Of USC’s 50 presidential contenders, half are women or people of color, search chair says

The University of South Carolina has 50 candidates to be the school’s next president, half of whom are either women or people of color, a search official said Friday.

The demographic information on USC’s presidential search came from Presidential Search Committee Chair Thad Westbrook during a public meeting Friday. Westbrook is also the vice chair of USC’s board of trustees.

Lack of diversity in the 2019 presidential search, both in the four candidates named finalists and the people choosing finalists, drew criticism after only one person of color and no women were named finalists.

Harris Pastides, the school’s longtime president, is serving in an interim role after the abrupt resignation of former president Robert Caslen in May. After Caslen’s resignation, USC set up a search committee that promised to be different from the controversial 2019 search that ended with Caslen’s hiring.

To do that, the board of trustees overhauled the search committee process and established a search committee that was more diverse than the 2019 presidential search committee, The State reported previously.