CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor is leaving for East Lansing, Michigan.
Kevin Guskiewicz will complete his last full semester as the chancellor of UNC when final exams end this month.
He will start his new job as president of Michigan State University on March 4.
The Tar Heel figurehead has guided the state’s flagship institution through a pandemic and a rocky start to the 2023 academic calendar.
Guskiewicz has navigated his fair share of issues since taking over the chancellorship about five years ago. From a deadly shooting on campus early this fall and the threat of gun violence a few weeks later, when a nonstudent flashed a gun inside the student union, there has been a concern among some students about whom to turn to for answers when things go wrong.
For Christopher Everett, that person for years has been Guskiewicz.
“I think that one thing that the chancellor has meant to me is stability. I think that we’ve had a very tumultuous four years,” Everett said.
Everett, 21, would know. The senior is now the UNC student body president.
“But having Chancellor Guskiewicz come in and stay and sort of see me through graduation…meant some sort of stability that just isn’t true anymore,” Everett said.
The news of his departure comes in the middle of final exams, which compounds the announcement for some.
Everett said that because Guskiewicz led them through the COVID-19 pandemic, he has a special place in students' hearts.
The chancellor, who has worked in different capacities for UNC for 30 years, has butted heads with board members who declined to hire Nikole Hannah-Jones to a tenured position in the School of Journalism.
Seeing Guskiewicz tackle a myriad of difficulties is no surprise to Lauren Hawkinson.
“He was the most humble person I had ever met. I could see that his genuine, sincere care for the students was at the top of his priority list,” Hawkinson said.
Hawkinson, 33, is the president of graduate and professional student government. However, it was nearly 10 years ago when she met Guskiewicz as a master's student in the kinesiology program that she saw his love for younger people.
“He’s just been someone that I've really looked up to and now serving in this role as graduate professional student government president, he’s just been a steady, a pretty steady presence for a pretty tumultuous year,” Hawkinson said.
In a statement released early Friday morning to media and members of the UNC community, Guskiewicz shared the change in leadership.
"I have loved leading Carolina for nearly five years," the statement reads. "We have accomplished so much together, and I am proud of where Carolina is today. We have faced challenging times, but also incredible moments of opportunity. Thank you for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me to ensure our status as the leading global public research university we have aspired to be.”
For some, campus life and atmosphere will never be the same.
“Honestly, I was just really sad this morning that it would be confirmed officially that he’d be leaving,” Hawkinson said.
The Michigan State University board of trustees unanimously approved Guskiewicz as the school's next president.
Along with his duties as the head of the Big Ten school, Guskiewicz will be tenured as a professor of kinesiology.