USC faculty like their next president — but were ‘less satisfied’ with the hiring process

The University of South Carolina’s new president may be popular among faculty, but many are concerned by the way he was selected.

The State spoke with multiple USC faculty members and all said they thought Michael Amiridis, the former USC provost and chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago, was qualified for the job. Many, but not all, however, were critical of the process by which he was selected.

“I think he will be quite good. I think he was a good provost, and as far as I can see he seems to have had a very successful tenure at the University of Illinois at Chicago,” said Carol Harrison, a USC history professor and president of the university’s American Association of University Professors.

Harrison said she and many of her colleagues are “less satisfied” with the process by which Amiridis was selected.

“I think they should reassess,” Harrison said of USC’s board of trustees. “I hope they will commit to greater transparency” in future searches.

Amiridis

Amiridis, 59, arrived at USC as a professor in 1994 and later served as USC’s provost until 2014, when he was named chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

While at USC, Amiridis helped secure funding to hire 200 more faculty members and helped start the university’s online degree program, Palmetto College, The State reported previously.

“For myself and many other faculty, (we) have always had Dr. Amiridis on our radar screen as a potential candidate,” said Alan Decho, a professor and associate dean for research at the Arnold School of Public Health.

One of the key points Amiridis emphasized during his virtual forum Friday with students and employees was the need to increase research funding and to improve facilities, which will in turn enable higher-quality research, he said.

The emphasis on research rang a bell with USC’s researchers, especially those involved with responding to the pandemic.

“I think we really need to invest in research...research is extremely important, especially when you’re a flagship university,” said Decho, who was a panelist during one of Amiridis’ forums. “Doing so is going to help our people, our country, as demonstrated during the COVID pandemic.”

Sowmya Raghu, the president of the Graduate Student Association and a doctoral student who participated on the first forum, said she was also pleased with Amiridis’ emphasis on research and the graduate students who conduct many of the studies.

“The candidate that was chosen out of the presidential search, so far, ticked all the boxes we had as graduate students,” Raghu said of Amiridis.

Raghu was one of several USC students who created face-shields during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Ramy Harik, now an associate professor of mechanical engineering, was hired at USC in 2014, Amiridis was still at USC. Harik said he had long been impressed with Amiridis. “We’re lucky he came back home.”

“I’m very impressed with his character, and his integrity and his accomplishments altogether. I think at the juncture right here, he is the right (one) our community needs,” Harik said.

While many faculty remember Amiridis from his 20 years at USC, the lion’s share of undergraduates have no memory of him on campus. That’s why Student Body President Alex Harrell said he will be supporting Amiridis on his “listening tour” of getting to know people on campus.

Harrell said he and other students were “elated” to have Amiridis as a president-elect and that he sees Amiridis as someone who is “genuine,” understands the needs of students and has the credentials to lead a university.

“There is no doubt he is a true academic,” Harrell said.

Kathy Quarles Moore, an assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy who also participated in the forum, said Amiridis enjoys a positive reputation among faculty and will benefit from his institutional knowledge of USC and its role in the community.

“He understands the dynamic of not only our university, but our city and state as a whole,” Quarles Moore said.

Amiridis will take office in either late June or early July, and when he does, his plate will be full following a tumultuous few years for USC marked by COVID-19, a threat to the school’s accreditation, dozens of open high-level positions, allegations of sexual harassment by professors and the uncertain legacy of his predecessor who resigned after plagiarizing part of his graduation speech.

One of the new president’s goals must be to “make sure there is a high level of trust between the president, faculty, students and other stakeholders that may have been eroded after the last few years,” said William Hauk, a professor of economics who participated in one of the Friday panels.

“The last two presidential searches, both the one that hired Bob Caslen and this search, the perception was that there wasn’t a whole lot of input from faculty and students into the search, and that could potentially handicap a new president’s relationship with stakeholders when he takes office,” Hauk said.

The process

On the morning of Thursday, Jan. 13, USC’s board of trustees was maintaining its month-long wall of silence about the selection of a new university president. At that point, students, staff, faculty, community members, lawmakers whose district include USC, news media and more had no idea the presidential search would be over just 36 hours later.

At 12:30 p.m. Thursday, the university announced an unidentified finalist would be holding virtual forums with the faculty and students. USC didn’t name the candidate until after 7:30 a.m. Friday, just an hour and a half before the forums began. The forums consisted largely of questions and answers from a selected group of panelists, but included an occasional comment submitted virtually and chosen by a moderator.

Even those involved in asking questions at the forum were in the dark about who the candidate was early Friday morning. Raghu found out she would be involved with the forum Thursday, but only discovered the identity of the presidential candidate “when everyone else found out.” The short time frame Thursday sent her scrambling to speak with fellow graduate students, faculty members and more to formulate informed questions for the forum.

“We would have appreciated if it was at least a week’s notice to get these questions,” Raghu said.

USC asked for virtual feedback from students, employees and community members to be submitted by 3 p.m. Friday, but that was already an hour after the board of trustees began its meeting to approve Amiridis’ candidacy for president.

“I think most faculty recognize that was a piece of theater,” Harrison said of USC’s request for feedback.

The final days of this presidential search were far different from the originally planned end to the 2019 presidential search. In the spring of 2019, USC named four presidential finalists on Wednesday, April 17. Employees, students and community members had the weekend to research each candidate and then a chance to hear each speak in-person at four forums, between Monday and Thursday of the following week. That Friday, USC’s board of trustees initially sought to cast its vote on a university president, but instead reopened the search and eventually named Robert Caslen president in July 2019, The State reported previously.

What’s more, in 2022, USC didn’t officially announce the other presidential finalists until Amiridis was already named president-elect. In 2019, there were 10 days between the announcement of the finalists’ names and the originally scheduled board vote.

“Ideally, the finalists or finalist should be announced more in advance, so people have time to do research on the candidate (and) make sure they’re able to attend the forums that are open to the public,” said William Hauk.

While many involved with USC wanted more information throughout the process, Decho said he understands why USC had to limit the amount of information it released publicly and said he feels USC did better than in the 2019 search.

“These processes are difficult because you can’t be as open as you are with, say, faculty positions because these guys are in high positions and it’s very risky just for them to announce they are looking elsewhere, but (transparency) was improved as far as I could tell,” Decho said.

While some called for a better process going forward, others were just happy USC ended up with a qualified president-elect.

“We need positivity, and we need to focus and shine the light on what can be positive to our community at this time. We have a lot of healing that needs to take place. I think in my opinion, the outcome of the process is phenomenal because we got Dr. Amiridis,” Harik said. “Should there be changes, just like anything in life? Yes.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2022 at 10:11 AM.