The university’s Board of Trustees met on Friday (Feb. 24). Here’s a look at the actions they took.
New board members take office
Three new members of the board began their tenure at the meeting. Henry Jolly Jr., a dentist from Gaffney, S.C., will represent the 7th judicial circuit. Reid Sherard, an attorney from Greenville, S.C., will represent the 13th judicial circuit. Ellen Weaver will serve in her capacity as newly elected State Superintendent of Education.
These changes to the board necessitated elections for the chairs of two committees. Dan Adams is the new chair of the Finance and Infrastructure committee, and Alex English is the new chair of the Academic Excellence and Student Experience committee.
Academic modifications approved
On the Columbia campus, one hire with tenure and two honorary academic titles were granted in the College of Arts and Sciences. The Department of African American Studies and the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies were also designated as new tenure homes.
Ten new programs received approval:
- a Certificate of Graduate Study in Information Security and Cyber Leadership, and an M.S. in Information Security and Cyber Leadership in the College of Information and Communications,
- an M.S. in Information Technology in the College of Engineering and Computing,
- an M.A. in Dance Studies,
- D.N.P. degrees in Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, Clinical Expert, Executive Healthcare Leadership, Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner in the College of Nursing,
- a B.S. in Cyber Policy and Ethics in the College of Arts and Sciences,
- and a combination degree program to allow student to obtain an M.S. in Business Analytics and one-year MBA in two years.
Several program modifications on the Columbia campus and one modification at USC Beaufort were also approved:
- the B.A in Global Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences was restructured to add a global thinking category and a change in the language requirement,
- the B.A. in Languages, Literatures and Culture in the College of Arts and Sciences was modified to add new concentrations in Italian and linguistics, and to split classics into four separate concentrations,
- the B.S. in Cardiovascular Technology in the College of Arts and Sciences now includes health economics,
- the B.S./B.A. in Marketing in the Darla Moore School of Business added two new concentrations for three total pathways; general, product management and sales leadership,
- the M.Acc in Accountancy in the Moore School added a new concentration in information systems,
- the M.S. in Biomedical Sciences in the School of Medicine Columbia added a concentration in health professional sciences,
- the M.S.N. in Entry to Practice in the College of Nursing revised its curriculum to meet new accreditation standards,
- the Post-Master Certificate in Advance Practice Nursing in the College of Nursing was eliminated, as programs were elevated in 2022 to replace it,
- the Ph.D. in Social Work eliminated a two-course sequence and replaced it with four courses,
- and two instructional sites at USCB were formally relocated due to renovations at the armed force bases where they had previously existed.
Other approvals
During the meeting, the board also approved confidential candidates for honorary degrees, the Audit & Advisory Service 2023-2024 budget, past meeting minutes and revisions to board bylaws.
Finally, three contracts received approval:
- an academic degree program agreement between the College of Engineering and Computing and the Mediterranean Institute of Technology in Tunisia, which allows Med Tech students to take courses at USC as non-degree-seeking students,
- and four-year extensions to two agreements between the Department of Information Technology and Presidio Network Solutions LLC for continued access to Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure cloud services, which both provide information storage for campus departments.