Top USC presidential aide headed to new role at LSU
Mark Bieger, who was chief of staff to former University of South Carolina President Bob Caslen and has military ties to Columbia, has accepted a new position at another SEC school.
Bieger will be the vice president of strategy at Louisiana State University, according to a release from the school. In that role he will “help improve organizational alignment of all of the LSU campuses throughout the state and help drive the implementation of top priorities.”
The president at LSU is William Tate IV. He was USC’s provost under Caslen, but in May was named president of the Louisiana school. He is the first Black president of LSU.
“Mark Bieger operates at an elite level in the areas of strategic planning and building bridges across organizations,” Tate said in a statement. “His commitment to higher education in terms of making it accessible, affordable, and research driven align with a scholarship first agenda. He will add value to our leadership team and the community.”
USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said Bieger has submitted his resignation at South Carolina. His last official day is Tuesday.
Bieger starts work at LSU on Sept. 1.
“My wife and I are so honored and excited to be given this opportunity to join the LSU team,” Bieger said in the LSU release. “The university is an exceptional institution and a national treasure with a proud past and an even brighter future. I can’t wait to get to work with President Tate and the entire Tiger community to make a difference for our students and a positive impact for the state of Louisiana and beyond.”
Bieger was named chief of staff to then-USC President Bob Caslen in January 2020. He had previously served as Caslen’s chief of staff at West Point. And he has military connections to Columbia: He trained soldiers at Fort Jackson and commanded the 171st Infantry Brigade, based in Columbia, from 2012-2014. He was in the Army for 28 years and did two tours in Iraq.
Caslen was named USC’s president in 2019 after an at-times controversial hiring process by the school’s board. Under his leadership, the school froze tuition for two years in a row — something the university hadn’t done since the mid-80s — hired its first Black provost, partnered with the military on cybersecurity programs, held in-person classes during the pandemic while keeping on-campus COVID cases relatively low, implemented a cutting-edge saliva-based coronavirus testing system that greatly expanded testing capacity and sped up test results.
But Caslen ultimately resigned in May after gaffes during speeches at USC commencement ceremonies, including one where he referred to the school as the “University of California,” and another where he lifted a portion of another speech from retired Navy admiral William McRaven without attributing the source material.
Former USC President Harris Pastides has since stepped in as interim president at USC as the school searches for a new leader. Stensland said Bieger had continued to serve as chief of staff under Pastides the last few months. Bieger was paid $220,000 per year at USC.
