This premier scholarship, named after MSU’s first president, Joseph R. Williams and first lady Sarah L. Williams, will be the university’s first full-ride scholarship that also provides an experiential learning opportunity for awardees. The scholarship will be available to 30 qualifying undergraduate students beginning in the fall 2025 semester.
Contact: Dave Weatherspoon, Vice Provost of Enrollment and Academic Strategic Planning
This expansion of the Spartan Tuition Advantage, called the Native American Tuition Advantage Program, will allow students from anywhere in the United States or Canada who meet tribal affiliation criteria to qualify to attend MSU at in-state tuition levels and potentially qualify for free tuition under the Spartan Tuition Advantage program.
The program aims to eliminate financial barriers and increase enrollment among historically underrepresented Native American students, addressing a key concern of Michigan’s tribal nations.
Contact: Dave Weatherspoon, Vice Provost of Enrollment and Academic Strategic Planning
We continue to make MSU more accessible and welcoming to transfer students. Students who transfer into MSU graduate at very high rates. In Dec. 2024, we signed a new agreement with Lansing Community College that renewed and expanded our commitment to Envision Green, which smooths the pathway for LCC students to transfer to MSU. We are building a physical location for our newly created Transfer Student Success Center, and our staff and faculty are collaborating to improve our transfer processes by expanding credit for prior learning and implementing new software and processes that will speed up transfer credit evaluation. The Transfer Advisory Coalition is being formed to reform policies and practices to create equitable pathways to bachelor’s degree completion for transfer students.
Contact: Portia Watkins, Deputy Director for Transitions and Transfer Student Success
Progress on the Lansing Spartan Scholars Program has proceeded quickly, and we plan to welcome our first class of students into this program this fall. The new Lansing Spartan Scholars Program extends our partnership with the Lansing community and will provide summer bridge-to-college experiences, first-year seminars, peer mentors, academic success workshops, tutoring and, perhaps most importantly, connections with Lansing-area businesses and community organizations.
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Building on our work that led to our designation as a First-Gen Forward Institution, MSU’s First-Gen Center will enhance the visibility of and support for MSU’s first-generation college students. It will aggregate a variety of supportive programs, ensuring that first-generation students have the resources and guidance they need to learn, thrive and graduate from Michigan State. The First-Gen Center will serve as a dedicated space to foster community and celebrate the unique contributions of first-generation college students, staff and faculty to our campus.
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Today’s students challenge us to offer an education that will best prepare them to meet current and future workforce needs. To that end, a committee of our world-class faculty (and administrative units/leaders) will lead the development of a modern general education curriculum following a thorough review to be initiated in spring 2025.
Contact: Thomas Jeitschko, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
To reinforce MSU’s ability to prepare students for the current and future workforce, we will launch a Green and White Council of Michigan leaders and executives. Such allies offer an extraordinary wealth of talent and knowledge and will advise on how MSU can continue to deliver academic programming that reflects the evolving Michigan job and economic landscape.
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The series will focus on bringing thinkers and doers to our campus in an atmosphere of civil discourse across differences to help our students learn to better navigate a world of diverse beliefs and viewpoints.
Contact: Michael Zeig, Chief of Staff, Office of the President
To establish MSU as a global hub for ethical thinking and decision-making, we are prioritizing the development of the MSU Ethics Institute early next year. The institute will evaluate and address institutional ethics and practices beyond the classroom through research, study, pedagogy and the advancement of community-engaged activities.MSU’s annual ethics symposia have helped lay a strong foundation for this new institute. In February 2025, we will host Ethics Week to encourage campuswide engagement with contemporary moral challenges.
Contact: Bree E. Holtz, Director of the Ethics Institute and Associate Professor, Department of Advertising and Public Relations
The 1855 Professorships program, named for the year MSU was founded, has recruited its first cohort of scholars who are taking bold strides to address some of society’s most pressing challenges, to make advances in underrepresented communities and to eliminate disparities. Created by the Office of the Provost, the program brings together 10 faculty members with one purpose: advancing MSU’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion while elevating the university’s academic and research excellence. In its next round, nine professorships have been awarded across colleges, and those colleges will strive to recruit the best and brightest faculty to fill the 1855 positions. It is expected the new cohort will be hired and start in fall 2025.
Contact: Ashley Green, Chief of Staff, Office of the Provost
MSU is committed to collaboratively working toward a campus culture free from discrimination, harassment, sexual misconduct and relationship violence. The input of students, faculty and staff is necessary to inform important work on these issues across the campus community.
First in 2019 and then again in 2022, MSU administered the Know More Campus Survey, which focuses on the culture, perceptions and policies associated with sexual misconduct among undergraduate students, graduate/professional students, faculty and staff. The survey results are crucial for continuing the positive transformation of the culture related to sexual misconduct at MSU and have guided prevention programming, policy development and resource provision on campus. The third survey launched in March 2025.
Contact: Carrie Moylan, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
The Preventing Pass the Harasser workgroup has been formed to recommend improved transparent hiring practices and pending policy changes regarding employees or applicants with a history of sexual misconduct.
Contact: Melissa Sortman, Assistant Provost for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs
Launched in 2015 with a goal to recruit 100 new faculty in several new and expanding research areas, the Global Impact Initiative, or GII, has been an institutional success. Now we are implementing the second phase of the initiative, which will add an additional 20 faculty positions in disciplines such as space electronics, computational biology and health services research. This long-term investment will help reach our goal of $1 billion in annual research expenditures by 2030, as outlined in MSU’s strategic plan.
Contact: Doug Gage, Vice President for Research and Innovation
This initiative will institute measurable goals, milestones and campus engagement strategies to catalyze more efficient and effective services.
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Meeting grand challenges means renewing our commitment and our legacy of learning from the communities we serve. The inaugural Spartan Bus Tour, completed in late October, took a cohort of 60 administrators and faculty members to meet with residents, partners, business leaders and legislators in towns and communities our students call home.
A highly productive and successful trip, we will expand the Spartan Bus Tour to twice a year to further connect and strengthen bonds with communities around Michigan. In 2025, the first will be a visit to the metro Detroit area in May. The second one, next fall, will look more like the tour we took last October, with three days of visits across a wider section of the state. At this point, we’re looking at a tour of the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower Peninsula.
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This long-term enrollment strategy and roadmap for success will help MSU optimize undergraduate and graduate enrollment to best deliver on its mission of access and student success and meet the needs of Michigan employers.
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The Health Sciences Council was established in June 2024 at the request of President Guskiewicz to provide ideas about how the university could and should address complex health challenges. It released a report in Feb. 2025, and the community is exploring reimagining MSU Health Sciences through the lens of One Team, One Health.
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In Mar. 2025, MSU launched its most ambitious comprehensive fundraising campaign to date. The university’s $4 billion “Uncommon Will, Far Better World” campaign aims to cultivate lasting change by focusing on three key ambitions:
Talent Activated – Expanding access and opportunity for Spartans and enhancing their potential through scholarships and student programmatic support
Synergies Imagined – Advancing groundbreaking research and community partnerships to tackle the world’s most pressing challenges through endowed faculty and research opportunities
Futures Built – Transforming university spaces and technology that will empower Spartans to lead in their fields through capital projects and new programs
Contact: Kim Tobin, Vice President of University Advancement