University of South Carolina Board of Trustees committees met on Friday (June 9). Here’s a look at the actions from the meeting, which will be presented to the full board for final approval on June 23.
Academic changes approved
The Academic Excellence and Student Experience committee approved for board consideration hiring, tenure and promotion for faculty as well as academic program changes at several system institutions.
At the Columbia campus:
- tenure and promotion for 36 faculty members
- one tenure transfer to another unit
- thirteen new hires with tenure
- seven honorary academic titles
- reorganization of the College of Education into three new departments: the Department of Teacher Education; Department of Leadership, Learning Design and Inquiry; and Department of Educational and Developmental Science
- termination of the Center for Innovation in Higher Education
- establishment of a new endowed UNESCO Chair in the College of Information and Communications
- and revisions to USC Columbia faculty manual.
At the Aiken campus:
- five faculty for tenure and promotion
- one new hire with tenure
- four new undergraduate certificates: Cloud Computing and Security, Cybersecurity, Data Science, and Network Security and IT
- new B.S. degrees in Public Health and Software Engineering
- a new Master of Computer Information Science
- an additional concentration in Data Sciences for the B.S. in Applied Computer Science
- and changing the name of the B.S. in Earth Systems Science to the B.S. Environmental Earth Systems, the B.S. Industrial Process Engineering to the B.S. in Process Engineering, and the Department of Biology and Geology to the Department of Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences.
At the Beaufort campus:
- five faculty for tenure and promotion.
At the Upstate campus:
- tenure and promotion for 13 faculty members
- one new hire with tenure
- two honorary academic titles
- and three new programs: B.A. in Organizational Leadership, B.A.S in Business Administration and M.S. Criminal Justice
At Palmetto College:
- Six faculty for tenure and promotion
- a new site at Thornwell Charter School for dual enrollment in the A.A. and A.S. in General Liberal Arts and Sciences
- and revisions to the Palmetto College campuses faculty manual.
Contract and project approvals
The Finance and Infrastructure committee approved several construction projects, including:
- upfit and renovation of the Science and Technology building east tower to provide new classrooms, office and workspaces, and potentially instructional science labs
- phase II of the acquisition of property on Harden Street across from the future health sciences campus
- and modification of the USC Upstate campus entrance drive to improve access and safety.
The committee also signed off on a gift naming agreement, the Comprehensive Permanent Improvement Plan and the 2024 designed funds budget.
Finally, the governance committee approved a two-year software support services agreement with Ellucian Company, L.P. to administer Self-Service Carolina, and a one-year subscription agreement between University Libraries and EBSCO Information Services for electronic journals and databases.