SC State board of trustee member calls for President Clark to be replaced
South Carolina State University faces increasing pressure to find a new leader after the head of the alumni association called for the university to find a new president.
John Funny, the president of S.C. State’s National Alumni Association and a member of the school’s board of trustees, blasted the “failed leadership of the president of the university” in an open letter released Thursday. The letter followed a Wednesday board of trustees meeting in which the board took no official action, despite spending hours in executive session on an undisclosed personnel matter.
“I cannot figure out why the board has not taken action,” Funny told The State in a Friday interview. “S.C. State needs to change leadership. This is not a difficult equation.”
Although The State sent a copy of Funny’s letter to the university, S.C. State spokesman Samuel Watson said the university could not respond because it had not officially received a copy of the letter.
Funny says he, despite being an ex-officio member of the board of trustees, was not allowed into the executive session — in which board of trustee discussions are closed to the public — during the Wednesday board meeting.
S.C. State policy allows for the university to exclude from executive session certain board members, Funny said. However, Funny questioned the legality of the rule and said he would ask the S.C. Attorney General’s office for a legal opinion on the matter.
Ex-officio board members, such as Funny, do not cast votes on board of trustee matters, Watson said.
The board meeting followed calls for S.C. State President James Clark to resign. In March S.C. State’s faculty senate voted 18-2 to declare no confidence in Clark, The State previously reported. In May 2020, the alumni association and Funny held a press conference expressing “no confidence” in Clark’s leadership, according to an article in The Times and Democrat.
In 2019, the founding editor of HBCU Digest, an influential publication that covers historically Black colleges and universities like S.C. State, wrote an article titled, “It is Time for a Change in Leadership at South Carolina State.” That article cited declining enrollment and a lack of a plan to boost enrollment and fix buildings. Faculty members who sought to replace Clark cited declining enrollment, raises to top officials and a perceived lack of faculty input on major hires.
Clark took over at S.C. State in June 2016 after the university faced threats to its accreditation because of financial issues. Since then, enrollment has declined. In fall 2017 and fall 2018 S.C. State did see a bump in enrollment, but never more than 100 students, according to Commission on Higher Education data.
Between fall 2016 and fall 2019, enrollment at S.C. State decreased from 2,905 to 2,479 students, a decrease of 426 students or 15%, according to commission data.
That number appears to have fallen again in Fall 2020, when enrollment at S.C. State was 2,339, according to a fact sheet Watson provided. That’s 2,000 fewer students than fall 2010, when enrollment was 4,362, according to S.C. Commission on Higher Education.
Some faculty, however, continued to support Clark, citing the former AT&T vice president’s ability to forge public and private partnerships and establish internships, The State previously reported.