Revised USC board overhaul bill would kick out incumbents, keep some from leadership spots
University of South Carolina board members who could lose their influential seats in 2023 under a bipartisan-backed proposal would not be able to hold leadership positions on the board under an a tweak to the legislation made by senators Tuesday.
The Senate Education Committee on Tuesday approved and amended a House plan to reduce the number of voting members on the USC board to 15 trustees, down from 20. And senators added a provision that would bar any incumbents who were not approved for reelection, but are staying on the board until July next year, from serving as board chairman or vice chairman.
South Carolina lawmakers in both chambers want to restructure the board this year after years of controversy and frustration with the board, particularly over their handling of of large buyouts to former football coach Will Muschamp and former men’s basketball coach Frank Martin and a controversial presidential search in 2019.
The General Assembly is scheduled to vote May 4 to confirm college and university board members.
It won’t include five USC board incumbents — Chairman Dorn Smith, Edward Floyd, John von Lehe, Thad Westbrook and Charles Williams — who were not approved by a joint legislative committee that screens college and university board members. The Legislature’s vote next month will include incumbent Alex English, who was the only incumbent to get approval by the panel.
“They were there to oversee all of the things that went wrong with the university,” said state Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, who compared allowing incumbents in holdover status to get leadership positions to keeping the captain on after the Titanic hit the iceberg. “If you can’t get the confidence of the General Assembly to get out of screening, I don’t think you should be leading a major, flagship institution.”
Jackson said his proposal to keep unapproved incumbents from leadership positions is a compromise because some members have called for the entire board to be removed immediately.
But Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken, signaled the provision could ultimately hold up the bill.
“I have very serious concerns about this bill passing if we adopt this amendment,” Young said.
The Senate’s proposal now heads to the floor with about two weeks left on the legislative calendar. However, the proposal could be added to the Legislature’s sine die agreement, giving lawmakers the ability to return to deal with the legislation once session ends.
Under the Senate’s proposal, three members would be appointed by the governor, one of whom would be at the recommendation of the alumni association, and one person from a county of 90,000 or fewer people.
Richland, Beaufort, Aiken and Spartanburg counties, which have four-year USC campuses, would each have a member.
Two of the members would be from any of the five counties — Union, Allendale, Colleton, Lancaster or Sumter — that have two-year campuses.
The board would have six at-large positions under the proposal, and the governor and president of the student government association would sit on the board, but as non-voting members.
The House’s proposal originally called for 13 members, one from each of the seven congressional districts rather than judicial circuits. It also included four at-large seats that represent counties of the state where the university has campuses, and gives the governor the power to appoint two at-large voting members.
The governor, the president of the university’s alumni association and the Columbia campus’ student body president also would serve as non-voting trustees under the House plan. No longer would the state superintendent of education be an ex-officio member.
