Clemson Trustees Approve Educational, Facility Plans

Clemson University trustees approved new educational initiatives, program changes and facility plans at their quarterly meeting Thursday in Columbia.

The board also heard updates on the process for reaccreditation currently under way, The Will to Lead capital campaign and admissions statistics.

The board approved a new Social Technologies and Analytics Research Institute (STARI). It will engage academic and industry partners in funded research to understand social media for organizations. Faculty, students and technology staff across four colleges will collect and analyze data to evaluate the impact of increasing social media messages and improve organizational performance.

Two new centers were approved — one to study eukaryotic pathogen infections, which cause some of the most destructive diseases of man and domestic animals, using molecular, cellular, biochemical and genetic approaches. Work will have both local and global impact on the health and wellbeing of people and animals.

The second center, for excellence in next-generation computing, will establish and nurture public-private partnerships in high-performance computing cloud service delivery, software-defined networking and evaluation of new cloud technologies.

A new department of youth, family and community studies will create a common core of faculty, research and resources to focus Clemson’s commitment to solving problems facing young people, their facilities and communities.

In other action, the trustees:

• OK'd program modifications to authorize online delivery of courses in biomedical engineering and students’ ability to take higher percentages of courses at university academic sites away from the main campus, such as CU-ICAR and the Advanced Materials Research Center.
• approved name changes for the Office of International Affairs to be the Office of Global Engagement and for the bachelor’s degree in applied economics and statistics to agribusiness.
• gave concept approval for a new outdoor wellness and fitness center on Hartwell Lake west of central campus. The facility will include approximately 16,000 square feet of climate-controlled activity and support space and approximately 15,000 square feet of unheated space for outdoor-covered programming.
• gave concept approval to renovating laboratory space and upgrading mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems at the John B. Pitner Center at the Pee Dee Research and Education Center (REC) in Florence. This center houses the advanced plant technology program, which provides critical research for the agriculture-based biotechnology industry in South Carolina.
• gave concept and final approval for a maintenance project to upgrade the campus electrical infrastructure.