Benedict to hold Charter Day celebration

Tamara L. Harris Robinson, president of the Tamara L. Harris Foundation, a New Jersey-based private philanthropic organization, will be the keynote speaker for Benedict College’s 2012 Charter Day scholarship awards dinner, set for Wednesday. obinson is vice-chair on the board of the United Negro College Fund.

Charter Day is an annual event that commemorates the chartering of Benedict by the S.C. Legislature on Nov. 2, 1894. Proceeds support scholarships for deserving students.

The black-tie event will be held at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center. The reception starts at 6:30 p.m. with dinner following at 7:15 p.m. The cost of the event is $150 per person. Tickets are available for purchase online at www.benedict.edu. For more information, call (803) 705-4743.

Winthrop names search committee for new president

ROCK HILL Winthrop University has named a 10-member search committee for its next president. Winthrop University trustee vice chair Kathy Bigham of Rock Hill will lead the committee, created after Anthony DiGiorgio said in March he would retire in mid-2013 after 24 years as president.

The panel overseeing the search includes Kambrell Garvin, rising junior from Columbia and student representative to trustees. The group will be responsible for “recommending to the board of trustees an unranked list of three to five individuals who, in the (committee’s) judgment, are well-qualified to be the 10th president of Winthrop University,” according to Winthrop’s board.

The trustees will make the final selection.

Newberry professor wins teaching award

NEWBERRY Jodie Peeler, associate professor and coordinator of the communications program at Newberry College, has been awarded the S.C. Independent College and Universities Excellence in Teaching Award. Peeler, who has been at Newberry since 2001, primarily teaches journalism, media history, and communications law courses. She also supervises the student newspaper.

Four Furman professors honored

GREENVILLE Furman University is home to four of the country’s best undergraduate professors, according to a new book, “The Best 300 Professors,” published by The Princeton Review.

Furman professors David Boost, who teaches modern languages and literatures; Charles Brewer, who teaches psychology; Timothy Feeler, who teaches history; and Margaret Oakes, who teaches English, were among 300 winners selected from 42,000 professors, representing more than 60 fields from 122 colleges and universities.

Foundation makes $50,000 award to Winthrop

ROCK HILL The Leon Levine Foundation of Charlotte has awarded Winthrop’s Learning Excellent Academic Practices (LEAP) Program a $50,000 grant to fund scholarships.

Housed in Winthrop’s University College, LEAP is an academic support program that identifies, supports, and evaluates students before and during their first year at Winthrop. The program, created in the 1980s, offers academic advising and faculty-led support to a select group of students in the freshman class. LEAP helps students who may not be as prepared for college-level academics work toward graduating.

Gloria Jones, dean of University College, said the grant will allow the LEAP Program to aid students who have completed their freshman year and new freshmen. “This money will enable us to assist both students who have successfully completed their freshman year and may be struggling financially as well as new freshmen whose financial difficulties might prevent them from attending Winthrop.”

Former Mexico president to speak at Furman

GREENVILLE Former Mexico President Vicente Fox will talk about relations between the United States and Mexico at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Furman University’s McAlister Auditorium. The talk is free and open to the public. Fox was president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, the first president in 71 years to defeat the then-dominant Institutional Revolutionary Party.