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Nearly a week after the Board of Governors vowed to oust her, Wayne State University President Kimberly Espy has resigned, the Detroit News reports, citing an unnamed source. She had been on the job for two years.
Sarah Atwood of The News reports:
Espy, 62, informed the Board of Governors of her resignation, and she is also expected to announce her resignation publicly Wednesday during a special board meeting, the source said. The terms of her resignation were not immediately available, but they would be when her resignation is formally accepted. The board planned to name the dean of Wayne State's law school, Richard Bierschbach, as the interim president, the source said.
Espy's resignation comes two years into the role and a week after two sources told The News that friction between the president and the board has grown over the last year. Part of the friction is rooted in the bipartisan board's growing displeasure with aspects of her management of the university, including concerns about her communication over the recent placement of the dean of the School of Medicine on paid leave in August, the sources said.
One Wayne State employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Deadline Detroit last week that the president had made her fair share of enemies and was perceived as silent, overly cautious, and “missing in action” after President Trump took office and threatened to withhold research funding from universities like WSU if they didn’t comply with White House policy.
When it came to issues of academic freedom, free speech, and supporting faculty, the person said Espy failed to speak up. However, they added that Espy was in a tough position and had to be careful not to jeopardize government research funding, which could have harmed the university, particularly since it doesn't have healthy endowments like Harvard or the University of Michigan.
Espy, the university's 13th president, began serving as president on August 1, 2023, and was formally installed by the Wayne State Board of Governors during an investiture ceremony on March 18, 2024.
She previously served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Before that, she was the senior vice president for research at the University of Arizona.
Espy earned a bachelor's degree from Rice University and a master’s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Houston. She completed a clinical internship at the University of Louisville School of Medicine and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.
