The Board of Trustees governs the University System, electing the President of USC Columbia and the USC System; defining institutional missions; setting goals and policies; reviewing and approving plans, degrees, budgets, fees, tuition, and requests for appropriations.

Early History of the Board of Trustees

The University of South Carolina was founded as South Carolina College on Saturday, December 19, 1801 by the South Carolina General Assembly. The Board of Trustees of South Carolina College first convened on Friday, February 12, 1802. Then, on Sunday, February 14, 1802, the Board convened again for “an Election by Ballot” to select the Board’s leader; to name a committee of Trustees that would author the Board’s “Rules for preserving Order and Decorum”; to name a second committee to select “a proper Site, whereon to erect the College at Columbia”; to ask architects to prepare “Original Plans suitable for the erection of a College capable of accommodating the greatest possible number of Students. . . and for the accommodating of the Professors”; and “to request of the Presidents of Colleges in the United States a Description or plan of the College over which they Preside.”

Relevant links:

Sections 59-117-10, et seq., Code of Laws of South Carolina (1976), as amended

Bylaws of the University of South Carolina Board of Trustees

University of South Carolina Online Policy Manual

Oath of Office, Code of Conduct, and Statement of Commitment for Trustees