USC board hires consultant to help fix problems exposed by presidential search

The University of South Carolina has hired a consultant to fix governance issues exposed by the controversial 2019 presidential search.

Cameron Howell, who is the cousin of board member Mack Whittle, was approved to be a governance consultant for USC during a Monday board of trustees meeting that was conducted by phone because of coronavirus. Whittle said during the meeting that Howell is his cousin and recused himself from the vote because of that.

Howell will be paid $3,500 per week, which shakes out to $182,000 per year, trustees said at the meeting.

Howell had worked at USC from 2012-2017. In the highest position he held, director of strategic planning, he analyzed higher education trends for administrators and advised them on what the trends mean for USC’s future plans, according to his LinkedIn page.

“I think if you look at his resume and his experience...he’s qualified,” USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said.

This is not the first time USC has hired a consultant to help the board of trustees reform its practices since the controversial presidential search. Shortly after Robert Caslen, the former superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was named president, he enlisted the Association of Governing Boards (AGB) as a consultant to sort out what went wrong during the presidential search.

During a public dressing-down in January, the association blasted USC’s board for a “fundamentally misguided governance culture.”

Asked why USC needed a new consultant, Stensland said AGB was hired to identify issues with the board’s governance and Howell’s job will focus on making sure changes get implemented.