Former USC interim president-elect is the lone finalist for top job at another school

Brendan Kelly was just weeks away from becoming the interim president of the University of South Carolina. But before he could, USC’s board of trustees named Robert Caslen the school’s president.

Now, Brendan Kelly is the lone finalist for the president of the University of West Georgia, the school announced Monday.

The University of West Georgia is based in Carrollton (just over an hour’s drive west of Atlanta) and has an enrollment of 13,733. It’s the sixth-largest public university in Georgia, according to the school’s website. Like USC Upstate, West Georgia is a part of a larger university system.

Kelly, the chancellor at USC Upstate, received praise across the then-divided USC board of trustees for the job he has done at USC’s largest campus outside Columbia.

“It is an honor to be considered for the presidency of the University of West Georgia, and I am grateful for the opportunity,” Kelly said in a press release. “West Georgia makes a unique and powerful contribution to the role universities play in enhancing students’ lives, shaping their communities and creating a more successful economy.”

Kelly has been a rising star at USC. When The State asked former President Harris Pastides this summer whether Kelly has what it takes to be a university president, Pastides said: “If you’re asking me will Brendan Kelly be a university president here or elsewhere someday after USC Upstate, I would say ‘sure, he will.”

This story was originally published December 17, 2019 at 3:39 PM.