Questions & Answers

Andy Anuzis is running for the Wayne State University Board of Governors to bring experienced, student-focused, principle-based, common-sense leadership to one of Michigan’s most important public universities.

Below are Andy’s answers to questions about Wayne State’s future, affordability, academic quality, free expression, financial oversight, and athletics.

Mission & Vision

What should be the top priorities for Wayne State University, and how would you help achieve them?

Top priorities are affordability, preparing students for successful careers, and developing a generation of intellectually cultivated citizens who will elevate our civic discourse.

As a board member, I would build those priorities into Wayne State University’s strategic plan and allocate needed budget dollars.

Wayne State University has historically been an engine of upward mobility for working- and middle-class students. At a higher rate than any other Michigan university, Wayne State graduates stay in Michigan to build families and careers.

Students deserve affordable, excellent colleges that help them attain economic and career success, but also build their critical thinking skills. We should not think of universities solely as job training institutions. Cultivating the full human person is especially important with the advent of artificial intelligence.

Wisdom, reason, sound judgment, a sense of history and philosophy, and the ability to discern “the good” are critically important as AI floods our world with information and misinformation. Universities can play a meaningful role in building a civil society marked by public spiritedness, civic virtue, and the ability for citizens across the ideological spectrum to constructively debate and engage.

To that end, some universities are launching civic institutions, and I would encourage this at Wayne State. As a board member, I would financially support Wayne State’s excellent undergraduate and graduate humanities, social sciences, arts, medical, business, engineering, education, law, and other programs that deliver intellectual cultivation as well as practical and meaningful economic opportunities.

Affordability

What specific steps would you support to control tuition costs and reduce student debt?

Each annual budget cycle is an opportunity to eliminate waste, but most organizations struggle to make the hard decisions necessary to do so.

At its core, Wayne State University is an educational and research institution. The focus of the budget should be on these core missions. Ancillary projects, initiatives, and departments are often developed in complex organizations for what seem to be good reasons at the time. They all require money, and over time they can grow into permanent drains on the budget that provide little support to the core university missions.

As part of the budget process, each should be scrutinized to see if it can be self-funded. If not, there should be discussion about whether it should be pared back or eliminated.

This is difficult and requires both care and a willingness to make hard decisions. But such decisions can provide more resources for the core missions, help keep tuition affordable, and ensure that our students and our state are the ultimate beneficiaries of the funding for this great public university.

Academic Quality

How should universities balance research excellence, teaching quality, and workforce preparation?

Each of these – research, teaching, and workforce preparation – is critical for both students and our state. But excellence in teaching and learning is of paramount importance in today’s world and is at the heart of Wayne State University.

Since its founding, Wayne State has been a place where anyone with the desire and talent, regardless of cultural, racial, or socioeconomic background, can receive a top-notch education and be ready to thrive in the real world upon graduation.

Wayne State graduates receive an education that both readies them for careers and prepares them for life as engaged and educated citizens.

Wayne State is also a top-tier research university, among the best in the nation, a fact that is sometimes overlooked in our state. Wayne State’s research in medicine, engineering, and other disciplines saves, supports, and improves lives around the world, while also serving and supporting the educational mission of the university.

Wayne State professors both create knowledge and pass it on to students. Because of this dual mission, graduates are prepared to enter the workforce and to be leaders in their organizations and communities.

Governance

What do you see as the proper role of a board member in relation to university leadership, including the president and administration?

Board members should support the university in fulfilling its mission, provide strategic direction, and make prudent budget decisions.

Boards must also provide accountability, ensuring the interests of students, taxpayers, and the state of Michigan are met.

Wayne State’s mission is “to create and advance knowledge, prepare a diverse student body to thrive, and positively impact local and global communities.”

Hiring and firing a university president should not be based on a board member’s personal or ideological dispositions. It should be based on whether the president is true to the university’s stated mission and whether the president is successfully advancing that mission.

A board member’s posture toward the university’s leadership should be supportive and constructive, balanced with accountability.

Free Expression & Campus Climate

How should universities protect free speech while maintaining an inclusive and respectful campus environment?

Looking specifically at Wayne State, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression ranked Wayne State University 126th out of 257 colleges and universities in its 2026 College Free Speech Rankings. Wayne State is in the middle of the rankings, and as a board member I would want to learn more about why.

The Bridging Differences initiative at Wayne State University, which has included student-led efforts and discussion groups designed to bring students from different political, ideological, religious, and cultural backgrounds together for dialogue and collaborative intellectual freedom on campus, is a good start. But more work is needed.

Universities should foster a climate of free intellectual inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and critical thinking.

As a Wayne State Governor, I would encourage Wayne State to become a formal signatory to the Chicago Statement, which affirms universities’ commitment to free expression and academic freedom as core to their mission.

I am a supporter of the Heterodox Academy, which was formed by academicians across the philosophical spectrum to offer ideas and policy solutions that foster open inquiry, institutional neutrality, academic freedom, viewpoint diversity, and constructive disagreement.

As a Wayne State Governor, I would work with university leadership to evaluate the feasibility of creating a Wayne State Civil Society Institute to create spaces for intellectual diversity, revitalize humanities and civic learning, and encourage free inquiry and debate.

The School of Civic Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin, which offers academic programs focused on constitutional democracy and leadership, is one example of the type of civil society center Wayne State could consider.

Financial Oversight

What is your approach to budgeting, endowment management, and ensuring fiscal accountability?

As a new member of the Board, my first task would be to learn, so I would begin with an open mind.

I have served in educational leadership where budgets were tight and every penny had to be accounted for, and I would bring that discipline to bear.

The university has been in existence since 1868, so it must be doing something right. But complex organizations can be resistant to change and slow to identify opportunity.

These approaches require digging into the details and asking hard questions. The first question should be whether the budgeted initiative, department, or program serves the educational and research missions of the university, and how directly.

Can it be changed, combined, or eliminated without disrupting the teaching and research that are the core of the university?

Each new proposal should be judged on both its short-term benefits and its long-term potential. New initiatives are exciting, but they must serve the core mission and should be kept from becoming additional layers of unnecessary and expensive bureaucracy over time.

Regarding endowments, my hope is that Wayne State is working to grow this source of ongoing funding provided through the generosity of donors, and also has expert professional investment advice and support. While I trust this is the case, as with budgeting and finance, I would work quickly to verify it.

Athletics

What role should intercollegiate athletics play within the university, and how should boards oversee issues like athlete compensation, conference alignment, and NIL programs?

As a Division II school, Wayne State gives students the opportunity to be student-athletes, and I support that approach.

Not every university should aspire to be a big-money, high-profile sports powerhouse.

Wayne State continues to produce All-Americans, especially in swimming and diving, and wins championships in men’s and women’s sports. Wayne State also produces academic All-Americans and provides many opportunities for students to participate.

I am a high school principal at Detroit’s Cornerstone Lincoln-King High School, and a few of my alumni are on Wayne State varsity teams.

Broadly speaking, I support student-athletes’ right to earn money from their personal brand without being paid directly by their school to play sports.