USC students and employees will get a chance to meet a presidential finalist Friday

The University of South Carolina will unveil a candidate for school president Friday, the school announced Thursday.

In three, separate panels, students faculty and staff will have an opportunity to listen to the candidate — who is yet to be named — speak about key campus issues, according to a message sent from the university’s board of trustees.

The sessions will be held virtually on Microsoft Teams. The first, from 9 to 10 a.m., will focus on academics; the second, from 10:15 to 11:15, will focus on research; and the last one, from 11:30 to 12:15, will focus on the university system as a whole and diversity, according to the email.

USC will announce the candidate’s name Friday morning, USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said in a text message.

Friday, USC’s board of trustees will meet at 2 p.m. Aside from the approval of a contract for an assistant football coach, the only item on the agenda is the presidential selection.

USC has been largely silent about its presidential search since Dec. 5, when the university’s preferred candidate dropped out of the race. On Dec. 7, USC’s board of trustees voted to allow the board chair and vice chair to schedule further search events, The State reported previously. Since then, USC’s board has remained silent about the search, making it hard to say when the search could end or what the remainder of the process would look like.

USC has been searching for a new president since May when former President Robert Caslen abruptly resigned after plagiarizing a portion of his commencement speech.

This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 12:37 PM.