Winthrop names four finalists for its president
ROCK HILL The four finalists to be Winthrop University’s next president are:
Jeff Braden – Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at North Carolina State University in Raleigh
Jayne Marie Comstock – Director of the Executive Leadership Group at the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C.
Elizabeth Dale – Vice president of advancement at Drexel University in Philadelphia
Ulysses Hammond – Vice president for administration at Connecticut College in New London, Conn.
The finalists, elected from more than 100 applicants and nominees, will visit the Rock Hill campus to meet with faculty, staff, students and the public. It will then be up to the Winthrop’s trustees to choose the individual who will become the 127-year-old institution’s 10th president.
USC band hall named in honor of longtime director
The University of South Carolina School of Music honored its longtime band director by naming a building in his honor.
The school named the band hall in honor of James Copenhaver, who directed bands on the Columbia campus for 34 years. The marching band facility was dedicated Tuesday at the hall on Sumter Street.
Copenhaver has been named the director of the school’s bands emeritus.
Clemson studying impacts of oil, gas exploration in Gulf
CLEMSON Researchers at Clemson University are studying how eastern brown pelicans are affected by oil and natural gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.
The school said a team will be gathering data on the birds’ migratory habits and reproduction. Researchers hope the data will help them understand the impact that drilling has on the birds.
The four-year study will start in the spring. It is being paid for by a $1.2 million grant from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Clemson says the research will build on research that professor Patrick Jodice already has done on the ecology of brown pelicans in South Carolina and in the Gulf of Mexico in response to the Deepwater Horizon incident.
Building Arts school now takes VA benefits
CHARLESTON Veterans now can attend the American College of the Building Arts using their VA educational benefits.
The Charleston school, which has received certification from the Department of Veterans Affairs to accept veteran students under VA programs, is the only liberal arts college in the nation that trains artisans in traditional building arts. Students learn such skills as stone carving, carpentry, masonry, plaster work, timber framing and ornamental ironwork.
College president Colby Broadwater says the VA designation is another sign of the maturing of the college.
