After a seven-month search, a week of interviews with four finalists and a day of protests over the finalist selections (all men and three of them white), the University of South Carolina board of trustees voted to continue searching for a president to succeed Harris Pastides. The board named Brendan Kelly, the chancellor at USC Upstate, as interim president. He will take on his new role August 1, the day after Pastides retires. Read more.
In other people news:
Kent State University trustees announced that Todd Diacon, the Ohio school’s executive vice president and provost, will be its next president. Read more.
The higher education environment has been getting more competitive. There are fewer potential students and they have more options. State and federal funding is more difficult to rely on, and fundraising is a must. All that means the job of the college president is broader and more complicated today than it was a few decades ago. Read more.
