Dean's Update
February 27, 2025 - Aron Sousa, MD
Friends,
This week, our leadership continued to track federal issues impacting the local work of our faculty, staff, and students. In the research realm, we know of more than 100 faculty whose grants are held up in the whirlpool of inefficiency swallowing science across the land. These faculty have grants somewhere in the queue awaiting study sections that have been cancelled or delayed, or they have scored grants awaiting funding decisions delayed by the federal register freeze. We would never expect all these grants to be funded, but not knowing if a grant will be funded makes it very difficult for faculty to plan the next steps for paying salary for their research personnel and moving their science forward. There are court actions in place to keep the system moving; however, obstipation is this month’s main symptom.
Those tracking the courts will have noticed an injunction against executive orders aimed at diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts on free speech grounds. As I described last week, the college has complied with Michigan Proposal 2 since 2006. We will continue to follow this issue as well as the impact of staffing cuts at multiple federal agencies that serve our students, staff, and faculty. Similarly, we are following congressional action on the Medicaid funds that support so much needed care in our state.
This Dean’s Update is out on Thursday rather than Friday, because President Guskiewicz released an update on the Health Sciences Council (HSC) process today. If you linger on your memory of the HSC, your synapses will relay that its six month mission was to provide the president bold ideas and options for reimagining health sciences at Michigan State University.
With today’s communication, the president released the HSC’s report and laid out his interest in bringing all of health science into better alignment through a One Team, One Health vision. There are FAQs, media releases, and the reports linked above. Importantly, he is looking for input and feedback as he explores the following:
- One MSU College of Medicine with two-degree pathways
- A College of Health Professions
- A MSU Institute for Collaborative Biomedical Research
- Unified leadership - Per the president’s statement, “Any final structure will emphasize the following two principles: 1) all colleges need to have a relationship with the provost to ensure a unified academic enterprise, and 2) the nature of our health sciences programs and relationships with external health system partners necessitates the president also maintain a close working relationship with internal health sciences leadership.” – Kevin Guskiewicz.
President Guskiewicz will be hosting a series of virtual conversations, the first of which will be with health sciences faculty and staff. It’s planned for March 4 at 1 p.m. Invitations will be sent soon.
The underlying goal of this vision is to advance the outcomes that have made us special – graduating students dedicated to scientific medicine with a deep understanding of our common humanity and dedicated to serving the underserved, engaging our communities to help them meet their goals for health and a better life, and discovery and scholarship that make the world better and more just. Beyond that larger mission these changes could provide better opportunities for students, faculty, and staff by removing divisions, encouraging collaboration, finding efficiencies, and reducing turf battles. Anyone who has worked for either medical college will recall episodes where external, or, more commonly, internal partners, have played one medical college off against the other. These fracases just led to wasted effort and resources – they have made us weaker, too.
Writ across the decades, what separates the colleges has fed misunderstandings and competitions that harmed the opportunities of both colleges locally and nationally. Personally, I imagine running a thousand simulations of the university’s health science history in Lansing with the starting condition that we had enacted a One Team, One Health vision 30 years ago. I don’t have the computer skills to run that simulation, but I know this university and town pretty well. Leadership matters, so there are many simulations that would end with the same Lansing situation in which we find ourselves now. However, I truly believe the odds of better outcomes improve with this vision. If leaders had done this 30 years ago, I believe we would thank them.
I also do not want to diminish the impact this conversation may have on you. Change is stressful during normal times and these times are far from normal. We have a tremendous team of staff, faculty, and leadership. We have amazing students. I believe the college and our people will emerge from these conversations stronger with even greater opportunity. To do so requires your input and engagement. Ponder these efforts, engage in the discussion, share your feedback, and dream a little about how we can strengthen our programs and research through a One Team, One Health vision.
I hope you are still with me, because I want to address those, like me, who recall the attempt to pick up the college and move it to Grand Rapids in 2004 and the abortive name change attempt in 2018. It is important to note a key difference between those poorly considered decrees and the vision offered to us now. The “move” and the “name change” were chucked down at us as edicts from on high. In stark contrast, President Guskiewicz has presented this as a vision and is seeking feedback – his is a remarkably different approach, and I hope people will respond seriously. You can provide your own feedback with this anonymous survey link. Addressing people’s concerns will make this vision stronger and more effective for everyone.
In the final analysis, the point of academic medicine at Michigan State is to provide a remarkable public good for our state and the world. United rather than divided, we can discover more science, educate more people, partner with more communities, care for more patients, and serve more people than ever before. I believe this vision helps us expand all our noble work, and I look forward to talking with you more.
Finally, our students are core to organizing the Michigan Stand Up For Science rally on March 7 from noon to 4 p.m. at the Michigan Capitol. I have been told some people are worried about how the university or college will respond to students, faculty, and staff going to or speaking at the rally. Let me remind you that the university is fully invested in your First Amendment rights. There will not be college or university retaliation for participating or counter-demonstrating. It is university policy that faculty, staff, and students should speak from their own expertise and can use their college and university affiliation but not speak for the college or the university. I know our people will do their best.
Serving the people with you,
Aron
Aron Sousa, MD, FACP
Dean, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine