Dean Sanjay Gupta
It’s difficult to capture everything that has happened in the Broad College of Business’s journey over the past five years, from the accomplishments — like the fundraising, planning, construction and opening of the Edward J. Minskoff Pavilion — to the challenges, like navigating a remote teaching and learning environment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Broad College has grown in ways that cannot be summed up simply.
Through it all, Dean Sanjay Gupta has been at the helm, proudly serving as the 11th Eli and Edythe L. Broad Dean since July 2015. Gupta has led the Broad College to redefine itself and launch a comprehensive strategic plan, “Broad 2020,” to align with Michigan State University’s core values and priorities.
Now, Gupta has been endorsed by MSU’s leadership to continue in his role as dean of the Broad College for another five-year term.
“It has been a distinct privilege and high honor to serve as dean for the Broad College for the last five years,” Gupta said of his reappointment. “It is hard to believe that much time has gone by — seems like only the other day that I started on this journey. And what a journey it has been.”
Read more about Gupta’s time as dean thus far and what’s next for the college in this Q&A.
Broad News: What has been the high point of your time as dean of the Broad College so far?
Gupta: I am immensely proud of all that we have accomplished in the past five years together as a college. A few significant highlights:
- Developing innovative curriculum tied to our strategic themes of digital economy, global mindset, ethics and integrity, and diversity, equity and inclusion
- Launching new academic programs in healthcare management, insurance and risk management, and financial planning and wealth management
- Initiating collaborative research and programs with the health sciences, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Engineering and other colleges at MSU
- Strengthening our student and academic support services, including fully dedicated staff for learning and technology, external research grant support, education abroad and our international students
- Completing a highly successful capital campaign raising $196 million, including endowments for 16 named faculty positions, and the fully funded state-of-the-art, 100,000-square-foot, $62 million Minskoff Pavilion, which was completed ahead of schedule and under budget and garnered the single largest gift in MSU’s history
Broad News: What are you looking forward to as you begin your new term?
Gupta: Our work is not done as U.S. higher education is being tested like never before. The unprecedented global pandemic forced us to switch to remote teaching and learning overnight and is now forcing us to brace for a new normal, and the social and political landscape is greatly unsettled.
From left to right: Dean Sanjay Gupta, Edward J. Minskoff, Eli Broad and MSU President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., pictured at the Minskoff Pavilion ribbon-cutting ceremony in 2019.
The current economic uncertainty and altered public policy priorities are exposing deep vulnerabilities in the public university financial model as potentially unsustainable. And so, the question before us is, How do we ensure that the Broad College not only stays competitive in this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment but in fact is recognized as a top-of-mind business school and realizes its fullest potential?
Our five strategic initiatives will continue to guide our work going forward to address this question head-on. Our momentum will not falter as we strive to transform lives through undergraduate education, enhance careers and lifelong learning through graduate programs, strengthen impactful research and scholarship, enhance outreach and engagement with key communities and foster a diverse and inclusive culture of collaboration.
I am committed to working alongside the Broad faculty and staff to lead the college to an even better tomorrow, seeking innovation in our programs, resilience in overcoming our challenges and excellence in our performance, while never forgetting the indomitable Spartan spirit and pride.
Broad News: In your words, what does it mean to be a Broad Spartan?
Gupta: Being a Spartan myself before the college was named after Eli Broad, this question is really personal. My own experiences and the interactions with many other Spartans over the years have reinforced some core ideas of what it means to be a Broad Spartan: proud yet humble, hardworking but aspirational, competitive but also the ultimate team player, and one who truly embraces, values and treasures being part of the Broad network and the Spartan family!
