Applications open for 29 seats on SC public college boards

The entire governing board of Coastal Carolina University must reapply for its job.

Applications open Wednesday for 29 total seats on the governing boards of eight South Carolina public universities. Fifteen of those seats are at Coastal Carolina.

A legislative screening panel also is seeking candidates for a number of vacant and expired board positions at The Citadel, the College of Charleston, Lander University, the Medical University of South Carolina, South Carolina State University, the University of South Carolina and Winthrop University. Applications are due no later than noon Dec. 17.

• Applicants for the College of Charleston seat must live in the 4th Congressional District.
• The opening at MUSC is for a resident of the 2nd Congressional District who does not have a medical background.
• Of Lander’s three seats on the list, one represents the 5th Congressional District and two will be filled by the governor. They are “at-large” seats, meaning applicants can live anywhere in the state.
• Winthrop has two at-large seats and a 7th Congressional District seat.
• USC has two gubernatorial appointed seats, one seat for a resident of the state’s 4th judicial circuit and one for the 15th circuit
• One opening each at the Citadel and SC State are at large. The Citadel member must be an alumni.

Still, others will be left out of the oversight measure.

The committee chose to screen applicants for only a portion of the boards’ seats with expired terms.

For example, the Citadel has four members of its board of visitors with expired terms, but the panel opened applications for just one of the positions — an at-large seat held by Col. James Nicholson Jr.

Nicholson, who legislators elected to the board in 2019, has continued to sit on the board since his term expired at the end of June 2023.

At Winthrop University, legislators will screen candidates for only one expired position and two vacant seats. However, three other board members are serving expired terms.

Among those vacancies is the seat previously held by Winthrop’s former board chairman, the late Glenn McCall, who was first appointed to the board in 2011.

That was three years after the South Carolina GOP leader was elected the state party’s first Black national committeeman. He helped write a 2013 report that called for a more inclusive and diverse GOP. His other roles in the party included vice-chairman for the 2016 Republican National Convention and a committee co-chairman for the 2020 national convention.

He died July 11 from complications from surgery. He was 71.

Screenings at the other five colleges are focused solely on filling vacancies and vetting gubernatorial appointees.

At the College of Charleston, eight other members serving expired terms won’t be required to go through the re-application process. At Lander University six other members appointed by the General Assembly will continue on in expired terms.

MUSC and SC State each have seven members with expired terms not being screened. And USC has five.

Clemson University and Francis Marion University aren’t part of the screening list at all despite having a dozen members with expired terms between them.

Rep. Bill Whitmire, who chairs the committee, said it comes down to time.

The Walhalla Republican said the Legislature fell behind in the process amid lawsuits challenging the state’s congressional districts, redrawn by the Legislature following the 2020 census.

All but Clemson, The Citadel and USC boards’ memberships are determined, at least in part, by congressional district.

USC’s board seats are by judicial circuit. Clemson’s board is partially selected by its existing members and partially appointed by the Legislature to at-large seats. The Citadel board is made up of alumni serving in at-large positions.

With so many college board members serving expired terms, Whitmire said, the panel can’t review them all in one sitting and will try to get caught up at a later date.

Citadel board members in expired terms include former state Rep. Gene Pinson, R-Greenwood; and Col. Peter McCoy Sr., the father of former House Judiciary chairman and U.S. Attorney Peter McCoy.

Brian Stern, son of SC Ports Authority Chairman Bill Stern, holds an expired term at the College of Charleston

Michael Stavrinakis, brother of state Rep. Leon Stavrinakis, and the father of House Speaker Murrell Smith both hold expired terms on the MUSC board.

And Leah Moody, daughter of the late Rep. Bessie Moody-Lawrence; and Rose Newton, wife of state Rep. Weston Newton, are both in expired terms at USC.