Clemson University got its second choice for president after its first pick walked away—and the whole episode reveals why competent leaders are fleeing higher education while the price tag for families keeps climbing.
Three days after Michigan State University President Kevin Guskiewicz abruptly backed out of the Clemson job he'd already accepted, the South Carolina school's Board of Trustees unanimously named University of Georgia Provost Benjamin Ayers as its 16th president. Ayers starts August 1 with a five-year contract and a $1 million base salary, according to the Charleston Post and Courier.
The speed tells you everything. Clemson had spent months on a presidential search, landed on Guskiewicz in May, and even brought him to campus. But Guskiewicz never actually signed a contract—only a terms sheet promising $1.2 million, the Post and Courier reported. Then on July 7, he reversed course, citing "personal reasons."
The real reason appears to be a massive pay bump back in East Lansing. Forbes reported that Michigan State had offered Guskiewicz a contract extension and a $1 million raise—nearly doubling his salary—less than two weeks before he announced his departure for Clemson. When he decided to stay, he got a raise of nearly half a million dollars plus perks including 10 hours of private aircraft access for personal travel, paid for by "philanthropic funding sources."
So Guskiewicz leveraged Clemson to extract more from Michigan State, where the board has been a revolving door of dysfunction. MSU has had six presidents since 2018, three of them interim. Board members have faced allegations of bullying and accepting personal gifts from donors, Forbes reported. Guskiewicz himself publicly criticized the board's micromanagement before his about-face, then praised their "recommitment" to functioning as "one team"—even though at least one board member said he wasn't shown the contract before it was signed.
This is what passes for governance at major universities: backroom deals, unsigned contracts, and presidents who treat institutions like bargaining chips.
Clemson, for its part, passed over two internal finalists—engineering dean Anand Gramopadhye and science dean Cynthia Young—who had been named among the top three choices. Trustees said they went back to their original candidate pool and found the "best fit." Trustee Cheri Phyfer thanked the passed-over internal candidates for "being willing to serve."
Board Chairwoman Kim Wilkerson said "great universities deserve leaders who put the institution ahead of themselves"—a line that lands awkwardly given that the university's first choice demonstrably did the opposite.
The question nobody in the academy wants to answer: why is running a major university such a mess that top candidates need seven-figure bribes to stay, and backups get the job by default? When boards micromanage, presidents leverage offers for raises, and contracts are signed before all trustees even see them—families writing tuition checks are the ones paying for the circus.
