New SCSU director focused on retention

“It is going to be very important to understand why we lose students, whether it’s from a financial reason, or from an academic reason,” trustee Dr. Doris Helms said Wednesday. She’s chairperson of the academic affairs committee.

“Mr. Clinton has indicated that that is one of the things that he is going to be looking into, and the committee is looking forward to a report on that at our next meeting,” she said.

Helms reported on the new hire as well as strategic initiatives being taken to foster academic excellence during a virtual board of trustees meeting on May 4.

She noted S.C. State Provost Dr. Frederick Evans is focused on fostering a culture of assessment at the university, particularly as it pertains to maintaining its accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

“SACS accreditation is like a maintenance agreement. It doesn’t go away after they visit. It is a continual process,” Helms said.

Technology upgrades are also a strategic focus of the university.

“We continue to upgrade our classroom technology, which is extremely important. Seventy classrooms have been completed; 30 are still in progress,” Helms said.

The university’s tenure process has also “finally been transitioned to totally online, which is a very big undertaking,” she said.

Research infrastructure is another strategic focus.

The university has an interest in developing an undergraduate research program and also “reinstating our research incentive and bonus plan,” Helms said.

“We also would like to find ways to better support commercialization of intellectual property that comes from our faculty research,” she said.

Helms also noted community and global engagement as a strategic initiative, which includes “planning to continue to develop online programs and increase faculty support and training for being online and working with the community.”

There is also work to reduce the amount of general education courses university students have to take to 35 hours.

“SACSCOC requires 30 hours, some of them designated for particular subject matters, but we did suggest … that perhaps the committee target 30 hours and you might end up with 35. But certainly lowering the GEC and being able to integrate that into the curriculum is something that we really need to do to benefit our students,” Helms said.

She reported that lab fees are now also being returned to the departments that generate them.

“I think all of you know that we charge lab fees so that we can afford to purchase the supplies and equipment that are required by particular courses. So having those lab fees actually go back to benefit the students who were in those courses is something that is very important, and I’m glad to see that has been done,” Helms said.

She also reported that Valerie Goodwin, the university’s acting director of institutional effectiveness/quality enhancement plan, is continuing her work to make sure the university keeps up with SACSCOC requirements.

“Our monitoring report is due on Sept. 8, and that is going to have a virtual follow-up visit Sept. 19. I think all of you understand that overseeing our SACS assessment activities is a very demanding and a very complicated job, and we are very, very lucky that S.C. State has Valerie Goodwin managing our SACSCOC work,” Helms said.

In other matters, the board addressed three action items, including the approval of the graduates for spring 2022.

Approximately 315 students will be receiving their degrees at 7 p.m. Friday, May 6, in the Smith-Hammond-Middleton Memorial Center.

The board also approved the conferring of honorary doctorate of humane letters degrees upon S.C. State University head football coach emeritus Willie E. Jeffries, who will be the keynote speaker at the university’s commencement ceremony, and S.C. State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell.