU researchers were elected 2025 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the world’s largest and most respected scientific societies.
These extraordinary faculty members were recognized for their work in education, chemistry, cancer studies, biological and medical sciences, physics and agriculture, food and renewable resources.
Congratulations to all of our Spartan honorees this season.
Graduation
Of course, the biggest celebrations of Spartan excellence — spring commencement ceremonies — are coming up in just a few weeks, and I’m excited to host this year’s featured speakers.
We’re honored to have Gov. Gretchen Whitmer back on campus as our guest speaker for our spring undergraduate convocation. She is, of course, a proud Spartan and longtime Michigan lawmaker.
Speaking to our master’s and educational specialist commencement ceremony will be Christopher Fernandez, an experienced human resources executive in the automotive and technologies industries.
And speaking to our doctoral degree commencement ceremony, University Distinguished Professor Ann Austin in the College of Education will deliver the keynote message.
I look forward to congratulating all of our graduates and hope to see many of them at annual graduation tradition we’ve started: climbing Beaumont Tower.
Today, we’ll begin our own salute to our spring graduates with Board recognition of more than 300 who earned perfect 4.0 grades on their way to their undergraduate degrees. That is a big accomplishment, so congratulations to them all.
We’ve already marked a milestone for 427 of our medical students from the colleges of Human Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine when they recently learned their residency locations as they begin their medical careers.
MSU has the largest combined class of medical students in Michigan and one of the largest nationally, with match rates above the national average for both programs.
Supporting students
This week, in fact, we’re celebrating Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week.
Graduate students are truly a key element of a university’s excellence — supporting faculty research, mentoring undergraduate students and innovating in their disciplines as they train to become the next academic, scientific or industry leaders.
I had a great time on Monday morning serving pancakes to graduate students and getting to know many of these dedicated scholars a little better.
New rankings
The quality of our graduate degree programs is a distinct point of pride. Earlier this week, we announced U.S. News and World Report’s latest graduate program rankings.
Among the highlights, the College of Education has three graduate programs ranked No. 1 in the country, with nine programs in the top 10 nationwide.
Our colleges of Business, Engineering and Nursing also had multiple graduate programs in the top 50.
Congratulations to all our highly ranked programs, which help position an MSU education among the best in the nation.
School of Packaging gift
And speaking of MSU program excellence, I’d like to recognize a truly extraordinary act of generosity — one that reflects both the strength of this institution and the momentum we’re building together.
Earlier this week, we announced a transformational $47 million commitment to the School of Packaging from Chuck and Jackie Frasier.
This is among the five largest private gifts ever to MSU, and the largest gift in the history of the program — the oldest, largest and leading packaging program in the country — and it comes at exactly the right moment.
A little over two years ago, the Board of Trustees authorized planning to double the size of the facility, expanding its research capacity and more.
This next phase will create world-class research environments — particularly in sustainability — while enabling us to grow our faculty, expand graduate education and deepen industry partnerships.
I want to extend our deepest gratitude to Chuck and Jackie Frasier. Their leadership, generosity and belief in Michigan State will shape this university — and this field — for generations to come.
Protecting campus
I want to talk for a moment about our continued and strong focus on safety.
Today, the board will change the title of the Student Life and Culture Committee — adding the word “safety” to its title.
The Board has strongly supported maintaining a safe environment for the entire campus community. I want to specifically thank Trustee Denno for proposing this title change and for joining me a few weeks ago in a meeting with Chief Yankowski.
There, we reviewed the progress MSU has made during the past few years in implementing dozens of improvements to enhance campus safety, including through the new Security Operations Center, which we also had an opportunity to tour.
The Board’s support has been vital to these initiatives’ success and is greatly appreciated. This work never ends and we will continue to improve. The renamed board committee provides additional opportunity to continue to work together to support this cause.
And as we observe the 25th anniversary of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Michigan State remains committed to prevention and to survivors’ healing.
This afternoon, I’ll be joining our daylong Prevention, Outreach and Education Faculty and Staff Summit, which helps MSU employees deepen their understanding of sexual violence prevention and how to foster safe, respectful environments.
And, we’re moving forward with our institutional assessment focused on relationship violence and sexual misconduct.
Our Collaborative Advisory Board helped us identify a firm to conduct the assessment, Guidepost Solutions, which will reach out to university community members and hold town halls and listening sessions in the summer and into fall semester.
These critical initiatives ensure our ongoing efforts are directly informed by the voices and lived experiences of our Spartan community as we continue to improve our campus climate.
Conclusion
Turning to a historical note, this month marks the centennial of our identity as Spartans.
That’s 100 years of “Spartan will” in all its forms.
Best wishes to all around the world who proudly bear that name — yesterday, today and for the next century.
For the more immediate future, it’s going to be a very busy few weeks, with our spring Spartan Bus Tour getting rolling to Flint and the Bay Region in early May.
I’m looking forward to joining faculty members in learning more about our work and impact in that region.
For now, let’s continue with today’s agenda.